.

I am eligible for the CTA scan so that has been scheduled for next Tuesday.  I am excited to finally find out if there is something wrong or not, but of course, afraid that there might be something wrong.  That might have been a run on sentence.

I have been feeling bad, just generally bad.  The chest pain is no longer constant, but comes and goes.  My feet and legs have been swelling like crazy though.  I finally found out that that can be a side effect of the Lopressor.  That stinks.  They swell up so much that the skin on my toes hurts, it is that tight.

In other news, Skyler had his end of the year band concert and did amazingly well.  I heard this second hand as I was too sick to attend.  That broke my heart.  He only has two concerts a year and I had to miss this one.  He looked so handsome in his dress up uniform.





In closing, I would just like to say...



Jack likes corn

Today I visited the cardiologist.  My mom knew of him from when she worked in the hospital and he has an amazing reputation.  He was so kind and  understanding and seemed to really listen.

The long and short of it is, two different radiologists give two different accounts of what is going on in my heart.  That, plus the constant chest pain and rapid heart rate, were clues that we need a more in depth test.  Sadly, my weight can make a CT scan blurry or less accurate.

The first test he is going to attempt for me is a CTA scan.  It is like a CT scan, but better and more focused.  My weight may also make this test less accurate, but he wasn't sure what the cut off for weight was and is asking the technicians at Borgess their opinion.

If I can not have the CTA test, the next choice is heart catheterization.  This is more invasive and messy.

I don't know the time frame for either of these tests, but I hope it is soon.

My heart rate is still too fast on the Lopressor, so he has doubled my dose.  I was on such a small dose to begin with that doubling it only brings me up to the most commonly used starting dose.

I really liked the cardiologist, but was disappointed that he didn't have a definitive answer for me on the routing of my coronary arteries.  I am trying to be patient, really I am...lol

Last night, I developed incredible nausea and chest pain, like a rock in the middle of my chest.  Sooo, I took some aspirin and called my parents.  They came over and escorted me to the E. R.  Five hours, multiple medications, blood work and a CT scan later it was determined that I was not and had not had a heart attack.

BUT, they found a weird anomaly on my CT scan.  For those of you whose speak medical terminology here is the report.
Impression- No pulmonary emboli detected
Probable left coronary artery anomaly (see below)
Findings-CT sections from thoracic inlet to upper abdomen with IV contrast.


No pulmonary emboli detected.


No areas of lobar or segmental airspace consolidation.  No pneumothorax.


Left coronary artery appears to arise from right coronary sinus, apparent retro-aortic course of proximal left coronary artery noted.  No mediastinal mass or hematoma.  No evidence of thoracic aortic dissection.  
No rib fractures detected.

In plain English, I might be routed wrong.  Which could be a problem.  I see a cardiologist a week from today, which is actually fast, I have been told.  They want me to start on Lopressor as my heart rate is remaining high.

There is a chance that what the reading radiologist saw was a shadow or something.  I am assuming they will repeat the CT scan or do some other kind of test.

I have a bad habit of finding out something like this and seeing symptoms in my past that totally correlate with the diagnosis.  I have had multiple out of breath episodes in the past attributed to exercise induced asthma that could be this instead.  I have been three separate times to ER in the last ten years with chest pain, but a CT scan wasn't done on those occasions.  They were called panic attacks.

From what I can decipher online, this is a pretty rare occurrence and might be genetic.  The most common treatment for this is surgery to reposition the artery (aggressive approach).  Regular use of Beta blockers (passive approach) is used less often.

BUT AGAIN, it could be a shadow or something on the scan.

In other news, I colored my hair brown instead of the usual red in an effort to see less roots before time to color, I like it ok

                                                        I think he really really likes her