Another name…on my Odessey

Time has moved swiftly on it seems. It’s hard to believe it has been two months since my last update here. Procrastination does play a part in this, but really I have had nothing new to say until now.

My swollen leg and sore throat featured in my last entry. I became concerned that the prolonged repetition of my sore throat was a strep. infection, and it had occurred to me that the swelling of my leg could be cellulitis ( when a nasty critter gets through a tiny tear in the skin) – my daughter had this when she was barely two years old, in her foot, and had had a fever. That was the one time she needed antibiotics. So I saw my doctor and he gave my throat and leg a look, and listened to my noisy chest. Ten days on, my throat is fine, my breathing much less noisy, my leg is still swollen but no longer hot and I have the diagnosis of heart failure. I’ve had it a while it seems.

Odema is causing the swelling of my leg, and fluid builds up in my lungs  when I eat and walk. This is why I often resonate with an A sharp when I breathe after this activities. My heart can no longer pump efficiently to clear my body of fluids.

This is interesting and rather fascinating, although I don’t think about it that much. To me it is an explanation of some mysteries that were so curious. It seems I had a severe chest infection, maybe pneumonia though I never had that disappearing into the mattress feeling that I experienced when diagnosed with pneumonia some years ago. Now that my breathing is so much better and I don’t need to gasp for bbreath as often as I did, I must make sure that I let my doctor know if breathing gets noisy again. I certainly feel better for sure.

A couple of close friends have commented that heart failure seems fatal. It is, but I am heading in that direction anyhow. My heart may be failing, but I’ve grown attached to it. It has so much love, generousity, compassion and empathy to give. I will not give up my ghost easily, but I will do it peacefully. My daughter still needs me and my work here is not yet done, so there will be further blog entries after this one. I just need to tackle that procrastination thing.