The Scare of a Lifetime

The older we get, the more health scares we are bound to receive. It's better than the alternative, especially if it wakes you up.

I had one two weeks ago, and I'm determined to take action this time around.

The Scare: I had two weeks of horrible bronchitis, and just had to get through it, as there was nothing the doctor could do for me. However, because of my health issues, with the fact that I was wheezing, she ordered a chest x-ray. The tech reading the x-ray told me I didn't have pneumonia, just bronchitis, but there was something else they found on the x-ray. I had an enlarged heart.

An enlarged heart is a problem for all kinds of issues, but mostly it can't do the job it's supposed to do, pump blood out in an efficient manner. The finding may also indicate that there are weak areas in the heart, like a valve. The next step is to have the echocardiogram, which I had today, and to stop whatever was causing the heart to enlarge in the first place. Control your blood pressure, for one. Reduce your weight, and continue with an exercise program.

The tech today told me that, in his experience and unofficially, I do not have an enlarged heart. (Yeah, whew.) However, one of the valves had an issue of some sort, perhaps the source of that heart murmur I knew I had. It would bear watching, he said.

So I'm getting serious, more serious about my weight and eating. Eating is a big issue for me, and I couldn't even tell you why. I eat the wrong things, in the wrong proportion, and I'm mainly going for the sugar rush at the end of the day.

So, in one week, I've lost 5 pounds. A good trend.

But one of the big reasons I am convinced I have to lose weight has little to do with this health scare. Well, a little but not a lot. My weight is preventing me from being diagnosed correctly.

One possible reason for the enlarged heart x-ray reading was the bronchitis coupled with my size. Also, getting a baseline on a treadmill stress test I attempted to take two years ago was halted because of my weight. I'm overjoyed, really, that the cardiac tech today was able to read the sonar pulses, that my size and underlying fat didn't prevent him from getting true readings.

Hey, any motivation works, right? Besides, every doctor I ever see mentions it repetitively. That gets so old.