Thursday, October 16, 2008

Cardiologist appointment

Ok, so I saw the cardiologist today. I worked with him while I was working at Riverside Community Hospital, but I wasn't there long enough for him to remember me, so I didn't mention it.

His office is really tiny (& packed!) & I had to wait 1/2 hour past my appointment time just to be called in. I was getting a little irritated. At least this isn't a doc I'm going to be seeing a lot of.

First the girl that took me back did an EKG. I had millions of these done when I was a teenager. I assume it was normal cuz the doc didn't say anything about it, but an EKG only looks at the electrical part of the heart, not the perfusion, so it won't show a murmur & I would expect mine to be normal. Although an EKG can show if a heart attack has happened in the past & I have had episodes of severe chest pain in the past, so it's good to know no minor heart attack has ever occured. You'd be amazed how many people discover they've had them without realizing when a routine EKG is done.

Then the doc came in & we talked about why I was there. I told him the murmur was found when I was 14 & I had tons of EKGs, echos, & stress tests done from age 14-18. I also told him I was on digoxin for those 4 years. I told him I am now pregnant & my OB wanted me to get an echo done. He said he'd order it, but he didn't expect to find any great abnormality. But he said he could clearly hear a murmur with his stethoscope, which back when they first found it they had a hard time hearing it, & every doc I see now says they hear it clearly, so that makes me suspicious that it's getting worse. But he's still confident that it's not anything to worry about.

He also said that a year ago or so they revised the recommendations about taking antibiotics when having dental work done. It's no longer required--but I'm sure it'll take a while before the dentists are on board with that protocol too. Most dentists will refuse to see you unless you've taken your antibiotics in advance if you have mitral valve prolapse.

So the echo is scheduled for November 3rd.

PS--yesterday I went to Whole Foods & while I was there I grabbed a peach to put on hubby's pillow this week. Hubby saw it last night & said it's not gonna last the week, it'll be eaten by him before the week is up for sure, haha! I also gave in & brought home some white bread, but it is sourdough at least. For some reason the foods that I normally love that are rough & have tons of fiber now upset my stomach. I've been wanting toast & sandwiches so badly, but our wheat bread I can't tolerate. So yesterday I stopped to look at the breads at Whole Foods & decided to bring home a loaf of sourdough. I have a hard time bringing white bread into the house, but there are folks out there who argue that a white sourdough bread is actually more healthy than a wheat yeasted bread, so I made my compromise with the sourdough & I am happy to report that I had a piece of toast this morning & my stomach was totally fine with it.

At Whole Foods I also got a prenatal yoga DVD to add to my pilates & spinning workouts. I probably won't be able to do it til Monday or Tuesday at the soonest, but I think it'll be a great addition.

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