fuckyeahhope

the-vashtanerada:

First of all, here’s this in case you missed it: http://the-vashtanerada.tumblr.com/post/16586607583/progress-and-a-semi-diagnosis

So. Alright, let me just say that I really liked the cardiologist. He was really nice, and he answered my questions (even though I froze and only asked one because that’s all I could think of). 

Basically, I’m dumbfounded at everyone else. Like, I know that the other doctors weren’t cardiologists, but damn. He looked at my giant symptoms list, I had another EKG done, and he listened to my chest and back with his stethoscope, and BAM!, diagnosis (or part of one, anyway; still have to do the echo to confirm). It took him like ten minutes for all of this, and then he was spouting out problems that he noticed left and right.

The thing about my lungs that he was talking about that I kind of missed, because I was too focused on “your heart valve sucks” (paraphrasing of course), I THINK, after reading a little, is that they’re being compressed because they’re not getting enough oxygen, and that’s why I have trouble breathing.

So, anyway, I’m going to wear the holter monitor for 24-hours on January 31 (and I can’t shower with it on D:). Then, on February 3, I get the echo done so they can actually see the valves (mainly the pulmonary, because he thinks that’s the one that’s being an asshole). My follow up with Dr. Joshi is February 10.

He also said that I may need to see a specialist in the future instead of him, because he doesn’t necessarily deal with adult congenital heart defects, but he’s going to go ahead and do the preliminary testing/diagnosis so we can get it out of the way.

So, to answer the most pressing question (which was the one question that I could actually think to ask him): Yes, I definitely do have to have surgery if it’s what he thinks it is, whether it’s replacing the valve or ballooning the valve, but he sounded pretty confident that he knew what he was talking about. So yes.