Skip to main content

Seeking answers

A few things I've learned in the last couple days:
1. It is great to have a brother who's a doctor, and who can offer some perspective on test results, even though the test in question is not from his specialty. Thanks, Matt Hanson! Matt is a head and neck surgeon, and a diagnostician with an unparalleled trained intuition. He knows how to read medical information about a test in which I got a result that was, on its face, alarming. But he told me that, while this test is usually reliable in ruling out conditions, an abnormal result doesn't necessarily mean the condition exists. A lot of medical tests are non-specific in that way.
2. There may be a fairly simple solution to what's going on with my heart. Or maybe not. I don't know yet. I've got some tests scheduled for early October, but I'm on a waiting list to see a cardiologist -- who would want results from those tests, anyway, before I see him or her.
3. AFib is a fairly complicated diagnosis that can manifest itself, and be dealt with, in a number of different ways. In many ways, I was lucky mine showed itself in the way it did; at least one of my friends found out he had AFib by having a debilitating stroke.
4. Dan Quayle had AFib. Wow, I guess I have something in common with him after all.
5. My weight loss might be one cause of my condition, or at least a contributing factor. So might heredity.
6. In any case, as Jay Donald Jerde observed, it's probably better that this didn't happen while I weighed 130 more pounds than I weigh now -- because I'm probably better equipped to deal with it now.
7. Once again, medical professionals, and the non-medical-trained bureaucrats who run this country's health care system: Yes, obesity is a health risk factor. But no, losing weight does not solve all health problems. Weight loss may in fact create new problems, even if the body size reduction happens in a healthful way, as it did for me.
8. Although I'm hyper-conscious of my heart's sounds and rhythms, I'm actually feeling OK. I got through a fairly strenuous work day on Saturday, and I plan to get through another on Sunday.

This is my brother, Dr. Matt Hanson:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's way more complicated than that: Why I'm reviving this blog today

Hi again. It's been a while. Those who know me, including the approximately three of you that read "My Body, My Identity," know that I've got different concerns these days -- concerns that are related only tangentially to body weight, body identity, fitness and lifestyle. I have cancer -- diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, diagnosed March 8. My focus now is on killing those malignant cells before they eat me alive, and with a chemotherapy regimen, administered at the UW's Carbone Cancer Center, the chances of that happening are very, very good. With two of my six chemo treatments completed (I get treated every three weeks), I have good days and bad days -- mostly good, but I'm sitting out a bad day today. With cancer and chemo, my weight has become less of a priority. But concern has not entirely abated about maintaining the 135-pound weight loss I worked so hard to attain over the last two years. The diet that my oncologist recommended is pretty close to wh...
Post a Comment
Read more

On loan

One year ago, I wrote this Facebook post.  Today, a twinge in my "operative" knee reminds me it's still true. How's my knee? It's actually behaving itself. I've had a long string of "good knee days" -- but folks, I don't take them for granted! Everything about our bodies -- our mobility, our senses, our strength, our minds, even our very lives -- are on loan to us. We are called to treat them with the best stewardship possible. But even if we do so, none of these things are ours to keep. Yeah, I get a little PO'd about that, but I work through it. God graciously listens to my rants.
Post a Comment
Read more

My story: Why I'm reflecting on my body and my soul

I'm a Luddite at heart. Although I've been a newspaper journalist and columnist all my adult life (plus a good-sized chunk of my adolescence),  I'm inaugurating a blog to explore what happens to the soul of a 60-year-old woman when her body size undergoes a major change. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that about 160 million U.S. people -- about three-quarters of the men and a little less than one-third of the women -- are overweight or obese. I was one of the overweight, and by some measures I still am and always will be. The health risks associated with excess weight are very real and numerous. Heart disease and diabetes come to mind first, but in my case, the extra weight I've carried for most of my adult life (plus a good-sized chunk of my adolescence) resulted in osteoarthritis -- the wearing-away of the cartilage in my left knee, resulting in significant pain and impairment of my mobility. About one of two adults will have osteoarthriti...
1 comment
Read more