In Which She Visits the Cardiologist...

As I said in the preceding post, I was at the cardiologist's yesterday morning. my PCP's PA sent me there with a referral to do a treadmill test (or so i thought) to make sure i wasn't ready to drop over.

I was plenty worried about this. Are they going to make it go really FAST and for a LONG TIME like they did last time? (Until I finally said, looking at the blood pressure monitor inch upward, "Are you trying to blow my head off?") Am I gonna go and do the treadmill and then come home and drop dead of a heart attack? Or am I gonna wind up lying in a pool of my own blood on a cart outside the OR after having the old stents yanked out and new ones added? And so on and on...."Am I gonna go in there feeling good and come out feeling SICK and YUCKY?"

What baseless worries.

The nurse called my name and led me from the waiting room to a cubicle. She said, "Since this is your first visit here, we need to EKG you."

Yup. That's what she said..."first visit here." I didn't say anything..,.what do you say to THAT? They operated on me 4 years ago. This is a first class hospital, and one of my fellow cardiac patients is none other than Dr. Evil, Dick Cheney himself. Although come to think of it, cardiology used to be on another floor. Maybe they threw everything out and started fresh now that Cheney is no longer VP.

Anyway...the EKG went well, apparently, cuz the tech didn't say anything encouraging. They don't get really enthusiastic unless something's bad.

Then the cardiologist's assistant came in. He asked me to breathe a few times while he listened to my chest. Then he squeezed my bony ankles.
"Do your ankles ever swell?
"No."
"Any chest pains or shortness of breath when going upstairs?"
"No."
"Have you had your cholesterol checked?"
"Yes, two weeks ago."
"Here?"
"Yes...in the blood lab down the hall."
"Oh." (Much typing on computer).

At this point, the cardiologist arrived, and the two of them excused themselves and went into a small conference room, where they poked around on another computer. Paydirt! They came out smiling.
"Your cholesterol is very high. I know you don't like to take pills (this is written somewhere on my chart--right under where it says "Ms. Know-it-all"), but I'd like you to try"....and so on.

Nobody breathed a word about any treadmill or stress test. Whew! Getting a prescription is a small price to pay for dodging that bullet.

What is so different about going to the doctor now as an old person is that I disagree with at least half of what they say, and I know when they've goofed on certain vital bits of info (like that being my first visit or when they haven't got the results of a test done two weeks ago not 20 feet away).

When I was a kid, I was THRILLED to go to the doctor. The doctor was GOD! He asked my name! And my mother made sure the doctor knew that her oldest son was in MEDICAL SCHOOL!!! We came from a family that produced GODS.