Tea at the Ritz - Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection - Lipoprotein a

(See that little pale spot in the top artery...that's the "Squeeze - or Pinch")

Kind of a crazy long complicated name. The easiest way to explain it is to say an artery is like a straw being "pinched" and it's even harder to get your milkshake through the straw than it was before...This is my problem. The "lipoprotein a" is a marker for heart disease, and it may cause those arteries to collapse, pinch, squeeze or whatever they do.

Here's the scoop: I had chest pain last Tuesday and after a couple of minutes I got it stopped with Nitroglycerin and a chewed up aspirin....appetizing, I know....reminds me of tea at the Ritz.


This landed me at the doc's office on Wednesday and a Nuclear Stress Test on Friday. Just call me Cher (didn't she do a movie that had radiation type stuff in it? or was that Erin Brockovich? - tall and thin....it's all the same).

I think it all went really well and I couldn't feel better.

Oddly enough, my older brother (he's the oldest of our 5 siblings and I'm the youngest - 15 years older) is doing the same thing, with the same doctor, this same week....can you say GENETIC? I love (lol) this article....the first line is: "Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a rare and generally fatal disease." So encouraging right off the bat...it's actually a very good article and the patient they followed is almost my same story, Life Flight (part 3).

Here's the funny part of all of this...My boyfriend in college is now a CARDIOLOGIST of all things ...in Atlanta. He's the one that made the original diagnosis (no, I didn't go see him) and my doc confirmed it as correct.
(Heavy sigh)...old boyfriends are the reason I don't do Facebook! In all seriousness, it was nice for My Hero and I to talk to someone who could put it all into everyday language.

God has a huge wonderful plan for me and so far it's been scary and wonderful at the same time. A gift and a growing experience. Not always secure with what tomorrow brings but peaceful nonetheless. It's just nice to know where I'm going when the time comes. :)