Hello, on a beautifully sunny Saturday, Dearies! My JB is over on campus doing his "Welcome to Notre Dame thing"...ushering the football game, and I'm freshly showered and in clean clothes contemplating a big long list of things that I'm just going to ignore today.
I sincerely thank you for your lovely outpouring of Spinster love for my test. The truth? The worst part of it was going 24 hours without any damn good, and then the claustrophobic dread that had me in a flop sweat panic attack for a month and a half.
The test itself takes just about thirty seconds. You close your eyes, put your hands over your head, and zip in and out of a CT machine before you have time to wonder if you remembered to shave your legs that morning, or if you had officially entered Winter Legs mode instead. The techs were brilliantly kind, and took pity on me with reassuring pats when I burst into the ugly cry because I was just so damned terrified.
Silly, silly Spinster.
But...
It would appear that I am, indeed, my father's daughter, because exactly like every single other member of the Rich clan I have inherited the "Rich heart". Full of love, and usually reliable, but the absolute poster child for all things coronary-related that are going to involve having a cardiologist as a new member of your family.
The test that I had was called a Cardiac CT/agatston scoring test. Apparently, this test measures the amount and density of the calcium (and presumably other gunk) in your arteries. Normal/optimal levels would be a score of 0-400. For a woman almost 60, the ideal is anything within that range.
My number was 2648.1
If you're a frequent flyer here at Batshit Crazy Spinster Airlines, you know that we live in a world of talking dogs, hyperbole and exaggeration, and enough Starbucks cold brew to float a battleship. (See what I did there with the exaggeration?)
But that score of 2648.1 is real. And it's on a piece of paper that was sent from a radiologist to another radiologist to a head of radiology and then on to my family physician, who said..."Double your statin and start taking a baby aspirin immediately and we're going to get you scheduled for a treadmill stress test".
According to Dr Google, I am just one big fat (yet impossibly cheery and well-meaning) heart attack waiting to happen, and if there are four major roads leading to Heartsville, three of mine are closed. There were a whole lot of other statistics in Dr Google's office, and I was viewing them with horror and big fat blubbery tears until JB told me to put the damn thing down and stop going to the worst case scenerio.
(This from a guy who's had two heart attacks, eats Big Macs three days a week, and just got a "for a 70-year old big guy (*) you're in pretty good shape" from HIS cardiologist.)
(Meanwhile...Yours Truly over here lives like a nun on an organic kale farm and gains forty pounds when she Door Dashes the TastyKakes that her Lovey has to have in his cookie jar for his after-dinner treat or he pouts worse than Stewey being told to take off his wiglet.)
But I regress...
Today I am trying not to think about any of this, and am staying positive and healthy by doing things that bring me peace, comfort, and joy. The shower was a good start, and I've just finished my breakfast/lunch of cottage cheese with melon and berries, and now I'm going to settle in for the Notre Dame vs Boise State game with some stitching and a nice cold brew.
Thank you for listening, Dearies. I apologize if all of this is just TMI, but I honestly feel so much better now that I've shared it with you and have put it in a better perspective. I'm going to continue to do my thing and will try to be more mindful of making good choices in terms of all things health, and will remember that there are a TON of things going right inside this pudgepot exterior...Belly Bean is doing his thing with numbers better than ever, and Mr Liver looks like his little department is improving, too.
(*) Rich will turn 70 on the 19th of this month.
Oh gosh Connie, so sorry to hear that heart problems have been added to your list! Thankfully it sounds like you have wonderful doctors who take very good care of you. Try to enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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