Sunday, October 11, 2009

Cardiologist Appointment



The Hotel Julia in Rome, where Dan and I stayed 25 years ago. At the top of the street is the Barberini Palace and the Spanish Steps are not far away.

I saw my new cardiologist, Dr. Keane, on Friday. Two good pieces of information were the results of the stress test that I did in the Spring were negative for coronary artery disease, and that my aorta is normal from above the dilated area through the arch and the entire descending aorta. That's really good news because some of us with BAV have problems with aneurysms in other locations like the descending aorta. My blood pressure is edging higher, a cause for concern. If I can manage to shed a few pounds that might help. The most important decision that we made at this appointment was to evaluate my next echo scheduled for November before proceeding with another CT scan. I proposed that if the numbers are stable then I'd like to put off the CT scan because of radiation exposure. Dr. Keane agreed. So next month I'll get the yearly echo, compare it with last year's echo, and we'll go from there.