We waited nearly an hour in the waiting room before it was my turn to see a member of the cardiology team. I was a nervous wreck then, but I tried to answer his questions sensibly without rambling on.
After running a stethoscope over my chest and checking my swollen feet, he turned to the computer and brought up the images from the angiogram I had back in August. He studied these images for several minutes, allowing me to see them myself.
It was weird watching my blood travelling through the arteries. I saw the stent that had saved my life all those years ago.
The verdict was coming, but I didn’t want to hear it as I knew the next step would probably be a bypass, involving opening my ribs to get to the heart of the problem. Sorry about that; I couldn’t help it!
I didn’t fancy that much, even though, if successful, I would be back to normal and be okay. But I wasn’t prepared for what he did say.
My heart, apparently, was quite happy, as some of the other arteries had rallied around and taken over the job of the blocked one, supplying my ticker with the blood it needed. This is something that usually happens on the right side of the heart. He did add that this, although handy, was not ideal as they would prefer to fix the problem properly…
I took a deep breath and waited for him to continue.
… only not someone of my advancing years. But…
He looked puzzled when he said that, and there always has to be a but, doesn’t there?
My symptoms of severe fatigue and breathlessness, in his opinion, didn’t fit with my heart’s current state and could mean that something else was going on. He added that he would arrange for me to have a stress test, where they put my heart through hoops to see its reaction.
He seemed happy with his decision, but I wasn’t quite finished yet.
I had to ask the million-dollar question.
“If you do find anything, what will that mean?”
“Then we would be forced to operate…”
I hope I don’t have to wait four months for this appointment!
Listening to music has helped me to cope with all of this, so I wanted to share one of my favourites with you all…
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