7:35 p.m. - July 21, 2022
Ka-thump, ka-thump.
Well, I'm probably not kicking the bucket any time soon. The doctor needs to confirm this, but the tech said my heart looks pretty good. No signs of damage or evidence of a prior heart attack, nothing weird with the valves, and most importantly, all four chambers are squeezing at the same time. It's a Very Big Deal if they are not in sync, so yay for that.
Ah, the signs of aging, though. This is my second cardiac echo. At one point, you're lying on your side and they remove a slat from the table to come in from below and measure your heart through your left side. Well, laugh with me, not at me, because I'm a 38D and my left boob fell through the hole. Just fwoop, fell right down to the side, and I ended up having to hold it up the whole time.
I said, "Gee, that didn't happen back when I was 40."
My tech was pretty cool, a guy who already has a stent that was put in when he hit 80% blockage. I said I was 55 and he said he was getting there, but he didn't look much older than his mid-40s. I really can't tell how old people are by looking at them anymore.
But I'm feeling pretty good that even though that pesky artery is a challenge to my heart, my heart has thus far not been hurt by it. I've been reading up on all of this a lot. I'm not going the Dean Ornish route because that would be ludicrously difficult for me to maintain, but I think that doing everything I did when I dropped those 22 pounds last year will work, as that dropped my cholesterol 30 points.
You can't get rid of calcified plaque, but I have a mix of soft plaque in that. The idea is that if you deprive the soft plaque of cholesterol, the plaque can shrink, according to Harvard:
Doctors target smaller, unstable plaque. "If we have a 30% blockage in the artery from soft plaque, the goal is to try to suck out the cholesterol from the inside, so the plaque shrivels down to 15% and leaves nothing inside it," says Dr. Cannon.
Gawd, I hate this picture, though:
The yellow stuff is what might be possible to shrink. I just need to get that calcium score down. My score is 51. That is in the 98th percentile of women my age, so I have a lot more calcium than they do. I will chalk that up to the surgical menopause at 42, because most 55-year-old women are not far past menopause, if they are even past it at all. Many are still going through it at that age. They haven't had the time without the protective effects of estrogen that I've had.
And yet, it's not quite the horror show being in the 98th percentile might suggest. According to the University of Maryland:
Zero: No plaque. Your risk of heart attack is low.
1 - 10: Small amount of plaque. You have less than a 10 percent chance of having heart disease, and your risk of heart attack is low.
11-100: Some plaque. You have mild heart disease and a moderate chance of heart attack. Your doctor may recommend other treatment in addition to lifestyle changes.
101 - 400: Moderate amount of plaque. You have heart disease and plaque may be blocking an artery. Your chance of having a heart attack is moderate to high. Your health professional may want more tests and may start treatment.
Over 400: Large amount of plaque. You have more than a 90 percent chance that plaque is blocking one of your arteries. Your chance of heart attack is high. Your health professional will want more tests and will start treatment.
I marvel at this, and how far medicine has come in just the last 30 years. Maybe I'll look for a job at the American College of Cardiology or something. Some of our people have gone over there. They're right in D.C., on N Street.
raps fingers on desk
Huh.
And the best way to lower calcium score is physical activity.
Anyway, the other night I had wild train of thought. At first my mind went to my potential failings in all of this. What if I had gotten hormone replacement therapy? What if I had taken a statin already? What if I had managed my stress better? What if I had gone to therapy for sleep? What if I hadn't gained 38 pounds from my pre-menopausal weight?
But then my brain went, "BUT WAIT!" See, one of the first things they tell people with coronary artery disease, after they tell people to take a statin, stop smoking, and lose weight, is to switch to a plant-based diet. What if I hadn't gone vegetarian in 2009?
What if I had been eating fried foods this whole time? What if I didn't enjoy vegan cooking and messing around concocting vegan recipes?
What if I didn't gain just 38 pounds from my pre-menopausal weight? What if I had gained 50? Or 60? And what if I couldn't get any of it back off the way I have already shown myself I can?
What if I hadn't been active? What if I hadn't fallen in love with The Firm, cardiokickboxing, hiking, and dancing? What if I hadn't found the city-hiking group? What if I didn't go for evening walks?
And my brain answered itself: You'd be dead.
And you know what? I really believe that.
I'm one lucky lady that my internist started this ball rolling when I mentioned that I wasn't sure if it was my costochondritis bugging me or "what."
But I'm also one grateful beyotch to myself that in the grand scheme of things, I may have already saved my own life by now---and that is hella empowering. I want everyone to feel that way, like they can do whatever they need to do to stay aboveground.
Now if you'll excuse me, that big purple exercise mat is calling me.
