Heart to heart

I am becoming an expert in echocardiograms, this will be number six since December.  As the technician walks me to the room, he asks me why I am having an echocardiogram, "You don't look like you need one."  This is a great compliment.  Despite all that has happened in the last year, I look just as healthy as I did before this journey began.  I must be doing something right.  I at least look the part of a healthy person.  However, I still don't feel the part, thus this trip again down the hallway to the echocardiogram room and a visit with the cardiologist.

After my echocardiogram, they put me into an exam room and I wait for the cardiologist.  The nurse and his resident come in and take all my new patient information.  We discuss once again all the activities I used to do before I got sick.  I tell them that I have never had any problems breathing or other heart issues while doing physical activities or while sleeping.  Then we discuss how I have been doing the last couple of months since I got the okay to start doing physical activities again.  I tell them that I have been slowly working on getting back my exercise routine.  My main concern is the shortness of breath that I get, not only when I am doing exercise but also walking up the flight of stairs to get into my house.  I told them about the inadvertent triple I hit in last week's softball game (my plan was just a simple single up the middle).  By the time I got to third I was quite winded and had someone come in to run for me.  It took about five minutes for me to "catch my breath."  The cardiologist joins us and we talk about what is going on with the echocardiograms.  We discussed the variances of the previous echos and the concern my oncologist was having with all that I have been through the past year and wanting to make sure that there was not any damage to my heart.  He said today's echo looked very good.  He explains that the differences in readings could possibly be from the different technicians.  He did say that he saw a little fluid on my lung and that might be the reason for the shortness of breath.  He orders a chest x-ray (two views; frontal and lateral) to give us a better idea of how much fluid is there.  This will determine if further action is needed.  He also tells me that because of all that I have been through, my body is just taking longer to fully recover.  My body has been through the ringer this past year and I just have to be patient (there's that word again).  He advised me to try and do activities in which I can be in control of how much exertion I put out i.e. run to first, not to third.  He also wants to order a blood test (B-type natriuretic peptide) to confirm the findings in the echocardiogram.

They give me my paperwork and send me on my way.  It is the end of the day so I only have time to get over to the lab for the blood work.  I have to schedule the x-ray in the morning.  I walk over to the South Tower laboratory with my orders and Southpaw in hand.  This is not my usual vampire lair, so no Vampire Paul today.  The vampire that I get is pleasant, but her needle stick sucked ass, she pushed it in further than I have experienced and re-adjusted pulling out a bit, then pushed in again - jeez!!!  All for just one tube (with all that effort, kinda wished she would have taken more).  She was nice though, made a little comment about how I could stop squeezing Southpaw now that he has turned green.  She bandages me up and sends me on my way.