Good News..

Last Wednesday I went for my yearly routine visit with the Cardiologist Dr Whitehead up at the U of U. In a weird way I look forward to these visits just so I can keep an eye on my health and also to make sure everything is going well with the ol' heart of mine. This year all is well and nothing has really changed and he said to keep doing what I'm doing. It was so good to hear good news and that my heart is doing well. He wanted to get some baseline testing done so that in the future he can see if my heart is changing and worsening or staying the same. I had to do a stress test where I ride a bike similar looking to this one,

 while having a huge mouth piece and having my nose plugged. They have you ride at 60 RPM's for 30 seconds and then they start increasing the resistance every so often. Now with a normal heart and lungs this should be hard but not extremely hard to do but if you have a heart/lungs like mine its a challenge. But according to the tech helping me he said I did very well and they got the info they needed to have a good baseline. I felt a little light headed after the test and my legs felt like Jello. Other than that I did great! 

Dr Whitehead also wanted me to wear a Holter  monitor for 24 hrs to make sure my heart is beating well and 

I'm not having any heart palpitations {I get them here and there} and also to get a baseline reading. The machine looked like this although the battery pack was much smaller, but you get the idea. You have to leave it on for 24hrs and you can't shower and you can't unplug it so basically you have to be careful to not interrupt the testing. I have not received the results yet since I just turned it in Monday but I don't expect any bad results to come of it.

When the 24hrs was up It was so nice to take it off, It made me realize how lucky I am to not have to be strapped to machines all day and trust me there have been times when I have been so I know what it's like. So many things could go wrong and I am grateful that they haven't and for the most part I have been able to live my life how I want. Now are there things I wished I could change medically? Of course but I am blessed that I am living a happy as normal as possible life. Everyone has a different normal and right now mine is as normal as can be when you have a congenital heart defect. I just live everyday as happy as possible thanks in large part to my amazing doctors past, present and future! I will love them forever!