Health Issues

[nekosensei]

I got my results for my echocardiogram today. This was supposed to be a test that would "give me more peace of mind." Well...it didn't. The cardiologist reading the test found a small bright spot along the wall of the left atrium of my heart. They're not quite sure what to make of it. They think it's just a shadow because it showed up in only one view (the position from which the heart is photographed), but they're not a hundred percent sure that it's not a tumor. I have to wait three months and repeat the echocardiogram. So. Yeah. I get to play the waiting game. Again. My doctor also mentioned that they could do what's called a transesophagael echo where they put a scope down my esophagus to get a view from the back of my heart; however, it's pretty invasive. I would need to go in the hospital and be sedated. I'd also have to go off the Coumadin, and my doctor is loathe to do that. So...waiting to see if it changes it is.

This didn't show up in the echocardiogram they did at the hospital back in January and, as I mentioned before, it only showed up in one view, so I'm hoping that it's just a blip on their machine. Ordinarily, I'd be worried, but I'm so burned out from worrying the last time around that I can't anymore. This afternoon, I got bitchy instead, and now, I feel like I just don't care.

On a brighter note, last night I dreamt that David Bowie had come out of retirement and was doing a concert tour. Chicago was one of the locations. I was going about trying to get tickets when I woke up. Too bad it was only a dream. That concert would have been the bomb!

Comments

As we say on the West Coast,

[jlindquist.livejournal.com]

(Ignore the "STFU", it's the only icon I have of him.)

Re: As we say on the West Coast,

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Yes, it better not be a toomah. If it is a toomah, I'm going to have to go see a cardiac surgeon. Open heart surgery = BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD.

Ugh...somebody kill me now...

[ordinary.livejournal.com]

I fully vote for not a tumor.

I'm sure it sounds bizarro and sometimes feels impossible to do, but positive thinking can do a lot.

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

I hope it's not a tumor. I might need to get my heart examined as well.

That looks like a good dream.

Hearts and Bowie

[blondibritecake.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about the heart stuff...I am right there with ya if Bowie ever really does come around again. Gotta dig the 2 different eye colors!

I used to dream about Donnie Osmond all the time when I was back in college. In my dream I was supposed to see him in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" but one way or another I always seemed to miss it....One of my strangest re-occurring dreams when I was younger.

[malicat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it's not what it looks like at the moment.I'm really hoping that! *hugs*

[silme711.livejournal.com]

So now you have to wait three months until you're sure? Why so long?

I really hope it's just a shadow. *huggles*

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

They're waiting three months because they want to see if it grows between now and then. If it grows, that means I have a problem and I have to see a cardiologist and/or a cardiac surgeon. My doctor and the cardiologist that looked at the images aren't convinced that it's a tumor because it shows up in only one view. There's another view (or angle) where, if it was a tumor, it would have showed up in, but it didn't. So...we wait three months and check it again. If it's still there or it's grown, she's probably going to send me to a specialist.

Waiting three months is pretty much standard. When the CT scan at the hospital picked up a mass in my chest, I had to wait three months and then have another CT scan to see if it had grown. They suspected lymphoma, but they weren't sure because they did another scan of my abdomen and didn't find anything. In the end, it turned out that it hadn't grown and I had nothing to worry about.

[(Anonymous)]

In Germany they'd probably send you from one specialist to another until one of them is 100% sure about his diagnosis.

Living with the thought of a tumor every day is just so scary...I'm really sorry you have to deal with it.

[lady-curmudgeon.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your electrocardiogram. The waiting part has got to suck. So far I've been lucky and not been in that position, but a friend of mine's and Jason's is in a waiting period for possible masses in the bottom of both her lungs that showed up on a CT scan of her pelvis (the lungs just happened to be in the shots--we're all hoping that it's just shadows).

Sending my best healing "not-a-tumah" vibes your way.

((((hugs))))