I had a CT scan of my heart

I mentioned awhile back that I was rebooting my healthcare with a new primary care doctor. It was only about a month ago, but I feel like we've really moved along quickly, and I've been able to communicate with her via the patient portal. The goal is to figure out my high triglycerides, which is odd because normally those come down with LDL on statins, but mine have not. Throwing pills at it hasn't helped. So my new doc is first trying to assess what my overall condition looks like so we can decide how aggressive to be with it. My pancreas and liver are functioning just fine, so the next thing was to see how my heart was doing. Step one was checking my lipoprotein (A), a test that insanely is not covered by insurance. That test came back perfect.

She also wanted to do a CT of my heart. This also isn't well covered by insurance, but with a history of heart disease in my family, it would give me a look to see if my arteries were headed toward a "cardiac event." I'm sure you've heard that there's one in particular, the "widow maker," that if it isn't caught, your survival odds aren't great. Having a decent picture of most of the rest of my health, but not this thing, made me feel like the radiation was worth it.

While it's relatively non-invasive, they do need to slow down you heart below 70 bpm, using beta blockers. These block the nerve receptors that react to adrenaline. Honestly, that freaks me out, as my sleeping resting rate is in the mid-60's. A CT zaps you with X-rays from all angles, using a rotating device, but to make that work, and build a 3D model, requires that your heart isn't moving around a bunch, which it does because it's your heart. So after two hours of oral blockers, then two injections of smaller doses, it got down to where they needed it and they took some pictures. So yay for getting three years worth of background radiation in a few seconds! To see better, they pump you full of an iodine solution, which when it hits your bloodstream, feels warm all over, and like you squirted hot diarrhea into your shorts. It's fucking weird. They also give you a hit of nitroglycerine, which opens up your blood vessels so you can see them better.

I ended up being there for like three hours, which was not ideal. But as was the case with our recent experience with Diana's appendectomy (same hospital), the folks there were excellent care givers, and I never felt weird about it.

The results hit today, and the radiologist described the CT as "unremarkable," which is to say nothing weird, and low risk for cardiac illness. That's kind of what I expected, given the Lp(a) test. But I was anxious about it all night, and you isn't it funny that when you think about it, you're sure something doesn't feel right. That was one of two huge exhales today. Also, the TG problem might be related to my vitamin D deficiency.