I haven't been feeling my strongest. Face it, I'm out of shape. Very overweight and have been for quite a few years now. Lately, however, I have been struggling with stairs, walking any distance at all. I get very short of breath, sort of light headed and have to move slowly. But...what do you expect when you are carrying all this extra weight? I figured, get the weight off and you'll feel better, gradually increase the exercise and build up my stamina. That's the ticket!
You see...I've been waiting for the OK to start back with an exercise program. I had an episode of fluid in the lungs and extreme shortness of breathe, puffy ankles and face, pneumonia... which led to the moving up of my cardiologist appointment. I was told to "take it easy" with the exercise until after my cardio apt.
After my appointment I decided it was time to get back in shape...hence the last post. The universe was talking to me...the planets were aligned....it was TIME!
So, then I had a stress/echo test with pulmonary pressure check ordered by the cardiologist. I just about killed myself doing the stress test. Almost made it to 6 minutes (I know...that isn't very long...I KNOW I did much better LAST time, I think it was over 10 minutes!) While they did the echo part, I laid there like a fish with a hook in its mouth on the dock...gasping for breath for the longest time... lt took forever (it seemed) to catch my breath. The doctor told me that I had high pulmonary pressure ( I had heard him saying "80's" several times during the test) I didn't know what that meant. He asked if I'd ever been diagnosed with sleep apnea and a few other questions about my history then told me that the doctor would be calling me with more info. Oh...and don't exercise until you talk to the doctor!
Long story short... the pressure on the right side of my heart is high 45 at rest and 65 during exercise. Moderate pulmonary hypertension...CAT scan ordered, sleep study ordered...go on from there..... Have you had any experience with pulmonary hypertension? I didn't...but if you look it up, watch out. It will scare you to death! Stick to the American Heart Association info our the PAH Association website (Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension)...they are more hopeful and up to date! Hey, I don't even know what this means in MY situation!
The CAT scan showed a nodule on my left kidney (what is a nodule?) and another nodule on my left lung...hmmm. They informed that an appointment was made for me with a urologist as soon as possible to check out the kidney and they would watch the lung "nodule" for 3 months and repeat the CAT scan to see if it changes.... So why can't the kidney nodule wait, but the lung can hang around for 3 months? Anyway, I'm bringing my questions to the doctor tomorrow...at this point, looking for solutions has just opened up a can of worms! I have sympathy for worms, but this is ridiculous.
I know one thing...whatever is going on, it is obvious that this is not where I want my life to go, so once I get all the information.... I have to work hard to turn this all around!
Why do I have pictures of my 3 dogs here...you ask? My little guys sleep with me...Willie is right by my side, Buster sleeps on the adjoining pillow (I cover him with a down comforter) and Nomar (above) usually sleeps under the quilt. If I showed you a bump in the quilt you wouldn't know what it was, so instead, here he is flopped on the covers. Wouldn't it be funny if I brought them to my sleep study with me? Wouldn't that be a more realistic study?
Anyway, I'm writing tonight 'cause Heather said I needed to write...about anything. But this is stuck on my mind so I figured that the only way to get rid of it was to get it out...so here it is. Soon it will be behind me and I will have the whole world ahead of me. I'll look back and laugh.... wondering why were you so worried?