2023 started like any year. Full of anticipation and the excitement of looking forward to what a new year
had in store. Along with our usual lofty expectations of a crazy amazing year we evaluate our health and
the necessary checkups to schedule in the pursuing months.
We line out our typical annual appointments like eye exams, mammograms, and prostate probes.
Ticking them off our list one by one, we realize my husband is due for his 10-year colonoscopy. Of
course, he wants nothing to do with it, but I bug him (some might say nag) about it, and he finally
schedules the dreaded event.
He is mentally preparing himself for the March inevitable procedure but first things first. The doctor
wants him to have an EKG due to his past heart attack and a condition he will forever need to monitor.
After the stress test the technician ask how he feels. He responds that his chest is a little tight and
explains this seems to be normal after he works out with his trainer. This is normal right? He is on a
strict diet and workout regimen so like anyone, he believes this is not unusual.
However, the tech was having none of this, and ordered a Nuclear Cardiac Stress test. Thank God for his
diligence because the testing discovered a blockage that the cardiologist had missed over the last
several years. To say we were shocked by this indication is a huge understatement. Once the blockage
was found a procedure was immediately ordered.
The procedure discovered that my husband had 99% blockage in the “widow-maker”. The cardiologist
was surprised and admittedly was baffled how this had been missed. Obviously, this is a “you have got
to be kidding” moment because he had been sedulous in his painstaking efforts to stay on top of his
health, diet, and annual follow-ups.
The next few months changed our course of action and is another story.
We are so thankful for the Gastroenterologist’s protectionary persistence in requiring the original EKG
and the tech that insisted on further testing which saved a life that day.
Ultimately, the decision to maintain our annual medical checkups created a proactive situation that
helped us identify and stop a deadly outcome. You notice I don’t say “potential deadly outcome”. The
reason is because it was not an “if” it will happen but “when” it would have happened circumstance.
Not ignoring the importance of a colonoscopy ended up detecting a completely different medical issue
saving a life, preventing me from becoming a widow and kept our family and friends from losing an
amazing man.