...she's going to want to do the usual work-up, including a health questionnaire and blood work. Most of that will be straight-forward when you see her in May. Thankfully, all of your vitamin levels are normal {for once}, but your cholesterol is off again {good cholesterol is low and bad cholesterol is high}, so you'll need to add some Omega-3 vitamins to your increasing supplement regimen, because you already eat avocado, lean protein, and salmon, and you can't have nuts or flax meal. You also can't lose more weight, and you already abstain from alcohol and have low blood pressure and low blood sugar. You can stand to exercise more, but you know that Crohn's is somehow the culprit for the cholesterol imbalance...
...but the doctor will also ask if she can do an EKG. You're 40 now, so why not?
But when she finds something abnormal on the EKG {a right ventricular conduction delay, to be exact}, she will then want to do a sleep study. She asks if you snore, and while you do sometimes, you know that it's not really that bad. But you're here, and you have met your deductible, so why not?
So you agree to the sleep study. The best part is that you can do it at home. The worst part is that you have a too-tight talking contraption strapped to your head for the night. And while it confirms that you do snore, it's a mere 40 dB, the level of rustling leaves or the hum of a refrigerator. The good news is that you do not have sleep apnea {which is what she was trying to confirm}, but the bad news is that it now means we still have the abnormality from the EKG...
...so the doctor will then refer you to a cardiologist. And you will realize that you have yet another -ologist to add to your long list of specialists. Which is also the reason that you tend to skip over regular physicals, because they're usually redundant and pointless. And besides, you end up running down a rabbit trail of testing that shows mostly nothing {or what you already know}...
...Because of the cardiologist's availability and your own schedule, you don't see him until August, which is ok, because the original doctor said it wasn't urgent. When you show up to the cardiologist office, you are, once again, the youngest one in the waiting room, but you are now questioning the Doogie Howser nurse who takes you back to prep you for the doctor. He doesn't look old enough to drive, let alone take your vitals LOL. And you realize that you are firmly middle aged. Hence, why you are in a cardiologist office...
...when the cardiologist walks in, he is surprised to see you, mostly because you don't look like most of his patients. But you walk through all the tests and health history anyway to be thorough. The cardiologist will use lots of technical medical jargon to explain the EKG abnormality, but then reassure you that you are absolutely fine. That he reads thousands of EKGs and mine is, in fact, completely normal. That because you have had no symptoms, are a normal weight, don't snore, and have zero of the risk factors, the abnormality they detected is 100% within the range of acceptable. You were basically born with this heart rhythm. He will apologize for any unnecessary worry, will praise the "amazing" and "fantastic" blood flow in your ankles, wrists, and neck, and will send you on your way...
...and you will confirm what you knew from the very beginning: that there was nothing wrong with your heart to begin with, that you know your body better than anyone, and that your theory of not needing annual physicals still holds true...or at least you haven't found a primary care doctor to disprove this theory yet {but this only applies to you because of all the other doctors you see...everyone else needs to go see their doctor. And it needs to be one they trust ;) }
.JPG)
