Heart Checkup

Well as some of you know when I was younger I had open heart surgery to correct a hole in between the chambers of my heart there were also some things like arteries in the wrong place and what not. I had another surgery while I was in 6th grade to replace the homografts (not that kind of homo for those of you with dirty minds) they had put in when I was younger as they had become hard and were no longer pumping blood nearly as well as they should. They also put in larger homografts, so that as I grew (you know, puberty) all would be good. Anyway, I just figured I would give a brief history so the rest of this post makes sense.

Well part of the deal with this is that every year I have to go see my Cardiologist down at Children’s Heart Clinic in Minneapolis and tomorrow is the day. Last year my checkup went great and everything looked good except I was put on medicine as preventative measure, which I of course am all for. Anything that helps me helps me out in the long run I am all for. The funny thing is that for the most part these appointments go very well and I know this one will probably go equally as well, but whenever one of these appointments come up I can’t help but worry. All the what-ifs come flying into my head and just worry me more.

The general procedure for the appointments usually starts with an EKG/ECG followed by a chest x-ray. After the x-ray I am put in a room to wait for the doctor and usually he looks at the x-ray before coming into the room. He sits down and talks to myself and family that goes with me about what he sees in the x-ray and the EKG/ECG followed by listening to my heart and all that basic stuff. Every couple of years an echocardiogram is done, which is basically an ultrasound of the heart. They use it to measure the size of the heart chambers, blood flow through the heart, and how well the chambers of the heart are working. I’m sure one will be done this year as I am due. Really though in the grand scheme of things these appointments are very basic and unless something stands out as abnormal I am free to go for another year.

I guess I am most likely worried over nothing, but I think it just kind of goes with the territory. At the same time I am confident that everything should be A-ok.

Hey, on a side note I get to miss a Tech Para meeting for this, so all is good!