Re: Long story, Part Deux

Wow, Debbie!  Don't apologize for anything.  You're awesome!

Mary

Debbie Ames wrote:

Anecdote about the catheterization -- I can't watch when blood is drawn, it just freaks me out (I only have one spot where blood comes out easily, and I'm so afraid someday it won't work!). Well, despite what the docs are gonna do to me, I was eagerly awaiting the test, just so I could watch my heart beating. There's some dude who keeps asking me if I want an anti-anxiety med during the procedure, he says it'll make me forget what's happening. I sez no way, if I have to have this test I wanna see and remember. After the cardiac doc told me I needed a bypass, I turned to the other dude and said "I'll take that anti-anxiety medicine now, please." I was crying and shaken, still in denial.

So anyways, I'm in hospital a week later getting prepped for heart surgery. In the CCU (cardiac critical care unit) afterwards I have this doc come in and put a chest tube in my right lung, seems my lung collapsed. I remember that so well, even doped up, because the sucker hurt like, well, childbirth didn't hurt half as bad!

I find out later from my kid that I was serenading the nurses and cracking jokes in the recovery room, this I don't remember, drat. I think it's my response to fear, hehehe.

Of course, during the hospitalization I'm on insulin, simply to allow me to heal. (I hadn't maintained good control over my bg -- over the previous years I'd be good long enough to show the docs that I could lower my bg to healthy levels, then go right back to doing exactly what I wanted.) It's not that I didn't know what to do, I consider myself fairly educated about this disease, I just didn't (and don't, hence the anti-depressant) care. Sometimes I felt as if it's the coward's way of committing suicide, and I've told more than one care-giver that I was just waiting to wake up dead from a heart attack. Anyway...

Two days after I was in my room another doc visits me and sez "I have to pull out the chest tube and put another one in, because your lung isn't inflating, and you're not draining." He's kidding me, right? I'm supposed to go through the same pain as before, only without the morphine, or whatever drug they had me on in the CCU?? Oh, yeah, grin and bear it. I'd rather have all my teeth pulled without novacaine than go thru that again!!

I do all the things I'm told, I walk as much as they'll let me, try to eat, but just throw up until I'm taken off the painkillers, and try so very hard to maintain a healthy attitude. I find out from a student nurse that my lung collapsed during surgery, the surgeon nicked the pleura (sic). Great! I just want to go home.

My mom came to stay with us, to help take care of me. She stayed 2 weeks, until I could dry myself after showering and make my own meals. And make them I did. I was at this time on a: low-salt, low-cholesterol, low-fat and low-carb diet. I could eat broiled chicken breast and green leafy veggies. (I actually think my mom went home because she hated cooking without salt, I really do!!)

At one time I ate by my meter and I know carbs cause me awful spikes, so learned how to combine foods to avoid said spikes. Doesn't mean it don't happen, just means I know how/what to do.

Six weeks later I have my follow-up visit with the cardiologist. He's amazed, because he'd never had a patient who had his hands in their chest have a perfect EKG afterwards. Sez I, I've never had an EKG show something abnormal except the nuclear one, so don't go by the EKG. He said I could go back to work the next day. :-( Which was kinda OK because I am the breadwinner, and I hadn't any income for those 6 weeks. That was/is wicked scary.

Tried to get help thru the state before I had surgery, couldn't do anything except for food stamps. I have never, ever asked anyone for help, and it was demeaning to sit in a chair and practically beg for assistance. At least I tried!

So here I am a little over 2 1/2 months out of surgery. I've lost 15 pounds, stopped smoking the night before surgery (went 2 whole months smoke free I did!), and am trying to eat right and maintain good bg control. I've started cardiac rehab, work part-time and seeing a therapist. So there is light at the end of my tunnel.

Hope I wasn't too boring.

Now KJ, to answer the rest of your questions (if you've read this far! hehehe) -- I honestly don't know if high or low glucose levels can mimic heart problems, but sweets, I wouldn't take the chance. If the test results come back fine, ask how many women have false positive readings. And if you just don't feel right, fight for yourself. Make the medical community take you seriously until proven otherwise.

There's an organization called WomenHeart for women with heart disease, and their site lists the symptoms for heart attack that women have. I don't know if it's kosher to put the URL here, but I'm gonna do it, dang it! Won't do it again if y'all tell me not to. But from their site:
"WomenHeart is the nation's only national patient advocacy organization serving the 8,000,000 American women living with heart disease and provides them support, information and advocacy. We aim to improve their quality of life and healthcare, to include early detection, accurate diagnosis and proper treatment."

www.womenheart.org

{{{{{{{{{{to all of you}}}}}}}}}}

Debbie 
.

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