Friday, January 2, 2009

Syndrome X

Since we have moved to California, I have been having heart pains. You know, just little twinges in the left side that go into my arm and shoulder while I'm not doing anything. My internist was so concerned about it that she immediately took and EKG (found nothing wrong) and strongly suggested that I see a cardiologist. I ignored it until she sent me a registered letter saying that I needed to get in and have a work-up. Besides, the pains we coming more frequently and I figured, OK, I'd get it done. I had a heart echo, a carotid artery ultrasound and a heart stress test.
During the stress test, I had pain in the right side and my EKG went weird. I was given Nitro-glycerin and the pain went away. The doctor moved up the appointment to tell me what the results of the tests were to before we went away for Christmas.
We were on our way to the appointment when his office called and rescheduled the appointment for when we got back.
The entire time we were in Utah, the altitude was making my heart hurt quite a bit - almost full time, but it was bearable.
I went in for the appointment and it started hurting again. The doctor decided to send me BY AMBULANCE straight to ICU. Well, all that fuss for a few little heart pains. I must say that I was feeling a lot better before I went in there than after they got through working on me. Nitro-glycerin BLOWS the top of your head off as far as causing a migraine headache. And, the doctor decided to do an angiogram on me that very day - me being his 5th procedure of the day.

BUT... Wonderful news! Through lots of faith and prayers on my behalf, NO blockages! I have what they call Syndrome X. The heart goes into spasms, starving for oxygen and the small coronaries hurt until they can relax. It can happen more in diabetic women (me). As I googled it, there are quite a few articles about it. Right now, I'm just healing up from the hole in my leg and from being exhausted from what I've been through. Feeling pretty lousy, but, hey! It could have been SO MUCH WORSE, eh? Blessings, Blessings, Blessings!

A Link to an article about this is found here:

http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/Topics/Cond/CardiacSyndromeX.cfm

1 comment:

Laura said...

We're SO glad you guys could be here for the blessing and Christmas! The dress was perfect! We're also SO very glad your heart is ok. Keep getting better.