A big heart

All is well, but I'm back home after a night in a hospital followed by an angioscopy procedure this morning. The diagnosis is that I have a somewhat larger than normal heart, which consequently works somewhat less than optimally, but no coronary heart disease. 

When we first got here Clay got us set up with a primary care physician. After taking my family history he recommended a consultation with a cardiologist. Fine, sensible, a good idea. Clay found one who speaks English and a few months ago I had an appointment. He did an exam and EKG in the office and then scheduled me with a colleague for a stress test. The results of that were close to marginal so they then scheduled this angioscopy. We had a pre-test consult with an anesthesiologist last week but then I think something got lost in translation. We went to the hospital for what we thought was pre-test consult Monday afternoon but ended up being checked into the hospital for an early morning procedure scheduled for the next day. 

That was unexpected but fine. Clay went back home to get me a plug and cord to keep my phone charged so I could entertain myself. It was a private hospital, all private rooms, no real air conditioning to speak of but it wasn't too bad in there and there was a fan at least. The food was as bland and boring as hospital food in the U.S. I actually got more sleep than I thought I would. Clay had to give Bailey her evening walk on Monday and morning walk on Tuesday. Clay's brother Hugh is visiting so it wasn't ideal timing for that but we did do some things with him earlier in the day on Monday and got some other things scheduled for him to do by himself on Tuesday.

The cardiologist I was seeing speaks excellent English, but my interaction with him was minimal compared to the rest of the staff. Among the nurses they managed pretty well to get across what was happening and what I needed to do. Checking into the hospital was probably the most difficult, but Clay was there for that. 

The procedure itself was quick and painless from my point of view. I was sufficiently sedated. I felt very good about the quality of care received. The cardiologist did prescribe me a new medication and strongly advised 3-4 hours of "sports" per week. (I'm going to take up biking.) The bottom line, as I understand it, is that I had no blockage, nothing that required surgery or even a stent. I'm calling it a win. The cardiologist is going to schedule an MRI to rule out another possible problem so I definitely feel like I'm getting good care. Access to good health care is one of the reasons we chose Lille and I think this experience shows that it was a good choice. 

When we checked out of the hospital we paid the bill. The clinical bill for the doctor and procedure itself will be sent to us separately, but we paid for two days of the hospitalization alone, which came to 180€. Not worrying about going bankrupt for medical care is a very big benefit. 

Pictures are from my Monday morning walk with Bailey.