All about my heart

It was a long and tiring day.  After no sleep last night, I headed out early to go see my cardiologist for my echocardiogram.  I had planned to have the hubby along since cardio visits stress me out, but with Haven home sick and no one sleeping the night before, I went alone after whining and crying like a baby about it.  I can do a lot, handle a lot, juggle a lot and deal with a lot, but there are a select few things that really throw me, and the cardiologist is one of them. 

Now I really *like* my current cardio, and that is saying a whole lot since I usually despise or barely tolerate them.  I got ths guy when pregnant with Teagan since my old cardio had a sh*t fit when he heard I was pregnant again, not the approach I like in a doctor.  I like the new cardio because he is very positive, he listens to me and he is the first cardiologist I have ever had who has looked at my situation and not my condition.  All the prior doctors pushed me to get surgery, a very invasive open heart surgery, even though there was no reason, I have no symptoms and my condition is causing no problems for me. 

Anywho, went for my echo and the tech let me know my gradient (which is how they measure the pressure in my heart) was lower than when pregnant with Teagan-which was good news.  We know the gradient goes really high when I am pregnant, and drops right back down after I deliver which shocked my doctor last time as it was 35 points lower just one week after delivering.  Today my gradient was about 11 points lower than when pregnant with Teagan, so we anticipate the next few weeks of pregnancy to progress smoothly and I don't need to worry about cardiac issues unless something changes drastically.

The cardio also had some really great news for me.  One of the things we watch, due to my condition, is for the heart to show signs of strain, usually evident by some enlargement of the heart due to it having to work harder.  At my age,  it is normal for any woman who has had multiple pregnancies to have some enlargement of the heart, nothing serious or significant, but as that muscle pumps all the extra blood we have when preggers, it works harder.  Surprisingly, my heart shows NO enlargement, even within what would be "normal" for a woman my age!  In addition, my heart function is absolutely perfect, no concerns at all!  For someone with a heart issue who has been waiting her whole life to find out when surgery would have to happen, when heart failure might start, when symptoms will show, this is such great news!  The doctor thinks there is no reason that I will not make it well into my forties or fifties before we even need to consider surgery, and being that we expected surgery to happen in my twenties, this is incredible.  He says he is impressed that my body simply compensated for the heart condition and has adapted and allowed me to maintain a healthy heart!  Such a sweet relief to hear today, to know that I can rest easy and that everything looks good.  Being that I live a stressful and busy life, and have many little people depending on me and my health, knowing that I am healthy and strong and able to care for them is so calming.