A simple trip to Emporia to the Cardiologist has turned into a long day. I got to my appointment at 1:15 as requested for my 1:30 appointment. They called me back around 1:20. The nurse was efficient and did her thing. I didn’t have to wait long for the doctor to come in.
He heard my history and concerns and then read the results of the stress test and echocardiogram off of my phone. We talked for a bit about what might be causing my fast heart beat.
He had me walk up and down the hallway a couple of times and they repeated the EKG. No change in heart rhythm but a much increased heart rate and increase in my blood pressure.
He decided I needed a stat CT scan to rule out a clot in my lungs. He also is going to have me get a heart monitor to wear for a few days.
I had to go to a different part of the building to get labs drawn to make sure my kidneys could handle the contrast material.
By the time I got out of the lab it was almost 3:00. Got home and took a short nap. The nurse called me and woke me up.
I had a reaction years ago to iodine contrast and they want me to have some pre-meds to lessen the possibility of that happening again. I had to go back to Emporia to pick up the meds. The pharmacy was out of one of them but the tech told me it was just Benadryl anyways. I have some of those at home. Had to wait a bit for the meds to be ready. I got them and came home.
Tomorrow I have to go to Topeka to have the CT scan done and pick up the monitor. They are going to call me in the morning to tell me when I need to be there. I reminded the nurse I am a little over an hour away. We shall see what they do in the morning. I hope they can work me in or else I will have to repeat the pre-meds.
The doctor kept asking me why they hadn’t checked for a clot in my lungs. I told him to call the other doctor’s and ask them. No one had mentioned that as a possibility. I can only do what they say to do!
My labs showed some numbers off that have never been off before. Evidently they aren’t enough for the doctor to be concerned about as they are proceeding with the CT scan tomorrow.
We shall see what tomorrow brings. The nurse is to call me tomorrow morning early. When I picked up the pre meds the pharmacist told me I might not sleep tonight. Nothing new with that!
Didn’t get anything else done today but the two trips to Emporia. Good thing I have all day tomorrow free so I can get the CT scan and monitor thing taken care of. I am hoping to figure out what is going on before I leave for India in November.
I got nine emails letting me know my Visa for India has been approved. Not sure why I needed them to tell me nine times. Maybe someone fell asleep while they were pushing the send button. Nicole purchased it for me – I will have to have her check her credit card statement and make sure she didn’t get charged for nine of them. That process was easy thanks to Nicole.
I was able to maintain at or above neutral today even with all the chaos and two trips to town. It helped that the Cardiologist listened to me and seemed concerned. This thing has dragged out since the first part of August and I hope to find some answers to all of it soon.
Looking forward to Saturday and the Hour of Love in Action. It will be interesting to see if others show up for it or not. It may just be Kathy and I. We shall see what happens.
Grateful for doctors that listen, grateful the medication the pharmacy was out of is easy to substitute and grateful the Visa was approved.