6/25/24: Cardiology Appointment

Today I had a 1-year follow-up appointment with my cardiologist.

The first thing they did was do an EKG. Without being specific, my cardiologist said the results were "weird in the same way as last year." In last year's appointment notes, she called it "inferior and anterolateral ST depressions". In this year's appointment notes, she mentioned only "NS diffuse STT changes", which I looked up and appears to refer to "non-specific" changes in the "ST-T wave" that are "seen in all or most of the leads". 

I have no idea how to read an EKG printout, but in the past I still liked to keep them for my records. Now my hospital has moved to a new online system, which doesn't give me access to EKG results! Too bad. 

The cardiologist asked me a bunch of questions to see if I have any symptoms of heart trouble. Do I get winded going up a flight of stairs? Do I get tired while grocery shopping? Do I ever get dizzy? I don't seem to have any symptoms, so she'll just continue to recommend EKGs every 6-12 months while I'm on hormone therapy. I don't think it's clear whether these EKG abnormalities are related to hormone therapy or covid, so I guess there's not much to do but monitor it.

I asked her about magnesium supplements. I had previously asked my medical oncology NP about taking magnesium for anxiety, and she was supportive of the idea, though my PCP was not keen on it. My cardiologist said she's not concerned about heart issues as long as I took a "typical" dose, but then went on to say things similar to what my PCP said, like instead of supplements, she favors getting more magnesium naturally via diet, and trying to manage anxiety via lifestyle changes.

Anyway. We talked a lot about my blood pressure, which is just borderline high. She said the goal is for my blood pressure to be below 130/80. My top number is very consistently below 130, but my bottom number hovers around 80. I like that she talked about wanting to lower my chances of needing medication some day, which means I really need to make more of an effort to consistently exercise / walk for 150 minutes a week. We also talked about minimizing sodium intake, eating more vegetables, and staying hydrated.

Finally, she ordered an echocardiogram, which I scheduled for August, to make sure my ejection fraction is stable in the normal range. She said as long as it's in normal range, even if it's low, we'll just monitor it via echocardiograms "periodically," which I assume means some frequency less often than yearly.