I told Kathy, my nurse practitioner that it was a functional heart murmur she was hearing from her stethoscope. My doctor in Illinois didn't like the sound of my heart several years ago either and had me take a test. I think that was also an echo cardiogram. They concluded that it was a benign functional murmur.
Still, one Illinois dentist forced me to take antibiotics before every cleaning and dental work for several years no matter what I tried to tell her. Art refused to go to her because ... alas... he's got a functional murmur too and didn't want to take antibiotics unnecessarily.
When I retired and switched dentists, my new dentist said I shouldn't have been told to take the antibiotics.
I went to get my echo cardiogram today. The technician explained everything to us and then attached probes to my chest.
He had someone training under him and they both put me at ease.
I thought it was pretty neat to see that they had this large photo of a ginger flower on the ceiling for patients to look at.
The technician asked me a bunch of questions while he moved the probe around my chest while asking me to breathe, hold my breath and slowly exhale.
He then asked if I was getting a lot of exercise. Before I could answer (I WAS going to be honest), Art started laughing. I confessed to the technician that I was at the computer a lot lately, but I was truly going to do better.
He looked at my heart and said this isn't a sedentary heart.
So I told him I am doing zumba and we do try to walk for exercise and we do have 21 steps to the 2nd floor that I go up and down daily.
He said that would explain it. Phew!
He didn't have the prognosis for the test, but said Kathy would tell me how it looked after a cardiologist looked at it.
It was all an interesting experience. The technician even printed a photo of my heart for me to use on my blog, but these photos that Art took turned out better so I decided to post these instead.
It's too bad that Art and I both have noisy hearts. We've passed these raucous hearts on to Tif and Jon and now our granddaughter has it too. Perhaps we should have married partners with quieter hearts.
Oh well... I guess it's not the noise it makes, but what it feels that's important.
Still, one Illinois dentist forced me to take antibiotics before every cleaning and dental work for several years no matter what I tried to tell her. Art refused to go to her because ... alas... he's got a functional murmur too and didn't want to take antibiotics unnecessarily.
When I retired and switched dentists, my new dentist said I shouldn't have been told to take the antibiotics.
I went to get my echo cardiogram today. The technician explained everything to us and then attached probes to my chest.
He had someone training under him and they both put me at ease.
I thought it was pretty neat to see that they had this large photo of a ginger flower on the ceiling for patients to look at.
The technician asked me a bunch of questions while he moved the probe around my chest while asking me to breathe, hold my breath and slowly exhale.
He then asked if I was getting a lot of exercise. Before I could answer (I WAS going to be honest), Art started laughing. I confessed to the technician that I was at the computer a lot lately, but I was truly going to do better.
He looked at my heart and said this isn't a sedentary heart.
So I told him I am doing zumba and we do try to walk for exercise and we do have 21 steps to the 2nd floor that I go up and down daily.
He said that would explain it. Phew!
He didn't have the prognosis for the test, but said Kathy would tell me how it looked after a cardiologist looked at it.
It was all an interesting experience. The technician even printed a photo of my heart for me to use on my blog, but these photos that Art took turned out better so I decided to post these instead.
It's too bad that Art and I both have noisy hearts. We've passed these raucous hearts on to Tif and Jon and now our granddaughter has it too. Perhaps we should have married partners with quieter hearts.
Oh well... I guess it's not the noise it makes, but what it feels that's important.
