I guess I should be happy with the results
So the ongoing investigation to find out whats wrong with me continues. After two trips to the General Internist (a lovely 40-ish South African from Cape Town) and blood tests, a chest xray and an EKG - I am the picture of health - except for my heart and potential stomach. Here are some gems from the report (which I am to take to my NEW Family Doctor in Edmonton):
"On examination, Rian is clearly underweight." (duh)
"There was no lymphadenopathy or pallor and pulses were easily palpable." (Can someone intrepret that?)
"I did hear a very soft murmur Grade i/vi query ejection systolic murmur over the mitral area and apex." (Huh?)
"Rian is a young adult with problems of loss of weight in the context of a good appetite, palpitations with frequent ventricular etopic beats, a soft heart murmur, possibily clubbing and history recent travel. The over riding cause for the problem is not evident by thyrotoxicosis and cardiomyopathy needs to be excluded. There is a history of syncope which sounds vasovagal in nature." (YAH! I'm still a toung adult!)
This was all before the tests. After the tests there were more gems:
WRT Holter Test:
several pvc's, one couplet...loads of bigeminal cycles (the "loads" was added by me, but 10880 sounds like loads)
WRT Chest XRay:
The heart and mediastinum are normal. the lung fields are clear with no active disease. Incidental note is made of gastric distention with air. (apparently, I "Swallow' air)
The real boring stuff is in the lab results which are perfectly normal. no hyperthyriodism nor do I have diabetes. And everything else is fine.
His recommendations are to get an Echo of my heart (which is throwing double the amount of beats which is normal), GI Referral (for the loss in weight and distended tummy) and a dietitian review.
He also asked the question I was waiting for: am I throwing up. He even prefaced it by saying he was going to ask a sensitive question. GOD NO! Don't even get me thinking about vomiting. When the ex use to get ill (which was often and worried me to no end), I had to plug my ears and stand near the window. Sorry people, I am not the person to be of any comfort when you are throwing up.
So while I continue NOT to gain weight, this is the least of my problems. Dr. Berman tried to sound calm, but he kept impressing on me that I need to see a doctor in Edmonton to get an Echo done before the end of Feb. Yah, I guess you don't fuck around when the heart is concerned.
As for the weight loss thingy, he said it was probably stress and he told me that if anyone went through what I had to go thru (and still going thru as me highlighted with the new move and new job) anyone would lose weight and any body would short circut like mine did. We will rule out any GI problems before chaulking it all up to stress and the fact that I am meant to be a person of approx 120lbs (if I gain a few more pounds). I have no issue with this and this is what mom is thinking. As she reminds me, I was always small and I only started gaining weight in university and the minute I left school (Ireland and South AFrica the first time) I lost weight. I only gained weight again in my Masters. So maybe she is right - I am meant to be small.
No complains here.
But I will admit, I was kinda scared to get the results back. The last 2 days I've been on edge and while I kept telling my parents I was fine with this, I really was worried. So I'm relieved that I'm the picture of health except for my heart. And my heart - well, I kinda knew there was something wrong there. So to find out I might have furhter problems than a load of extra beats is no real surprise to me.
T-minus 6 days and counting!
"On examination, Rian is clearly underweight." (duh)
"There was no lymphadenopathy or pallor and pulses were easily palpable." (Can someone intrepret that?)
"I did hear a very soft murmur Grade i/vi query ejection systolic murmur over the mitral area and apex." (Huh?)
"Rian is a young adult with problems of loss of weight in the context of a good appetite, palpitations with frequent ventricular etopic beats, a soft heart murmur, possibily clubbing and history recent travel. The over riding cause for the problem is not evident by thyrotoxicosis and cardiomyopathy needs to be excluded. There is a history of syncope which sounds vasovagal in nature." (YAH! I'm still a toung adult!)
This was all before the tests. After the tests there were more gems:
WRT Holter Test:
several pvc's, one couplet...loads of bigeminal cycles (the "loads" was added by me, but 10880 sounds like loads)
WRT Chest XRay:
The heart and mediastinum are normal. the lung fields are clear with no active disease. Incidental note is made of gastric distention with air. (apparently, I "Swallow' air)
The real boring stuff is in the lab results which are perfectly normal. no hyperthyriodism nor do I have diabetes. And everything else is fine.
His recommendations are to get an Echo of my heart (which is throwing double the amount of beats which is normal), GI Referral (for the loss in weight and distended tummy) and a dietitian review.
He also asked the question I was waiting for: am I throwing up. He even prefaced it by saying he was going to ask a sensitive question. GOD NO! Don't even get me thinking about vomiting. When the ex use to get ill (which was often and worried me to no end), I had to plug my ears and stand near the window. Sorry people, I am not the person to be of any comfort when you are throwing up.
So while I continue NOT to gain weight, this is the least of my problems. Dr. Berman tried to sound calm, but he kept impressing on me that I need to see a doctor in Edmonton to get an Echo done before the end of Feb. Yah, I guess you don't fuck around when the heart is concerned.
As for the weight loss thingy, he said it was probably stress and he told me that if anyone went through what I had to go thru (and still going thru as me highlighted with the new move and new job) anyone would lose weight and any body would short circut like mine did. We will rule out any GI problems before chaulking it all up to stress and the fact that I am meant to be a person of approx 120lbs (if I gain a few more pounds). I have no issue with this and this is what mom is thinking. As she reminds me, I was always small and I only started gaining weight in university and the minute I left school (Ireland and South AFrica the first time) I lost weight. I only gained weight again in my Masters. So maybe she is right - I am meant to be small.
No complains here.
But I will admit, I was kinda scared to get the results back. The last 2 days I've been on edge and while I kept telling my parents I was fine with this, I really was worried. So I'm relieved that I'm the picture of health except for my heart. And my heart - well, I kinda knew there was something wrong there. So to find out I might have furhter problems than a load of extra beats is no real surprise to me.
T-minus 6 days and counting!
