Hi all,
Man, this is a never ending rollercoaster ride regarding this heart stuff. She said they finally got the event monitor results from the U of MN hospital and concur that the couple of longer runs were indeed v-tach. But she said they were somewhat 'irregular' and that everyone agrees they are very benign. My cholesterol levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol were elevated, and on the print out I got it said mine should be below 70 (my number was 144 for LDL!) but on the phone she said, no, if I can get it under 130 I should be fine. Whew, how the heck was I going to cut that number in half w/just diet and exercise. She also said that they look at particle size, and that the majority of my LDL particles were large, which is good because the large ones are less sticky and less likely to adhere to the walls of your arteries, etc. Man, I didn't know they looked that closely at the particles, etc. So she seemed not as concerned about the readings, and didn't think I'd need medication or was in any danger with these numbers, but wants me to change diet and up the exercise.
I also asked about the goofy echo results compared to the normal MRI results and she said that my sternum is deformed from the sternectomy, and that my heart sits differently in my chest as a result of the heart surgery, so they were not able to get good pictures due to this, but none of this affects my heart function in any way and everything looks good.
So, all in all, more good news today. I've really been worried about my cholesterol numbers, so I feel somewhat better. She said diet and exercise were not going to bring the numbers down below 100 (which is optimal). She thought this was largely due to genetics. I asked her if the fact that I didn't get a full 12 hour fast prior to the blood draw affected my numbers and she said maybe slightly, but probably not much for the LDL because those numbers take a long time to get high. If anything, it would have affected my triglycerides and those numbers looked good.