Cardiologist Visit Update

The cardiologist appointment went well. His office was approximately 4 miles from the parking lot, which I thought was ironic. Emphasizing the importance of exercise, yet I imagine most of his patients aren’t up for a lot of exertion. Anyway, I digress.

I really liked the doctor – he was very thorough and seems to have a very balanced approach. He agreed with the obstetrician that there is something unusual going on, but wasn’t ready to pinpoint exactly what it is just yet.

He said that he wanted to do a couple things to hopefully alleviate some of my symptoms and also do a couple of things to exclude something more serious going on. He also did not rule out that my IBS is behind some of what’s going on.

To alleviate the symptoms:

• Take a potassium pill for a few days
• Start wearing support hose

To exclude something more serious:

• Wear a heart monitor for 24 hours
• I have to go back for a heart ultrasound (Echo)

I guess it will be a little bit of trial and error until they figure it out, but I’m glad we’re on that path. I’ve actually started to feel better the past couple of days…now I mostly get the symptoms when I’m moving around too much (whereas before they were occurring no matter what I did). I still can’t do much other than sit, but at least getting through the workday has gotten easier.

Update 48 hours later: The heart monitor was interesting – it was so bulky! But it really wasn’t a big deal and I didn’t have any trouble sleeping with it on. I have found that I really like the support hose. My legs feel better and don’t feel as unsteady. My big “trial” will be tonight when I attempt to run an errand after work. Two observations about the support hose: 1.) They really do take at least 10 minutes to put on and 2.) They are “natural” colored but, as my husband said, they are only “natural” if you started out with the skin tone of Snooki. Thus, they are not the most attractive things in the world!