Home › #Health › A CALL FROM THE HEART GUY – Marilyn Armstrong

A CALL FROM THE HEART GUY – Marilyn Armstrong

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I hadn’t heard from the heart doctor. Having not heard anything, I eventually concluded that there must be nothing important to talk about because if there were, someone would have mentioned it.

This evening, the doctor called.

So it turns out — by the doctor’s reckoning — there’s not much to discuss.  From my point of view, a bit more to talk about.

My heart is as good as one can expect it to be — given how much surgery has been done and its condition to begin with. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is a big deal and I had it for a long time before I knew about it.  I’ve had two replaced valves — aortic and mitral, as well as a replaced artery and an implanted pacemaker that will — in maybe four or five years — need a new battery. Assuming I’m still kicking around in four or five years.

How is my heart doing? As well as can be expected, thank you very much. The atriums are oversized, the ventricles are over-muscled, but all things considered, the heart is pumping reasonably well.

“So I’ve got another year you figure?”

“Probably.”

“That’s good. I don’t have to start packing yet.”

Of course, I don’t have the results of yesterday’s test yet, so who knows?

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Categories: #Health, Heart, Medical

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27 replies

  1. jcalberta
    03/23/2019 • 11:22

    My wife’s mother is in the hospital again. Constantly in pain. She wants to go.
    It’s a very tough world when you don’t have your health.

    Like

  2. elvagreen123
    03/21/2019 • 19:02

    “Probably” is good

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  3. momshieb
    03/21/2019 • 08:07

    So how DO we pack for that trip anyway? Glad you have more time!

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  5. Covert Novelist
    03/20/2019 • 17:29

    I’m certainly relieved at knowing there’s so far nothing of immediate concern for you!!!! xoxo

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  6. Melanie B Cee
    03/20/2019 • 15:13

    Well Thank GOD you’ve got at least another year!! 2019 has had far too many deaths already, and to lose you too? Unthinkable!! Now a nosy question (which you’re not obligated to answer at all) Is that condition genetic? Did you have a ‘bad’ heart from birth or did it develop over the years? I ask because you seem to have had more energy than I do (given all the things you’ve accomplished, the places you’ve seen and lived, and all the rest) and my heart is ostensibly okay. My mother and her mother both died of cardiac ‘complications’, and I sort of hope they did pass that along. Coupled with my diabetes and hypertension, it’s a guaranteed (almost..nothing is for certain is it?) maybe twelve or thirteen more years for me, which is more than plenty.

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      03/20/2019 • 16:16

      Yes. Very. 50-50. That’s why it’s really important to find out what parents actually died of. We tend to get very generic answers like “congestive heart failure” or “heart attack” or “stroke” — but that doesn’t tell what it really was. THIS condition is absolutely genetic and Owen DOES have it and so does Kaity. Many people get through life without ever knowing they had it. But others die suddenly from apparently nothing. Athletes — sometimes as young as 17 or 18 just die on the court. There’s a lot they can do to fix it, though. Here I still am and my father was 92 when he passed. On the other hand, Owen’s father was just 53 and O is already 50. Kaitlin already KNOWS she has a bad valve, too — and she’s just 22. Don’t be stupid. Find a good doctor who specializes in this and get checked PROPERLY.

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  7. swo8
    03/20/2019 • 13:00

    Nice of him to call, don’t you think? At least it wasn’t some emergency that you had to go in to deal with.

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  8. angloswiss
    03/20/2019 • 12:17

    No news is always good news.

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      03/20/2019 • 13:11

      In this case, absolutely. The surgery made the heart work. Nothing would make it work the way it was “supposed” to work, but it pumps blood and that’s as much as I can expect from it. As long as it keeps doing that, I live on, assuming nothing else goes wrong. Which is why, when asked how I’m doing, I always say “so far, so good. Short of a magic recipe for making me young again, that’s as good as it gets.

      Liked by 2 people

  9. Becky Ross Michael
    03/20/2019 • 11:06

    Sounds like good news, Marilyn!

    Like

  10. Kiki
    03/20/2019 • 11:03

    GLAD FOR YOU…. 😉

    Like