All Pozzie Baby

Annie is looking around the doctor's exam room, "Is there a clock in here?"  "Ah, no." Dr. Kim response with a laugh,"That's your heart!" Patient shrugs shoulders and sighs out loud. 

And that was the extent of negativity at my six week follow up visit yesterday. It was all pozzie, baby! (Pozzie is Libby's newest word; slang for positive. This is the same woman who also gave you poopalacha; slang for negative. But I digress.)

The headline is that I won't be going back till next year. ONE YEAR. As in scram kid, don't wanna hear from ya. Fine, fine, fine with me. Some of my favorite quotes/moments from the appointment:

"Isn't that beautiful?" Surgeon reference to my EKG. 

"You look so great." 

"Oh, that's so nice. I showered today. And brushed my hair."

But by the 5th to 10th mention of "you look so great," I just am beaming proudly at their gushing. 

"You'll be graduating to the normal echo lab now. You are no longer a congenital patient."

Meaning the defect I was born with, is now gone baby gone.

"Its so quiet in there now. Wow." Cardiologist reference to my heart beat through a stethoscope. "It used to be SO loud. All the blood through that tiny hole." 

My own experience in the echo lab shook me. I was laying quietly on my side and the stereo speakers of the ultrasound machine blasted my heartbeat against the walls. My new heartbeat. Listening to it the first time. Made me wanna cry. No. Don't cry. Getting teary eyed all over again now. It's just so beautiful. It's no longer LUB DUB SWISH. LUB DUB SWISH. (Swish was the regurgitation of blood flowing backwards through the valve b/c the flaps didn't close properly aka leaky valve.) It's simply, LUB DUB. LUB DUB. LUB DUB. It's so clean. It's so quiet. It was one of the best moments of my life. 

I waited till I was in the elevator, finally on the bottom floor of the parking lot, by myself and just cried. The tears were quiet too. There have been surprising very little tears on the whole journey since we boarded this train. There were plenty of fearful tears on the platform, back in Feb/March but come September, this was joy.  

Obviously the whole experience made an impression. And to top it off? The echo tech Karen I just met reminded me of my Mom. She shows herself in the most unusual and unexpected places and spaces. Petite 100lb 5' 3" short gray pixie cut with glasses. Had leukemia and successful bone marrow transplant six years ago. Alas Karen was merely missing yelping in Polish, shaking her finger in my face and massive gap in-between the middle teeth. 

Perelman Center for Advance Medicine

This monstrosity of glass, of offices of advanced medicine, that I take pride my dollars must have helped fund, will not see me till these leaves fall and regrow and turn color again. That hospital across the street that has seen me four times in seven years, may never see me again. I bid farewell to my surgeon, "Don't take offence, but I hope we don't meet ever again. But thanks for the jewelry." I bid goodbye to my cardiologist, "Don't take this the wrong way, but see ya next year." To Diamond Dave, nurse practitioner par excellence, liaison of all things medical, tightrope walker of doctor egos and deft, witty deliveries, "I only hope to bump into you at Trader Joe's again."

There are things over the coming months & years to keep an eye on. My heart has had been masking this the defect by tweaking its architecture and flow over the last decades. Blood pressure is elevated again and we'll just redirect w/ new meds. The enlarged aorta mention to my husband and dad right after the surgery is not large.  Normal progression of extra pressure. Its within normal limits of size and not expect to maintain growing abnormally. "I would have fixed it while I was in there (if it needed it; but it didn't. Chillax)." The thickening of the ventricle walls is expected to subside in time - renormalize - but that will take a year or two. 

Done and done. But this blog is not. Stay tuned for more gory details!