This Little Heart of Mine

Last week, I had an echocardiogram. This is a type of ultrasound scan used to look at the heart and surrounding blood vessels. As I lay on the hospital bed, the cardiac sonographer (the person who does the heart echo) ran a gel-covered wand over the left side of my chest. And like magic, a black and white image of my heart appeared on her computer screen. 

I stared at my heart, visible to me for the first time. Valves opened and closed to the steady rhythm of my heartbeat. The sonographer turned a knob and pixelated patches of blue and red appeared on the screen, bright against the gray background. These pulses of red and blue showed my blood flowing in and out of my heart. She turned on the sound, and I heard the steady swishing of my blood being pumped in and out of the four heart valves. Maybe I was only hearing one valve at work, but still, it was pretty cool. A green shark fin line tracked my pulse, just like in the movies. For the cardiac sonographer, it was just another day at work. For me, it was a miracle.

I don’t often think about my heart. It’s just this part of me that reliably does its thing in the background 24-7, every day of my life. Yet as I waited for the results of my echocardiogram and the EKG test that followed, I gave my heart a lot of attention: you’re so steady! So reliable! I take you for granted dear heart. But I am so grateful for you. I also thought about what had landed me here in the first place.

It started with a strange incident back in July, the day after the Schagen county fair had ended. Because the fair was only 300 meters from our front door, was incredibly loud, and ran until one o’clock in the morning every freaking night, I hadn’t slept much for the last ten days. That Monday after the fair, I took the dog out for her regular afternoon walk. I had been walking for about fifteen minutes when my right ankle rolled slightly, and I fell gently asleep. When I woke up moments later, I was lying on the side of the walking path with no recollection of falling. My dog was sniffing in the grass nearby, completely unconcerned with my sudden choice to take a nap. A woman came over to me and asked if I was all right. I was a bit dazed and confused, and although it was pretty darned obvious that I had fallen, I wasn’t sure how I had ended up as I did. So, I said the first thing that came to mind: “I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” 

“Okay,” she responded. She looked a bit concerned, but she took my word for it. She hopped on her bike and cycled away. 

I started to push myself up, and that’s when I noticed the pain in my knee and shoulder. My knee must have hit the pavement. I rolled up my pant leg and indeed, my knee was scuffed and red, but not bleeding. I also seemed to be positioned in a way that suggested I’d flipped over. I pushed myself up and decided to cut the walk short. As I headed back home, I chalked up the incident as the result of exhaustion. But when I told a friend about my fall an hour or so later, she said, “You didn’t fall asleep. You fainted.”

Darn. She was right. When I ran it by my medical friend, she guaranteed me that while there are people who sleepwalk, no one just falls asleep while walking. Her advice? Go see a doctor. I got an appointment a few days later, and after a thorough examination, my doctor said I seemed to be fine. But for clarity, she wanted to refer me to a cardiologist. That sobered me up. Was there something wrong with my heart?

And there I was, six weeks later, waiting to discuss the results of my tests with a cardiologist. The more I focused on my heart, the more stressed out I felt. I mean, these results could go either way. I opened up my Duolingo App and continued my journey into the French language. I was no longer thinking about my heart, but how I wished I’d studied the vocabulary about food BEFORE our trip to France.

“Mrs. Anderson?”

A woman in a white coat stood in the hall, waiting expectantly. That would be the cardiologist. I followed her into her office, and we went over the results. My heart was in good shape. Everything looked normal. Thank goodness! She asked me to recount my story of when I passed out. I told her something similar to what I just shared here with you, and her brow wrinkled in concern.

“Everything looks fine, but I’d like to do one more test just to be sure.”

Sometime in September, I will go in to have a bunch of electrodes attached to my chest which will be connected to a little box. A quick Safari search (trying not to support the Google monopoly), suggests this apparatus is called a Holter heart monitor. The box will monitor my heart overnight and provide the doctor with a better picture of how my heart functions. It felt good to have someone so interested in the health of my heart.

If you are someone like me who has lived without any (known) heart issues for most of your life, you probably haven’t given much attention to your heart. That’s fine. But it wouldn’t hurt for all of us to think about that little miracle beating in our chest and do everything we can to honor it. 

Here’s a list of five things you can do for your heart:

• Eat heart-healthy foods.
• Get off your duff and exercise.
• Quit or cut back on all those exciting things that remind you of your rebellious youth. (alcohol, cigarettes, recreational drugs, and other stupid, unhealthy habits)
• Don’t let Netflix automatically play another episode at 11:00pm (e.g., go to bed on time and get some quality sleep).
• Chill. Stop stressing about things.
  

Here are four articles about heart health to back up my casual list: 

• Keep Your Heart Healthy U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• 21 Foods That Can Save your Heart  WebMD
• 3 Kinds of Exercise That Boost Heart Health  Johns Hopkins Medicine
• How to Get Healthy Sleep Fact Sheet  American Heart Association
• 5 ways to de-stress and help your heart Harvard Health Publishing

Speaking of our hearts, each story we write has a heart beating in the background. The health of our story heart is essential to our story’s success. I could go on, but I’ll save that for another post!

Signing off,

Kristin Anderson (author, copyeditor, and proofreader)