What Does it Mean?

One thing I don't think I ever fully understood when I was sick was the fluid around my heart. I had an echo done because as my oncologist informed me, it was normal procedure. I got a panicked call from the doctor who reads the results around 10:45 p.m. at night. He had a very broken accent. I am terrible at distinguishing accents. It's a real flaw of mine so I had a very hard time understanding what he was talking about. I realized he was saying I had a lot of fluid around my heart and wanted to know if I my doctor was aware. I was not sure. I had no clue! I was then scared to death of course. During the echo that day I could totally tell my heartbeat sounded weird. Instead of thump thump thump...it sounded like squish squish squish. The hubby and I both could tell but both kept our mouths shut. We didn't admit it until later.

I called my oncologist that night and had to have him paged. It took an eternity for him to call me. It was about 2 a.m. and I really was thinking I was a ticking time bomb, ready to die at any moment. He finally called and scheduled another echo at HIS hospital this time.

I have always had little concerns because it's not unusual for me to have heart palpitations. I always have. For as long as I can remember. Sometimes I have them more frequently than others. I would definitely say caffeine intake affects it. Once I took some Nyquil and I really thought I was going to have to go to the ER. It lasted for several seconds before it felt like my heart rhythm was normal again. I never have taken Nyquil since. Now, it may be because I had the cancer at the time and didn't know it. Regardless this scared me to death.

We had the second echo and after waiting for what seemed like forever they came back and said the results were good. I did have fluid but it was related to the tumor and it should go away after I got better. Well my only problem with this is they never checked it again. I always felt like they should have but then, I don't know. It's the one thing I never really understood. Perhaps this is something I'll discuss with my doc on the 22nd!


*pre-appointment nerves!!!*