The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • I Still Have a Defective Heart

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    Ruth Carter

    Atrial Septal Defect - Image from Wikipedia (Creative Commons Image)
    Atrial Septal Defect – Image from Wikipedia (Creative Commons Image)

    Let me start this post with a correction: I misheard my cardiologist last week. I thought he said I have a ventricular septal defect. He actually said I have an atrial septal defect. Today when we went over the results of my tests, he told me I have, not 1, but 2 holes between my atriums.

    The human heart isn’t that big. How is it possible that I have 2 holes in one little area?

    The rest of my tests were unremarkable. Nothing unusual showed up when I wore a heart monitor for 24 hours and my stress test looked good. Overall, my doctor is unsure what’s causing my symptoms – the chest pain, the fatigue, and the night sweats. He prescribed me a low-dose beta-blocker and said I can go back on ibuprofen for pain. (Yay!) My beta blocker dose is so low my pharmacy had to special order it. Since I’m so small, my doctor’s having me only take half a pill every other day for the first five days to see how I adjust to it. (He said it could make me tired.)

    My cardiologist also referred me to another heart specialist to evaluate whether my heart defect is causing my problems and whether they should be surgically sealed. Apparently this guy specializes in these types of defects. I hope it doesn’t take weeks to get an appointment. If my defect should be patched, they go in through the groin, not open heart surgery. That was good to hear.

    My doctor said I’m allowed to try running again. I was pretty nervous to see how my stamina is after not running for nearly 3 weeks. I was slated to do 5 miles today and I opted to do it on the treadmill where I could control my speed. I ended up doing a run/walk combo and finished in 53:58. I think that’s a good start. My chest hurt a little bit at first but settled down by mile 3.

    I’m scheduled to do 14 miles on Saturday and I think I’ll do it on the treadmill again where it will be easier to manage speed, take breaks, and have snacks. For now, my plan is to keep following my marathon training program, but modify it by walking and running my miles as needed.

  • I Have a Defective Heart

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    Ruth Carter

    Who has two thumbs and a heart defect?
    This guy!

    Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) - Creative Commons Image from Wikipedia
    Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) – Creative Commons Image from Wikipedia

    I feel like I’ve been living at my cardiologist’s office this week. I was in this morning for my stress test when my doctor pulled me aside to share some news about my ultrasound. (That raised a big red flag since I wasn’t expecting any results until next week when all my tests were done.) He told me that I have ventricular septal defect (VSD), better known as a hole in my heart. It’s a genetic defect where there’s a hole between the ventricals of your heart. My doctor said ~10% of the population has it, and not everyone has health problems as a result, so we don’t know if mine is causing or contributing to my chest pain at this point.

    (Of course you know the moment I got out of my doctor’s office, the first thing I did was call my parents and say, “It’s all your fault.”)

    Then he reminded me not to run this weekend – I can walk instead.

    Once I was done talking with my doctor, I got to have my stress test – that’s the one where you run on the treadmill with electrodes attached to your chest. They gave me a half gown thing to wear over my electrodes, but I was in a sports bra and I have no modesty issues so I opted to run without it. I had 8 electrodes on my chest and a blood pressure cuff on my arm where my tech periodically took my blood pressure. We had to go up four levels to get my heart rate up high enough – the speed and incline increased with each level. At each level, the machine produced an EKG printout. When it got challenging, the real issue wasn’t the speed, it was the incline. My calves and hamstrings were burning. I’m glad it only took 14 minutes to get through this.

    The worst part about doing a stress test is you can’t have caffeine for 24 hours before the test. I popped a caffeine pill the moment my test was over.

    My Holter ECG
    My Holter ECG

    After my stress test, they stuck a Holter ECG on me for 24 hours. It’s a heart monitor with 5 electrodes that connect to a recorder box that clips to my hip. When I saw the box, my first thought was “1990 called. They want their pager back.” With all these cords hanging off me, I feel like I’m wearing 5 iPods. For the duration of this test I’m not allowed to shower or sweat and they gave me a log to record any pain, dizziness, or other symptoms. I ‘m afraid one of the electrodes will come loose so I keep pushing on them. I probably look like I’m molesting myself. We’ll see how easy it is to sleep with this on my body.

    I’ll see my doctor next Thursday to get the results of all my tests and hopefully he’ll have a proposed plan of action to deal with my pain. Until then, I’ll still train for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, but I’ll be walking my miles.

  • Ultrasound!

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    Ruth Carter

    Heart and Heartbeat by ThrasherDave from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
    Heart and Heartbeat by ThrasherDave from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

    No, I am not with child.

    I had an ultrasound on my neck and heart to try to figure why my chest hurts and why I wake up in  a puddle of my own sweat halfway through the night.

    Getting an ultrasound is a pretty simple procedure – you just lay there while the tech puts goo on the ultrasound wand-thing and slides it over your skin. They had me take off my clothes from the waist-up and put on a paper tank top that was open in the back. (I wonder if they only give paper gowns to women.)

    The tech started with the ultrasound of my neck arteries. Because I had to have my neck stretched, I couldn’t watch the screen. He periodically turned the sound on to listen and/or capture the sound of my heartbeat. The first time he did it I giggled. I instantly realized this was probably the only way I was going to hear a heartbeat during an ultrasound of my body because I have no plans for procreation.

    After he finished scanning my neck, I asked how it looked at he only said, “I think you’ll live through the weekend.” We moved on to my heart ultrasound and I got to start laying on my side, which was awesome because I got to watch the monitor. The female tech put some electrodes on my chest that monitored my heart too, which was cool to see my heartbeat going across the screen.

    Of course, I couldn’t understand anything I was seeing. I swear sometimes my heart looked like the face of a deep ocean fish and sometimes it looked like The Blerch from The Oatmeal. I’ve decided I have an alien in my chest.

    We finished the scan with an ultrasound of my chest while I lay flat on my back. It was interesting to hear the differences in how my heart sounded depending on how I was laying and where the tech was holding the ultrasound wand.  Sometimes it sounded eerily similar to a theremin. (Think of the original Star Trek theme song.)

    Hat tip to the Cardiovascular Institute of Scottsdale for handling female modesty well. When the tech needed to scan my chest, he just ripped a small hole in my gown instead of asking me take it off. Modesty is a non-issue for me, but I can see how other patients would appreciate this.

    Of course the tech couldn’t tell me anything from my scan, though when I told him I was getting all my test results next Thursday, he said, “Good.” So maybe he saw something on my ultrasound, but if he did, it can’t be that bad because he didn’t seem to mind that I’ll be waiting 10 days to get the results.