TEE Update

My giveaway was just the right distraction for what was a totally lousy week. My friends all thought I was crazy to do it since I had so many extra doctors appointments scheduled. I just wanted to think about something other that that mysterious "spot" on my heart.

Flashback to last week, I met my new Cardiologist Dr. Wilner-

He's 34, went to Yale and is awesome! Ladies- sorry- his Main Line Heath Glamour Shot shows off his shiny wedding band, and he's got 2 kids....

Anyway- I met with my new doctor to go over the TEE procedure he wants to do since finding the 'spot" on my heart. Despite my Oncologist FREAKING ME OUT that it could be a tumor or blood clot, he was quite reassuring that it was probably nothing. Especially because he pulled up my LAST echo (from 9/08) and the "spot" was there. My question- uhhhh...how come no one saw it before....answer...that's why I'm your doctor now. We scheduled my TEE for the following week. Yea.....

Monday morning, bright and early - I had to report to Outpatient Registration at Paoli Hospital (or Le Hotel Paoli for those of us who spend a lot of time there). I was starving since I wasn't able to eat since the night before, and am anxious to get this procedure over with. They bring me back to the Cardiology area and get me set up in a "room". It's like an OR recovery area, all the procedures are done right there, so there's just curtain screen around each bay.

My nurse- Wayne- hmmm... is a jerk but not in a bad way. My main complaints- #1 I wear a FREAKIN' MEDICAL ID BRACELET...does he check it- no. Does he try to take my BP on the arm that the ID bracelet clearly identifies NOT TO USE- yes. DO I stop him- absolutely, I also asked 2 times for a purple bracelet- which is used to mark an arm that is not to be used for IV or BP Cuffs. Never got that bracelet.... #2 I asked for the IV team to be paged. I have a mediport and my arm/hand veins are really awful. Only certified nurses can access the ports, so I requested my IV be put through my port. He asks one of the other nurses if she can do it....she pokes me 2 times and can not get a blood return. Here's a reminder of what the IV port needles look like:

Finally the IV team nurse arrives and pokes me again, gets a good return and we're in business.

The sonographer tech arrives and the anesthesiologist swings by...and who do you think it is...my same anesthesiologist from all my other surgeries! He's awesome (I can't remember his name) and he's buddy-buddy with my Cardiologist because- big surprise- they both went to Yale. I get the "good stuff"- none of that crappy Versed...I want to be OUT! I remember the docs busting on each other for both having "baby faces" and I woke up an hour later to the sonographer asking me what my website was. Gotta love sedation!

Dr. Wilner said that everything is great- the spot is nothing- just a spot. Whew! FINALLY good news from a doctor! You get so bummed from hearing bad news, it's so nice to hear something positive! My throat is sore and I am coughing a lot. I ask for ice chips and unfortunately my coordination had not come back 100% and instead of them going in my mouth, they went down my gown. A little bit later, I'm still loopy and out of it but they pretty much kicked me out. I got dressed, got a wheelchair and checked out!

For the rest of the day I lounged around, slept and tried to rest my throat. It's 3 days later now and still a little sore, mostly on one side, so I'm sure it's just an irritation from the echo tubing.