Six Month Sentence
I’ve been given a six month sentence, but it feels like a reprieve.
Though I’m a young man of almost thirty-nine, I have a cardiologist, as of today. But, he’s given me good news. After wrestling with the idea that I was going to be on blood thinners for the rest of my life, I probably won’t be after all.
I went to see him today, to find out about long-term monitoring of coumadin, after being referred by my general practitioner. I had an EKG and an ultrasound done when I got there and explained to several people that I’d recently survived cancer. After a final explanation of why I’d come to see him, the doctor told me that I had a slight weakness in one valve that was allowing a minute amount of blood back into the heart. Thankfully, it was so minor that it didn’t concern the doctor at all, outside of future monitoring. But, after some more questions about what kind of chemotherapy I had, the doctor was actually quite pleased that I didn’t have more weakening of my heart! Apparently, andriamycin, which was one of the “flavors” I had, can weaken the heart quite a bit and he didn’t see any of that in the ultrasound.
However, the best news was that, unless I presented with more problems or a hyper-coagulant disease of some kind, there probably wasn’t a reason to keep me on coumadin for more than six months. Yea! So, for the first time in I can’t remember, I have good news about my long term health and care. Double yea!
