Test Prep

So tomorrow (or today, or the 22nd, whatever) I have a heart function test. Just like the one I had in April, that was SO definitive (not). It’s an ultrasound of the heart in action. It takes about 45 minutes and measures how much of the blood your heart pushes out with each pump, called your “ejection fraction”. You want it to be something like 55-85%. Mine was 35% last time, and when I was “crashing” back in February, it was 15-20%. Scary, but I was ultimately ok, so not that scary. This test will give me a new ejection fraction number. It’s very dignified, as a woman, getting this test done. You basically get to 2nd base with a technician and their transducer thing. Hopefully they also have a sense of humor.

I’m not one for those “here’s what’s happening in my mundane life” blog posts (God I hope) but this is kind of important. Definitely worthy of the sick day taken in September. If the % doesn’t go up enough, I get to have a nice metal doo-hicky implanted in me that will shock my heart if it stops beating. Which it’s much more likely to do, if it’s not doing its thing well.

Have you ever been slightly freaked out by how much you’re not freaked out by something? That part about ‘possible implanted metal and heart-shocking gear’ sounds a tad alarming… and yet during my work day today I forgot three or four times that I had to leave sub plans and prepare to take off to go to the hospital tomorrow. Duh.  I kept thinking it was going to be a regular Tuesday morning. I’ve been too busy living my nice little life to worry about this crap lately. The start of fall and the school year has been easy and fun; after one hiccup hubby landed a very nice new job (more about that later), the girls are good and life is kind of chill. Plus I honestly feel exponentially better than I did last fall, when I had no idea I was sick. It’s a blessing when you forget that you might wanna worry about something after all.

The preliminary appointment for this test was Friday and things looked good. I had kind of forgotten that they’d do another heart function test in the first place. I sort of assumed this stupid thing was winding down now. Then they switched my meds and reminded me that blah blah blah 1. I’m still a fainting risk, and now, moreso. 2. I need to schedule alarms 4 times a day to space all these meds out so I don’t faint, and 3. Why haven’t I bought a wrist blood pressure monitor to carry around yet like they told me to, just in case? Ummmm because it doesn’t match my purse? My morbid specialist guy also called earlier to reminded me “no coffee or no lotions on the skin on test day, and by the way: If you fail this it’s surgery time”.   

Dammit man, I was busy wondering where we’ll go on vacation and when the next season of House of Cards is out. Stahp. 

These guys are paid to worry. I’m gonna let them worry for me. I’m not going to say I have a good feeling about this thing, because you just don’t tempt fate like that, but…

🙂