Have a Heart

I went to the cardiologist on Tuesday, and I have a great bruise on my inner right elbow to prove it. I wanted to check and see if I had a hole in my heart that might be the cause of the IPH. One of my coworker's best friend had really bad headaches and after surgery to repair the hole in her heart was all better. And my sister's husband's sister-in-law that is a nurse asked one of her neurologist friends about my headaches and he suggested I investigate the possibility.

After getting a referral from my primary care physician (who is very nice and had me get an appointment with some pain management specialists also) I went to the cardiologist. They did an EKG, which was normal. Asked me a bunch of family health questions, which I didn't know. Then the actual doctor asked me why I was there. When I explained about the headaches and my hope that I had a hole in my heart, he was very nice and got me immediately in to get an ultrasound.

For the ultrasound, they have to put in an IV so that they can pump air through your veins to see if the bubbles travel from one side of the heart to the other, since most holes are too small to really see. So, the guy stuck me with a needle but that vein collapsed, so then he got another guy and they tried for fifteen minutes to get a vein to poke. I asked how it was going. The second guy said, "You just don't have any veins jumping out and saying to poke them with a needle." I said, "That's because they're scared." And he said, "So am I!" But, they finally got it in, and I laid there and watched the cool ultrasound pictures, in color with the whole Doppler thing for a while. And then they were done.

The doctor came in and said he had good news and bad news. They don't know what is causing the headaches, but my heart is perfectly healthy. I almost cried. The ultrasound guy said he was sorry they hadn't found anything (probably a first for that!) and I made it to the car before I broke down bawling. I was so sure this nightmare was going to over soon. And now I have a big doctor bill to look forward to. Life really sucks sometimes.