Last Wednesday I had my 6 mo Cardiologist checkup. It has been 18 months since my Aortic Valve replacement surgery. I was dreading this visit for my weight was up and I knew he was going to comment on it. I also wanted to have a conversation with him regarding reducing the dosage of the beta blocker I was on, for I felt it was limiting my hearts ability to respond to strenuous workouts, mainly treadmill work. I knew this was a sensitive topic for him.
I was pleased my blood test results showed that my triglycerides was down significantly. This, I think, is due to my not drinking for the past month. I was wanting a ‘atta-boy’ and got a ‘of course, drinking messes with test results and the calories are bad.’
As expected, the visit was disappointing. My blood pressure was up, he didn’t like that. He did comment that I needed to loose weight. He basically scolded me for not working out more, “what’s keeping for exercising?” I didn’t have a good answer other than winter, which was a lousy reason.
When I tried to talk to him about reducing my beta blocker dosage he scoffed at thought that the beta blocker was limiting my workout ability telling me that I didn’t need to work out that hard. After all, I was 74 years old. He told me to forget about training hard, eat less and exercise more in moderation.
He also thought I may be depressed and that I needed to fix that. Why am I trying to work out so hard? I should accept that I’m 74 and can’t do things a 20 year can do.
He did say my valve sounded good and to call him if I had any chest pain.
He is a typical guy, doesn’t listen well.
I left depressed.