9/21/11
Today was very enlightening. Everyone should have a good general/family practitioner. Mine is a real doll. Doc is a fabulous lady with a genuine twinkle in her eye and always ready to lend a hand.
I don’t believe she thinks too much of my cardiologist, but I can’t be sure. She did mention something about finding me a new one when I visited her today. The hospital set up the appointment. I hadn’t planned on bothering her with all this hole-in-heart business, but they insisted, so I went. I’m really glad I did.
Doc was busy, so I was sent in to see the nurse practitioner who pulled up all my test results and started to shake her head. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m a hot mess.”
We talked a bit and she told me Doc had just had the same hole repaired in her heart. My brows shot up. Really? Doc took time out of her busy day to come talk to me. She spent more time with me on the fly than that blamed cardiologist did in all three of my visits with him.
I got the diagnosis wrong from the other doctor’s nurse. I don’t have VSD. Interesting. So, this hole in my heart, which I was told was not likely the cause of my atrial fibrillation, is most probably the cause of it all. Even my life-long fight with migraines could be attributed to it. Nice.
ASD. Atrial septal defect. It sounds icky. What it means is the oxygen rich blood goes back to the lungs instead of out into the body. I over-breathe; hyperventilate, while the rest of the body is starved for oxygen. My head hurts. Now I know why.
It also means that blood pools in the top half of my heart, goes stagnate and clots. Those clots go straight to the brain. Fabulous. It’s a good thing I have naturally thin blood and have been taking aspirin daily for the past two years. It was about two years ago when the situation seemed to start getting worse, but no one could hear the heart palps but me. Sigh.
Okay, so what’s to be done? Well, I’m told by the good and fabulous doc that most insurance companies won’t cover it unless you have terrible symptoms—such as a stroke. My chance for stroke has been greatly elevated by this little pinprick of a hole, but I have to actually have a stroke to qualify for repair. Excuse me, but I’m trying to avoid a stroke.
The battle lines are drawn. Doc is unhappy with the lack of information from the cardiologist and wants to see about getting me a new guy, because the current guy has not told me a single thing about my condition. I love my doctor.
I will have to find someone to go to bat for me, someone willing to fight with the insurance company on my behalf because my GP believes it has to be fixed. I’m inclined to agree. Where I come from, if there’s a hole in the levy, you plug it or the river floods the crops. The surgery is extremely costly. The device used to close the defect commands 90% of the cost.
I need a drink.
And a big stick. I think I’ll put it someplace where it will do the most good.
In the meantime, I’m waiting for a stroke, pulmonary embolism or heart failure. Meh. Just another day.
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