PAH & Right Heart Cath

-
So, Monday morning finally rolled around, and my rheumy called me first thing in the morning. He told me that my echo hadn't changed much from last year, but there was still a bit of high pressure in one of my arteries. Because pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is somewhat common, and a concern among scleroderma patients, he suggested that I have a right heart catheterization done. Then we could see if I need to go on medicine to reduce the high pressure, or just keep testing with echos every few months.

PAH is basically high blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, the blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the lungs.It occurs when most of the very small arteries throughout the lungs narrow, which increases the resistance to blood flow through the lungs, which results in the heart having to work harder.

For a right heart cath they put a catheter in through your femoral artery (or through your neck) to the right side of the heart and passes it into the pulmonary artery so that it can test the pressure. It's weird to me to think about. Kind of crazy where we've gotten with medical sciences these days. I'm a bit nervous for it. Hopefully they can get some answers, and hopefully it goes well. I'll post more once it's done and over. Wish me luck!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is Scleroderma?

-
Image
By now, you're probably wondering just what exactly is Scleroderma. Well, in simple terms (and in a cute typo-graphic)   So, basically, my body has decided that it doesn't like the healthy body tissues in my body, and tries to get rid of them. So much for trying to get in shape and be healthy right? In more in depth terms, this is what eMedTV says about it: Scleroderma is derived from the Greek words "sklerosis," meaning hardness, and "derma," meaning skin. Therefore, it literally means "hard skin." Although it is often referred to as a single disease, it is really a symptom of a group of diseases. This group involves the abnormal growth of connective tissue, which supports the skin and internal organs. Therefore, scleroderma is sometimes used as an umbrella term for these disorders. In some forms of scleroderma, hard, tight skin is the extent of this abnormal process. However, in other forms, the problem goes much deeper
Read more

The Beginning - Raynaud's

-
Image
In December of 2011, I noticed that if my hands got really cold, they would turn white, and go numb. It just started in my middle fingers, and progressively got worse. I just thought it was really strange, but didn’t think anything of it. I'd just wear gloves and try to keep them warm. In January of 2012, they started turning a purpleish/blackish color when they got too cold, and they were really hard to warm up again. It kind of freaked me out, and one day at work I showed my co-workers. They kind of freaked out, so that kind of freaked me out. I ended up going to Instacare, where I learned that it was really expensive to go there. I kind of teared up when she told me how much it cost, and I guess she though I was crying because of my fingers. Needless to say those few tears got me in a bit quicker. The nurse came in and did all the basics, and then I waited for a bit longer. Of course by the time the doctor got in there, I had warmed up a bit so they weren't as black as the
Read more

So Much Kindness

-
Image
Looking back over the past few months can be a bit overwhelming when I consider all the random acts of kindness that I have received. I mean, really over the last two years it's been quite amazing to me, but for some reason the past two months it seemed like one thing right after another. When we have trials we often feel abandoned and alone, and have a hard time really seeing our Heavenly Father's hand in our daily lives. We become so consumed by what heartaches and pains we are experiencing that we don't pay attention to the little blessings in our lives. When I got shingles, I had a really hard time with it. I mean, I was cruising along, feeling 'great'. I even had told Greg not to long before that I hadn't felt that good in a long time. So when this came along, took me out of my daily routine, and just shook everything up, I was a bit hurt. I couldn't help but think, "Why now? I haven't been feeling overly stressed, everything is good, so wh
Read more