Saturday, August 21, 2010

Another Diagnosis


FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2010 4:11 PM, MST
We have friends and then we have TRUE friends. One such true friend of mine is Julie. Actually, we're twins because we share the same birthday but I remind her that she'll always be one year older than me. No running from the truth. We've been through thick (have we ever) and thin during our nearly 20-year friendship. Julie and her husband, Tom are relocating to Denver and their going-away party is tonight. It's not as sad as it sounds (or so I keep reminding myself) because their two children are ASU students and they have ties here that will bring them back.....often, I hope. Nevertheless, I will miss having them close-by (they're only about a mile from me), and wanted to publicly acknowledge and thank Julie for her never-ending support, love, and true friendship.

Results from this week's blood test came back and my iron and hemoglobin levels have returned to normal range so I can stop taking my iron pills but the results further indicated that I now have hypothyroidism. I'm not sure which is worse! So, I'm starting a new medication for that. As you can imagine, I have many questions most importantly if it's somehow linked to my heart disease and is this chronic or temporary? Dr. Heuser's office will be closely monitoring my thyroid levels, and in the meantime, I will visit Wednesday with my cardiothoracic surgeon to review the CD of my most recent catherization procedure to verify that the bypass artery is working efficiently.

Although I have learned so much from my medical condition, the lesson that seems most relevant in this case is the importance of going with the flow and living for today. I guess I used to be a hard-core type A personality, but for the most part, I'm working on regularly reminding myself that if it's not life-threatening I just have to let it roll off my back . It doesn't do me any good to agonize over the past or get anxious about the future because I can't do anything about either. So, I really focus on what I can do about the here and now. As Julie says, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  

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