Trying to stay optimistic

Trying to stay optimistic post thumbnail image

So, it’s been a bad few months in the Scormey household. I’ve had some medical issues, that keep snowballing, to the point where things have gotten quite serious. Here’s a brief recap:

  1. I contacted my doctor regarding some swallowing issues I was having, specifically choking on small bits of food, and pain in the upper chest while swallowing.
  2. Got approved to see a different doctor (mine is super busy), so they can approve an Endoscopy procedure, which they did, as well as some tests with Speech Pathology. Said doctor also stated I was overdue for some blood tests, so I was sent down to the lab to get that done.
  3. A few days later, got called by my doctor’s nurse, who informed me I have Diabetes, then yelled at me for the amount of candy I had been eating. Frankly, I deserved it. Got placed on Metformin, and was told to change my eating habits and diet  now, which I complied with.
  4. So I got the Speech Pathology tests done, which found nothing. So that was good.
  5. Got the Endoscopy done, which also found nothing, but they stretched out my esophagus while they were in there. Yes, I had a surgeon shove a long, hard tool down my throat, and he really stretched me out!
  6. Finally saw my doctor regarding all this, and we mostly talked about the Diabetes. Since nothing was found to be wrong with my esophagus, though, my Doc sent me to have chest x-rays, an EKG, and set me up with an appointment with Cardiology, to do a stress test. “Since I’m just the right age for it”, of course.
  7. EKG came back fine. So did the x-rays.
  8. Had a Cat-scan of my heart and surrounding arteries, looking for plaque. Nothing found, which is frankly great news. I may have plaque building up, but none of it is calcified, which means I have less likelihood of heart disease later on.
  9. Had a nice visit to the ER, due to a few days with bloody diarrhea. That wasn’t fun.
  10. Finally got to the stress test, which seemed to be the final stop on this roadtrip through medical annoyances. Keep in mind, I still didn’t know why I was having occasional chest pains, so maybe this would figure it out? So they hooked me up to some sensors, took a ‘test’ EKG while I was at rest, and the guy running said tests promptly left the room. Turns out this EKG showed I had a heart flutter, and the stress test was promptly cancelled. Last thing they needed was me collapsing on the treadmill, I suppose! The flutter could be indicative of a problem in my upper heart chambers, which may lead to a stroke, and since my Mom had a stroke… So now I’m on blood pressure meds and low-dose aspirin for mild blood thinning. I can’t use actual blood thinners yet, due to the bloody diarrhea I had.
  11. Another EKG, this time with 12 leads, which again found nothing out of the usual. Oh, and I have to get a colonoscopy, to determine if I have a Bleed causing it (unlikely, but they have to be sure).
  12. Took an Echocardiogram, where they basically use an ultrasound to video-record your heart function, and it promptly showed one thing: Cardiology was right, everyone else was wrong. Only Cardiology said I had a heart flutter, every other test and doctor said nothing was showing up, so I was fine. Turns out, not only do I have a heart flutter in my left upper ventricle, there is a hole between the upper chambers of my heart, which seems to be making that ventricle work extra hard to pump blood.

So this all leads to today. I have a phone appointment with Cardiology, to go over everything, and decide where to go from here. I’m actually writing this post in advance, the night before my phone appointment, because I want there to be an update this morning, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to write something afterwards, depending on how it all goes. Let’s just say I’m currently a wee bit distressed about the potential options I’m facing.

  • Leave it as-is.
  • Treat with medications to control my problems, such as blood thinners.
  • Surgery to close the hole, and/or deal with the fluttering ventricle.

Now then, let’s be real here for a moment. None of these options are good ones, but I’m actually hoping for the scariest one, being surgery. Leaving it as-is really isn’t even an option, in my opinion. Treating it with medications will only mask the issue, so I’m not really on-board for that, either. But surgery, while scary to think about, at least should fix the problem.

I do not like the idea of going forward with a hole in my heart. I do not want to live my life taking all manner of medications in order to mask over a clear problem with my heart, that can be fixed with a scope-like tool being snaked through my arteries into my heart. I sure as Hell don’t want to simply ignore it, either. So I will listen to what Cardiology has to say about this, and we’ll see where it goes.

Anyway, I’ve recently discussed paring back on my podcasting, due to medical issues. Should we decide to undergo surgery, I will be setting aside all blogs, livestreams, and podcasts* for the foreseeable future. The asterisk by podcasts is because we’ve already pre-recorded all of the “Knights of the Tabletop” shows through January 2020, so no problems there. I will try to do the occasional livestream with Tenknife, once I have recovered enough to do so, but they will be more along the lines of Update discussions, as opposed to what I usually do on Twitch. I will also try to pre-load a bunch of blogs ahead of time, and maybe do the same with “Pixels & Dice” and “Roleplay Domain” podcasts, if I have the time, so that content continues on the website as usual, for as long as possible.

Update: Talked to the Cardiologist. I need to see a specialist who works on Adult Congenital Defects, which it appears the hole in my heart is. Nice that I’ve gone 51 years without anyone f**king noticing that I have a g*****n hole in my heart!

Anyway, more appointments to come, I guess. Yay.

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