Sclero-what?

I don't know why I was so nervous for this morning, but I was. I woke up at 6:15 so we could get to the hospital by 7. We got there bright and early, checked in, then waited for the nurse to come get me and take me to the cath lab. The nurse, Rhonda, came and got me and took me back where I had to get undressed and put on the hospital gown. Then I sat on the bed and waited. She asked me a few questions, then tried to get an IV hooked up. She also had to draw some blood. Holy cow. I haven't had a needle hurt me so bad. After digging for a bit she got it enough to draw some blood, but it wasn't in well enough for the IV. One of the other nurses came over and he poked my other arm, which also hurt, but he was able to get it in fairly quickly. With my skin being so tight, and my veins small, it's a little bit harder to do that kind of stuff. Dr. Saul, the doctor who would be performing the procedure came in and talked with me a little able the procedure. He was ve...

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 pulmon...