Ominous Doctor Visit

I finally broke down and called the doctor yesterday. They scheduled me for an appointment today. I went. I did not like what I heard. I told them that I am sick of not being able to move. My legs feel like weights and are swollen all the time. My rib is out of place from sitting on bleachers all day for 2 solid days and then riding for three hours on an old school bus.

After noting the excessive swelling in my legs and listening to me, the doctor ordered lab work to rule out a bunch of stuff. Other than that she said the same thing I heard last summer from another doctor: The swelling is from my heart getting old!

What do they mean by that? Am I in heart failure? Why do they word it that way? Is this just the accepted mobility for 51 years old. I think not! I move like my 87 year old mother in law! I can barely lift my legs. I cant walk down the bleachers at my daughters games and must always sit on the bottom bleacher. This is not normal. Something is wrong!

I have to take action. The first thing I did was called my cardiologist from 1996 to see if they still have my old records. They did. They are sending me the records so I can take them to a local cardiologist since the one I went to back then has retired. I am going to have another ultrasound of my heart. I am going to make sure I walk around the block every day until I can do a workout like a normal person. Right now I can only walk half a mile before my feet just kill me!

Yesterday my feet hurt so bad from Christmas shopping that I actually had to sit down in the mall and rest. I havent had to do that since the days I was pregnant! My feet and legs are swollen awful.

The doctor also wanted me to get some support stockings. So I did. The next thing she wanted was for me to lose the weight. So I will! I have to! I cannot live like this. The highest weight I have ever seen in my entire 51 years on the planet was 256 pounds and that was ten years ago, the morning I delivered my 11 pound son! This morning I weighed 249 pounds! Need I say more?