the semi-annual heart clinic thing....

I am posting again to discuss the findings of my semi-annual visit to IHC's Heart Clinic in SLC. These visits have been fairly routine--but this one has not. The two new docs I saw--both women--were worried about the number of pre-ventricular contractions (pvcs) they heard in my examination. I was under the impression that people live with these without problem. An ER doc once told me that his wife had thousands each day. So they asked to do an EKG and a sonogram and a Holter. By that time they had scared me--they in turn thought I was resisting--so I relented and said okay. They were also seemingly worried that I am on no actual "heart med". Doesn't it follow that meds are necessary? Well, no, actually.

I had gone to the extent of calling the heart clinic before my semi-annual physical in Logan because I didn't want to pay for unnecessary re-testing, viz., a blood panel in Logan followed a couple weeks later by an almost identical one in SLC--one of which Medicare would not want to pay for. And, I liken it to churning the system as these guys are paid by the test. I had had an EKG as part of the discontinuance of my heart meds in March and it seemed quick to have another one now. Ergo, my resistance. But I did set the context for this by describing my palpitations to them, though I also explained that my rhythm doc knew all about them and did not want to see me for a year. The latter's feelings appear to be that if I find the frequency and duration of the palpitations tolerable, he is okay with not proceeding to another med at this time.

So, I had the EKG. Result: normal sinus rhythm. Then I had the sonogram. Result: normal. In the latter, the ejection fraction--the amount of blood moved from one side of the heart to the other  on each stroke--needs to be at 50% or higher to not be clinical. Mine was at 50%. (It could be better.) After my heart repairs during the heart failure crisis of 2015 I scored a 55%, but the error range is +/- 3%. They were unconcerned. As am I!

So here we sit in SLC awaiting the completion of 24 hrs of wearing a Holter monitor (7 leads). No shower today--stinky boy. It comes off at 3:30 pm after which we drop it off and wend our way with the rush hour traffic (boo!) north to home. I fully expect no further clinical outcomes from the Holter. But there's always a chance.

In any case, the positive side of this is that we have a new baseline 3 yrs after 2015's heart failure and that, along with its outcomes, is good,