I'm much older than the years I have spent on this earth. I stay in on the weekends because the stores are too crowded and I don't go to the movies because it's too loud. But I'm also physically old and falling apart.
Not only do I have a primary physician, but I also have an endocrinologist, a nephrologist, a gynecologist, a perinatologist, and now I have a cardiologist. As if I needed one more thing, now my doctor is concerned about my heart.
I've had high blood pressure for a long time and it's always been decently controlled with medication. BP normally goes up during pregnancy but mine got out of control while I was growing Megan. So much so that she actually stopped growing and we had to have her early. We (my doctor and I) thought that things would level out once I wasn't pregnant anymore but at m 6 week post postpartum visit my pressure was still too high and I was still swollen. I was also having intermittent episodes of tightness in my chest. I was referred to a cardiologist to make sure the stress of pregnancy didn't cause permanent damage.
I just had a stress echo yesterday which showed that structurally my heart is normal. There was a dropped beat on the EKG, but I'm not sure exactly what that means yet. My follow up is next week and we'll find out if that's an issue. For now, I'm fine. The doctor got my heart rate up to 179 during the echo and I was tired but still able to talk in full sentences.
"You're a natural athlete," he said.
Clearly he needs to retire.
