I had a cardiologist appointment on March 21, 2016. It had been eight months since I had been to see him, so I was not really concerned with anything, but I was anxious to see what he would say to me because I don't really push myself about doing things and all.
The visit started with my weight, which was up because I had eaten lunch before going to this 2:00 appointment and my blood pressure being taken, as always happens. My blood pressure today is 90/50. Good grief!
When the doctor comes in, he does all his listening to my pulse points - ankles (where he sees a bruise), neck, belly (where he sees more bruises), and he blurts out, "Where do you get all these bruises?" and I told him that I don't know, they just show up. It's a happy day when I whack myself and I know where that bruise is gonna come from - the nurse chuckled at that. He tsked over that and kinda looked over my lower legs for more bruises while trying to keep it from me that he was doing so, but I had showed him the ones on my arms and I knew he had seen the ones on my belly, so it was no big deal to me.
We talked about the bruising and my different meds, and he finally decided to let me stop taking the baby aspirin every day. He wanted me to stay on the Plavix because of the stents - he didn't want to take the chance of anything interfering with them - so I am cheering inside "Yay! 1 less pill!" then we went on to discussing other things and up came my low blood pressure, and my history of low blood pressure. 100/50 here, 98/69 there, now 90/50 - he thought he should do something about that, too. One of the meds I am taking because of diabetes is to prevent high blood pressure and I'm going to assume it's doing its job very well, because he decided to take me off of that one, too. Trust me, inside I am now doing such a happy dance! Off 2 meds!! Hip, hip, hooray!
Going way over my allotted "15 minutes," we continued talking about this and that, and he decided to order a CBC (Complete Blood Count) just to make sure there wasn't something weird going on with my bruising. I didn't think so, but I deferred to his decision - what can it hurt to find out for sure? So he wrote it up and the nurse gave me the papers.
I left, and happy danced all the way out to my car!
The CBC is a fasting test, so I have to figure out which day is going to be the best day for me to drive somewhere and get this done. I know where I'm going - the lab in Milford, right beside Dr. Ward's office. I prefer this over either of the hospitals, with their endless paperwork and waiting. I finally choose to go on Friday, even though it's Good Friday and my lunch choices will be limited.
I get to the lab right at 12:30, just as I planned, figuring it would be less crowded during the lunch hour, and there's a big sign OUT TO LUNCH TODAY FROM 12:00 TO 1:00. Well, great. I was going to go to Meijer in Eastgate after my lunch, so I decided to go to the Meijer up on 28 to kill this half hour instead. I did so, then went back and let the vampires do their thing, then went to find myself some lunch. By this time, I was pretty hungry! After my lunch, I drove back up to Amelia and did my grocery shopping as planned. All in all, it was a pretty long day.
Late in the afternoon on Monday, March 28th, I got a phone call from the cardiologist. Actually, I got a message on the machine - I wasn't able to get to the phone. He said that my white blood count was very high and I needed to follow up with Dr. Ward as soon as I could.
Well, I already have an appointment in May, I thought. I wonder if that will do?
Not even ten minutes later, one of his assistants was calling. I was able to answer the phone that time, and I talked to her. She urged me to make an appointment with Dr. Ward, and I told her that I had one in May. She said that my white blood count was almost double what it should be, so my body was fighting some infection and do not wait until May. I told her that Dr. Gupta had said that he would be calling Dr. Ward, too, so I would wait to see if they called me because I didn't want to be crossing things up. She said that if I didn't hear from them to call that next afternoon and let them know Dr. Gupta wanted me seen. Wowza!
Luckily, Dr. Ward's office did call me on Tuesday, the 29th and now I have an appointment to go over and see him on Thursday the 31th. At 9:15. 9:15!! Yipes! I will have to get my lazy ass up out of bed and leave my house by 8:30....ai yi yi!
To Be Continued
