Not the ideal outcome
Yesterday I finally had the cardiologist appointment I had been waiting for for over a month and a half. I had some anxiety about it most of the morning some of which almost felt like it was triggering phantom chest pain. I think it is quite easy to fall into a psychosomatic response once you are told something like your heart may be f’d up. So anyway I get in there and the assistant looks at my chart from my physical and suggests we do another EKG. He said it is not abnormal to get a reading like mine due to the leads being placed incorrectly. I did not mention to him that they ran the EKG twice, just to make sure, but hoped his hunch was indeed correct.
He hooked me up and within seconds was able to see that he was seeing results almost identical to what I had in early March, fantastic… He was still upbeat and said I certainly don’t seem like I am a typical person with cardiac problems based on my overall fitness level and the questions on the survey I filled out. There were three things however that were not talked about which in retrospect I should have asked. On the survey symptom list I circled yes on nausea, and stress/depression. Both of these things came on within the last 6 months and I am one of those people that absolutely believe your state of mind has a direct impact on your health. The other thing was never asking about covid. I am pretty certain I had Covid at least once, if not twice in the last two years. I also had the Moderna vax (initial two doses). There are tons of reports of heart issues suddenly developing as a result. (look up covid myocarditis)
The cardiologist came in and looked at my EKG results, while asking me some additional health questions, again seemingly using my physical condition and lack of other symptoms to fall on the side of there isn’t a significant problem, however, we need to make sure. I walked out of there with appointments for a stress test, an ECG, and a vein test. The ECG seems to be the most helpful test as it would identify if there is actually any heart damage consistent with the possible mini-heart attack the EKG could indicate. I walked out of there not happy but glad that we are taking the next steps to figure out if I really have something to be concerned about. I was surprised that when I told him my mom had a heart attack at 67 he was not concerned either. The fact that she was a lifetime smoker and her age at death means there is not a genetic disposition towards heart disease, in his opinion.
Around dinner time last night I took the V11 out for a DD ride. I stopped at the park and talked about my S20 saga, the wheel that I ordered last August that is still not in my hands.
This morning I took Elsa for another park walk after I grabbed coffee. She is getting less and less fearful it seems each time we go. My goal is to get here there every day of my staycation. I just got done going around with a wire brush on all of the outdoor wood that is treated with Thompsons stain/waterseal. It was an unfun job but something that really makes a difference in the longevity of the product when applied. Some of the wood was really in bad shape despite being last done somewhere around a year ago. If my mental plan holds I will do the brush work tomorrow.
This afternoon the task in my sights is changing the tire on my OneWheel XR. It promises to be a unique challenge.