April 2009

So, I’ve been on the new blood pressure meds for 2 days and I’ve had some interesting things to note.

I  stopped the old med immediately and started this new one on Saturday.  For whatever reason, I’m to take a half dose of the new one for 7 days and then move up to the full dose.  And he did warn me that during this week, my pressure may be high.

1.  I’m already seeing very, very few palpitations – almost unnoticeable.  Now Hubby is right that the lowering of stress is probably a LARGE part of that, but it feels so great that I don’t care what the reason is, I’m LOVING it.   Given that he said it would take a few days to see much in the way of changes, I’m one happy pup.

2. For the last 4 or 5 months I’ve had a dry hacking cough.  I couldn’t figure out why and for the last couple of weeks I’ve been worried that it was connected to whatever my issues were – and was a signal of it being more serious.  I found out on Friday that it was connected to the new med that my doctor had added last October – a common side effect.

And with this med change – it’s already somewhat better!  Not gone yet, but I’m sure sleeping better.

3. It’s been interesting dealing with this issue with a grown up child living out of town.  Because of the process of communicating with him long distance I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my parents’ communication when my mom first found out she had cancer.

With my mom, I found out about it after she had found a lump in her breast….

and had determined that it needed to come out….

and was in the midst of checking out of the hospital after the surgery was completed.

To say it was a shock, is an understatement.  ‘your mom had a maligant tumor, and she’s on her way home from getting it removed.’

No thanks.

Probably more than I even need to, I’ve been trying to keep Boy in the loop and aware of what was going on.  Distracting to him, I’m sure, but better than the shock of finding out afterwards.

Of course how much he pays attention to it is another matter.

Last Monday I had called him shortly after telling Hubby about the nurse calling to send me to the cardiologist, but that didn’t stop him from reading  last week’s post and calling me afterwards asking ‘Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?’

oh well, at least he will know that I’m trying.

Thanks for the warm thoughts this week.

Getting right to the point – the abnormality that the stress test seemed to show was a blockage in my heart.

But the cardiologist took a really complete medical history and discussed my symptoms and decided it was a false positive.

Putting it simply; often times woman’s beasts get in the way of the equipment taking a clear picture, and since I don’t have any shortness of breath or chest pains his opinion is that I’m fine aside from the palpitations that I was feeling.

He changed my meds and I should see some differences in a week or two.

To say I’m relieved is an understatement.

Once again, thank you.