I remember the 1st incident I experienced as a teenager during a high school rehearsal for the musical Oklahoma. I sang, I recited my many lines, I danced my heart out. Aye, there is the rub. I broke away from my partner after a grand lift and head-near-the-floor spin and felt my heart beat as if running out of my chest. I sat down hoping the racing heart would calm down. (myy physician suggested that when I did have recurrences, to sit down, bend head to the knees then press hard behind both earlobes to stop the action.) It did, I ran back into the action to the rehearsal’s finish.
Recently, I have experienced numerous incidents with these symptoms and visited my esteemed Cardiologist in Temecula. He scheduled the Angiogram and Loop-recorder implant. My previous blog described (my druthers) requesting that in lieu of your sending generous foods you share favorite book and film titles. I promised a post procedure follow up and am overwhelmed at your loving and caring inquiries and messages of support. The Angiogram showed no blockages, clean as a whistle, but did show a congenital condition called a myocardial bridge. It is defined as a band of heart muscle that lies on top of a coronary artery instead of underneath it. The muscle impedes the flow of Oxygen in the blood and therefore the breathlessness and discomfort. Treatment? Perhaps back to a Beta Blocker or Calcium Channel blocker. My dream is to get back to hiking, exercising and my overly active way of life. I am grateful for the outcome, Thanks again for all of your responses!
I promised to share the titles you offered and have included some my own as well. I will continue this theme in future blogs.
The book titles;
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Lauren Belfer’s books: City of Light, and After the Fire (about authenticating a Bach cantata found after WWII and involving Jewish women of the 18th century) and A Special Radiance, about penicillin.
Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting” and “The Unbearable Lightness of being” both by novelist Milan Kundera. The Hare with the Amber Eye, Edmund, De Waal, The Orchardist, Amanda Coplin (set near Bend OR), All Girls Filling Stations Last Reunion, Fannie Flagg, The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult.
Ellis Peter Cadfael mysteries set in 10th century Britain.
Poems by Mary Oliver or Billy Collins. Wendell Berry poetry: The pearl that broke its shell, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Adrienne Rich… Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Yeats, Tennyson, Shakespeare….!
Movie titles;
Three Identical Strangers, the Shape of Water, Eye on the Sky (Helen Mirren), Goodbye Christopher Robin, Hidden Figures, Hugo
and so many more saved for another day. Send more titles any time you wish and again, thanks so much for your cherished messages.