Wednesday, September 29, 2004

In the hands of the underknowing

OK, I am dying .... Gasp

Having applied for disability, they required me to get a report from my DR. It came in the mail today. As I read it over, in my non professional underknowing position, it seems I am falling apart.

There is the arthritis in my back. There is the edema in my legs. There is the hypothyroidism. The thyroid thing was the scariest. The normal reading is 0.35 to 5.5. Mine was 216.15. Over 200 is comatose. I was working 7 days a week, twelve hours a day, when we discovered this 3 years ago.
My heart is slightly larger in some places and leaking in others. My aortic root is enlarged and my interventricular septum is a little extra thick. Oh yeah, my mitral valve is leaking. That is called a heart murmur. There is danger there with infections. The blood pools behind the valve like water does in a stream behind a stick that juts into the water. If an infection gets into my bloodstream, it can pool behind the valve in my heart and kill me.
Then there is the sleep apnea and premature waking. My Cholesterol was high, but is better now. My triglycerides are high and not coming down. There were numbers that fell in the normal range and therefore inconsequential. There was this one reference to the fact that Doc B. couldn't get my leg to twitch when she banged on my knee with her little red hammer. You know, at work, we say, if it doesn't work, that we need a bigger hammer.

All I can say is that it is darn good that I am not a hypochondriac. Cough cough.

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