Week 14, Day 2

The cardiology department at Roswell Park Cancer Institute rings the phone about 10 minutes before the alarm is set to go off Thursday morning. The cardiologist wants me to come early for the afternoon appointment. He wants an echocardiogram.

An echocardiogram is probably the easiest procedure I’ve undergone at Roswell Park. They just put the gel on various parts of your chest and abdomen and roll the gizmo over you. My heart at work sounds like a washing machine. The technician says everything is fine.

The cardiologist, Dr. Edward Spangenthal, says everything is not necessarily fine. He brings out print-outs of my EKGs from December and last week, points to the differences and says there definitely was a heart attack, even though I was unaware of it (someone I talk with tonight experienced the same thing – he calls it a “walking heart attack”). Not a bump in the road that I want to hit. I signed up for bladder, not heart.

At any rate, Dr. S. wants to know if there are any blocked arteries. He wants more tests, the “gold standard” being an angiogram. For that, I get my first look inside Gates Vascular Institute, the new place next door to Buffalo General Hospital, on Wednesday.