Flashback Friday: Oh What a Week

FF is usually not  a wordy post but this is an image I am glad to say is in my past not my present.  Monday I had a pinching feeling on the left side of my chest, like little nips. Not pain, but not a good feeling. For once, I bit the bullet, and told my dh and it was off to the emergency room for us.

Lots of exams including a nuclear stress test. btw, it can be done chemically instead of the dreaded 'treadmill from hell'! Eventually I was sent to Washington Hospital Center's Cath lab.

DH and I are familiar with this since he had HIS catheterization and subsequent heart stent done there 6 months ago.  No, I was not thinking...Anything you can do, I can do better... But his problem made it clear to me that it was not the terrifying thing that it once was in 'the old days'. I had wanted to get a stress test myself, since so many heart problems remain hidden until it's too late. But my aching knee and then heel pain made me dread that accelerated time on the treadmill even more. Don't get me wrong. I will use the treadmill at the gym, but I don't go faster, I go up more of an incline to get my heart going.

My time in the Cath Lab resulted in , no stent, no more surgery. I got a clean bill of health for my heart but showing a bit of a twist in one part of one artery. Was that the reason for the pinching?  Some things remain a mystery. Like my dh I was fortunate to have the catheterization done by a doctor who goes into the heart via the wrist not the groin. Recovery time is a few hours! While I did overnight again, it was because my procedure was done late in the day and I was glad to just go to sleep when and where I could. 

Now? it's great to have all the tubes and bits out of my arm. This is just a flashback, and for that I certainly am grateful.