Ireland, Days 5 and 6

We had a leisurely, free breakfast of cereal and toast (it was actually nice to skip the large, heavy breakfasts we'd been having every day) and perusing the web on our iPads at the Ballinskellig Hostel. Our host, Frida, was missing and hadn't verified our boat trip for the day. I went ahead and called Joe and we had a beautiful morning and a green light for our trip to Skellig Michael! We finally located Frida to pay for our room and bid her adieu, she had been a wonderful hostess.

The mere minutes of the Ring of Kerry that we did actually get to see with beautiful blue sky and puffy clouds was breathtaking. Now I understand the attraction of buses of tourists to this road. It was a good thing the weather was so bad, we would have taken twice as long to get to our destination, having to stop at every pull out on the road!

We ran into our second cow jam in the short drive into Portmagee. Somehow I hadn't pictured the ocean and shoreline to be part of the Ireland scenery but, being an island, well, of course!

Off into the distance we spotted a small ruin, McCarthy Castle. We stopped for a quick grab with our cameras and had to get back on the road - we had an appointment to see a man with a boat! Sarah now knew we were going on a boat but to see what was still a mystery. She wanted it to remain a mystery just in case it got canceled.

We found our spots on the deck of the small boat along with 7 others and, after a short wait for someone, we were off to the island 8 miles out into the Atlantic. Along the way we were being passed by low-flying gannets and off in the distance dolphins were spotted. It was about a 45 minute ride and everyone tolerated the pitching and rolling well. We had a special needs girl on the boat who was videoing a conversation she was having with her 2 green, stuffed companions. She and her parents were visiting from Utah.

The weather could not have been more perfect for what we were about to do. I had already determined that I wasn't gonna attempt to climb the 600+ steps to the ancient monastery at the top of one of the peaks. Instead I was hoping that the puffins that breed there would be visible and I would spend my time collecting shots of the worried-looking or clownish, colorfully-beaked birds. That still meant some climbing and on some of the type of steps I'd seen that I was hoping to avoid... on the side of a hill with a sheer drop on one side.  Here's a shot of my first puffin sighting. He was making noises from under this rock and when I looked to see what was making it I saw this fellow!

I think our timing regarding the puffins was probably just about perfect, the chicks had hatched 2 weeks prior and the parent puffins were busy flying up and down constantly so I ended up with about 100 shots! After dumping the ones where the bird had flown away just as I was clicking the shutter or my focus didn't lock on him while he was flying away, I still have about 50 pretty nice captures! So I sat for about the 2 hours and Rick and Sarah did the hike to the top. I could easily have sat for 2 more hours.

On our way back to the mainland we got close to the other Skellig island, Little Skellig. From a distance it's covered with white and I was assuming it was the same white flowers that were covering the larger island - instead it was the actual birds! (and their droppings, of course) It's the 2nd largest gannet colony in Europe. There were also the penguin-looking awks but no puffins since there was no soil which they need to burrow into to make their nests. A mother seal and her baby were lounging just above the water's edge on a rocky shelf.

Back in town we spotted a soup and bread lunch for €4 at The Bridge Bar. It sure hit the spot! While the skies were beautiful it did manage to sprinkle on us most of our time on the ocean, heavier on the boat ride back. It was called vegetable soup but was more of a puree-type soup that was just what we needed and served with the ever-present brown bread that's served with every meal.

Sarah visited a gift shop or 2, then we were off for our next destination, Ballycarberry Castle. Sarah had found out about this one from a blog. It was one of the better ruins we got to visit, except for the little biting flies. There was a dude giving a tour to a couple women and I overheard some explanations, one being "the murder hole" that was common, there was one in the Blarney Castle but I neglected to read what it meant. It was above the entrance to the castle and if enemies tried to enter the occupants would pour boiling oil or anything that would cause bodily harm on the intruders via this hole. Ouch!

We hit the road for Dingle and the rain got harder and harder. Bummer once again! There were things we wanted to see and do on that peninsula, but not in that weather! So we made it to town and wandered a bit. Sarah was wanting to visit the famous Murphy's Pub so we found it and ate our dinner there. I once read that the town of Dingle had one pub for every 36 town inhabitants! It was a very colorful village and very worth the drive, but in better weather! She had also found a Murphy's ice cream shop and had a cone - one scoop of Dingle Sea Salt and one scoop of Brown Bread.

On the way out we, once again, had driving rain and fog on the hills. So much for viewing the Rings of Kerry and Dingle!

I called ahead to let our next hosts, Garret and Patricia of the Castle View House B&B on Carrig Island in Ballylongford, know that we would be there around 10PM. When we arrived they were enjoying themselves with dinner guests and while were unwinding in our room the party downstairs was amusing to listen to - the laughs were loud and non-stop!

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Sometime shortly after breakfast Garret took off and when he returned he informed us that he'd opened the castle for us! Not something you hear every day! Apparently he's the keeper of the Carrigafoyle Castle, just across the way from their B&B (hence the name). We wandered the castle but it wasn't as impressive as some, it had been somewhat restored which meant they used fresh mortar which was white and the dirt floor inside was completely clear of any debris.

But the day had started as beautifully as the previous day so it was a pleasure to drive and see the sights. We were aiming for the town of Limerick and the nearby ruins of Dromore Castle. We found them without too much difficulty but were unable to approach it. We simply shot it from the gate that kept us away.

Along the way towards the Cliffs of Moher, our main sight of the day, we drove through the beautiful village of Quin. A small ancient church and bridge made us stop and get out.

When we reached Ennistimon it was lunch time and it, again, was one of the more interesting towns so we stopped to check out some shops and find an inexpensive lunch. We ended up in a tea house run by some recent immigrants from Eastern Europe, their accents were Russianish. Our seating was like a living room sitting area with couches and a coffee table and there was a mom group with 4 tiny babies visiting each other. It was another good meal, sandwiches this time, and when Rick went to pay they accidentally shorted him €10 in change so they gave him a "blooming tea" as an apology gift. I'm kind of excited to use it!

Rick spotted this fellow while we were checking out the town and I just kept shooting - not something you see around here anywhere!

This was approaching the end of the "beautiful" part of the day and by the time we reached the World Heritage Sight, the Cliffs of Moher, it was raining, although not too hard. We paid and parked and took some shots of the cliffs and O'Brien's Castle, then headed out this trail to who-knows-where. My shoes were not doing too well in the rain, they were acting like sponges, so a bit down that trail I finally said I couldn't see the point of going on so went back to the car. I was happy with my decision because it just lead to some other cliffs still a ways off and the rain was only getting harder.

We continued on in the rain toward Doolin, got some shots of the Doonagore Castle when we arrived since I could see we wouldn't have a pretty sunset to shoot it in as I'd hoped. We got settled in our tiny room in the Aille River Hostel (€54 for 3), complete with bunk bed in the "quiet" room (an addition to the 300-year-old cottage, on the other side of the thick rock wall that encompassed the main house). This was more of what I'd pictured a stay in a hostel to be like: noisy, bustling with adolescents, people speaking various languages while they cooked and served their meals at the tables and benches. The faucets in the bathroom were all push-button type, including the shower! Vary smart! There was a wood stove (probably burning peat logs) that the soggy teenage boys were sitting near, drying their wet shoes. One of them decided to come hit me up with a barrage of questions about my iPad while I was doing some mapping for the next day. And a college-aged girl came to see if we could give her a ride into our next day's destination, Galway. I loaded up the washer with our dirty clothes and we headed out to dinner on foot.

We chose Fitzpatrick's Bar for dinner which turned out to be my favorite dinner spot on the trip (albeit the most expensive, but that's our fault). There was a fellow playing some nice music and we were in the next room so it wasn't loud enough that we couldn't converse during our meal. It was pleasant, not rowdy, music. The food was served on an assortment of utensils - my chicken Kiev was served on a cutting board, Rick's meal was on a stone shingle and Sarah had crab legs on a regular plate. Service was great, ambiance, temperature - everything was perfect. I had a local brew, a "Dooliner" and bought the glass as a gift for one of my offspring.

Whew! This was truly a whirlwind trip but we had our navigation and driving skills honed and were able to enjoy ourselves much more at last. Coming up - our next 2 days on the Emerald Isle!

Ireland, Days 2, 3 & 4

We all slept pretty well that first night, and nearly every one to follow and found ourselves pretty well in sync with the new time zone in short order. Just a little minor grogginess upon waking is all any of us experienced. Fortunately.

So Friday, our arrival day, was spent exploring Dublin and now we were ready to hit the road. Or so we thought. Navigating was a real challenge. It turns out that roads are poorly marked. The map app I was using on my iPad didn't always list the same towns as those on the signs. I was nearly in tears pretty quickly. We did figure it out eventually though. It took all 3 of us to get through larger towns as signs weren't always displayed in time to make a turn, sometimes you had to make the turn and then verify you were in the right place afterward. Highway signs weren't always posted so as to assure the correct road either. An adjustment time was needed for this as well as driving on the opposite side and from the opposite side of the car. But now that we've done it enough for it to not be so foreign the next time it won't be as awkward.

We missed our first stop so hit the open road out toward a HUGE tourist trap - Glendalough (GLEN-da-lock). The traffic around the site was ca-ray-zee! The road was big enough for about 1 1/2 cars to pass the parked ones and even buses were there! We found parking on the street and had a blast perusing all the grounds, there was a tower, church and cemetery. In spite of all the people we all got great shots without people if we wanted, they were able to spread around pretty well and the bus groups seemed to stick together.

On the way there we followed a route called "St Kevin's Way", the church at Glendalough is called St Kevin's Church. This was the route this "saint" followed on his way to establish the monastery at Glendalough in the 6th century. There were ruins along the road with people picnicking right at their doorway. Beautiful scenery in the Wicklow Mountains Gap.

Next we went to check out a pretty 300 year-old bridge. We quickly caught on that the majority of bridges are beautiful old stone bridges and we could usually view them from the shore if it was accessible. We had a picnic lunch there along the river bank.

On our way toward Fern we drove through lots of forests and I kept looking for bluebells and I found them! I had to climb through some blackberry brambles to get to them but it was a beautiful setting and the fact that I just found it out in nature and not in a park made it just that much more special!

We also stumbled upon a church ruin with a small graveyard and the only way Rick could find to get in was over the crumbling wall. As we were leaving, though, an older fellow drove up, saw me scrambling over the wall and informed us that there was a little gate "just there" pointing about 15 feet toward the road. I thought we were going to get told off!

We drove on to the town of Fern and decided we'd better start looking for a room. But Fern was having a medieval Festival and there were no rooms. So we moved on to Enniscorthy, a slightly bigger town in which another festival was going on - no rooms. Next town? only expensive rooms. OK, how about Wexford? It has lots of accommodations but we couldn't find them. And there was a big hurling competition too which had, once more, drawn lots of out-of-town visitors. Out of desperation Rick turned sharply into a B&B. She had already rented out the room but they weren't expected to arrive til after dark and we looked pitiful so she let us have it! I told her that she'd saved us!

Then another problem arose. No restaurants were open except a very ritzy one. We walked and walked and finally went into a small grocery store (run by a nice Irish fella named Eddie Murphy) with a deli and ate meat pies. It was actually very good and I was glad we got forced into trying them. Mine was kinda like a pot pie, beef and potato. The store owner also took pity on us and gave us advise and some free bread, since he was getting ready to close up and gonna chuck it anyway.

Back in our room I got online and booked a room for the next night so we wouldn't have to go through that again...

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Moving on to Sunday. Angela, the B&B owner, did a fantastic job with her Irish breakfast, soft, classical music, a water feature and food served eloquently with attractive dishes and utensils.

I had planned some pretty obscure ruins to explore - if we could find them, that is... We got close to one but couldn't spot it. An older man stopped on the road to ask if we needed help. Rick told him what we were looking for and he had us follow him. It was on his property and he'd open the gate to let us in!

We meandered for 45 minutes. It was one of my favorite ruins, Castleboro House. It was massive! It had a terraced yard out back and beautiful fields. In front of the house was where our host kept his sheep. Rick caught this connection between a little lamb and me. Or so I thought:

As we drove on we kept finding places we had to stop and explore. Goresbridge was a town with one of those beautiful old stone bridges with 9 arches built 1756 (it's the NEW bridge!)! Next the town of Borris was filled with a castle with picnic grounds, ice cream and lots of colorful doors and buildings, flowers everywhere and another old church with an interesting bell tower.

We got slightly lost on our way to Jerpoint Abbey but the scenery was amazing, we weren't too far off course. We corrected our route in Gowran and ended up exploring another church ruin. This one had a small usable church on the grounds. So we grabbed some shots there and then moved on to our original destination. There was a bus group getting a tour and scaffolding on the tower but the majority of the grounds were beautiful and it was a beautiful day to be outside. We were actually getting a tad sunburnt!

It turns out most of the ruins available are churches and abbeys. I'm thinking that may be partially due to them not being attacked and burned during the times when all the castles and houses were, mainly the civil war time 1919-1921 and a time period referred to as "the Troubles" in the '20s.

We crammed in 2 more stops that I'd planned for us to see, Carey's Castle, which involved a 20 minute hike in the woods and Ballysaggartmore Towers. We learned to ask for help instead of driving aimlessly. This helped a lot. We also noticed that everyone giving us directions repeated themselves at least once, more often twice. Things became a lot less stressful. We sometimes still had difficulty finding them but we at least knew we were close.

Dinner was a wonderful success at "Foley's on the Mall" in Lismore. The food and ambiance were perfect and they had musicians (mostly kids) playing "trad" music.

That just left the drive into our crummy room in Cork, which turned out to be longer than I'd thought. Oh, well, we were back on track anyway. I just had to scale back the number of stops per day and we eventually started setting an alarm so we started earlier. We can sleep when we go home!

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Monday was to be a leisurely day. We only had to go to the Blarney Castle so Sarah could kiss the Blarney stone and then drive part way around the Ring of Kerry. On that drive we also planned to stop at a little farm called Molly Gallivan's and maybe a stop at Ross Castle.

When we were leaving Blarney Castle it started raining and only got harder all day. We stopped in town not far from the castle to get some cash and check out a "charity shop" (thrift store). Rick went to the trunk to get something out and dropped the keys in it before closing it. We ended up struggling with that car for quite a while before we got someone to show us the stealthy opener on the trunk just by the light. Sheesh! What a huge waste of time!

We were hoping to see a "sheep jam" but instead only got involved in 3 cow jams. The first one was just outside of Blarney.

So our Ring of Kerry drive, one of the most beautiful drives on the island (which is about the size of Indiana, or less than half the size of Washington, for those with inquiring minds) was in driving rain and fog in the hilly spots. Molly Gallivan's was closed by the time we got there and we ended up looking for our hostel in Ballinskelligs in the dark. Our host, Frida, was wonderful and told us it was our home while we were there. We had 3 beds in our room, a huge bathroom, full kitchen full of food to eat, living room, we got to park right by our door and the room was comfortably warm for the weary, wet travellers. And it was only about €45!

Talk about an adventure! We're up to day 5 next, stay tuned!

Ireland, Overall...

Nearing the time for our departure to Ireland we began again to peruse ideas and opinions of others on the internet as to what to do or not do to make our upcoming trip a success. One of the sites I found was a video listing the 5 things you'll love and 5 things you'll hate about visiting Ireland. I think in this blog I'd like to cover that list with my own opinions now that I've experienced it firsthand: 

5 things to love: 

1 - Scenery. Well YEAH!! While the scenery of Ireland is much like our area, there were many sections much prettier. Grass grows like crazy and in big clumps. Many times we were driving and felt as though we were here in Washington. Well, Seattle is called the Emerald City and Ireland is the Emerald Isle, some resemblance? I think so! Northern Ireland left a little to be desired in the populated areas, more run-down in places and in the country much of the beauty has been replaced with better roads. Unfortunately what makes the Republic of Ireland so beautiful is the non-improvement. Wall-lined roads still exist everywhere and to make improvements those walls would have to be removed. The look would be gone. We were happy to get back to the unimproved, narrow twisty roads of the republic after having spent less than 24 hours in Northern Ireland. It was a little too much like home. 

2 - People. Two thumbs up there! I don't think we spoke to one person who wasn't pleasant and considerate. When asking for directions they would automatically repeat themselves 2 or 3 times til they were sure we had it. Service in all the pubs and restaurants was with a smile. The only complaint we had was regarding the hosts of the Bunbeg House. They seemed disinterested in their guests. But to be honest, at least the husband had more of a British accent than an Irish one, maybe that's the difference. I did have a problem with the leering men that hung out smoking in front of the pubs but that may just be my own paranoia. 

3 - Cute Irish villages. We began to notice a pattern. The buildings all had the Irish look and feel and were painted colorfully, especially in the tourist areas. When we found ourselves in more remote towns they were much blander. They probably have to live up to tourists' expectations. In Northern Ireland many of the buildings had more individual looks, again removing themselves from the more traditional and heading toward "progress". 

4 - Pubs. Yes. Pub is actually a shortened term for "Public House" so families are welcome. Always friendly, often with live music (in the late evening, after dinner. Our host in Sligo explained that the Irish separate the music from the mealtime to allow conversation during dinner. Music and fellowship follow) and pride of ownership shows. All the pubs are clean and well maintained. Even those on the outskirts. One of our favorites was way out in the Bunbeg area, nowhere near the beaten path. Yet the place was comfortable and inviting and the service was above and beyond. 

5 - Staying in B&B's. They were actually more reasonable than the hotels and usually hosted by very accommodating, warm, interesting people. Rooms were usually nicely decorated with all the necessities. Mary, our hostess in Sligo, gave us a history of the area, restaurant list including the best items on the menus and pricing, local customs and current events. It's because of her excellent attention to detail that we were able to attend an open air string quartet concert in the local remains of an abbey along with 100 or so locals.

5 things to hate:

1 - Weather. For the most part our weather was decent. We started out with some unseasonably nice weather. We got sunburns and EVERY person we talked to about our visit commented on the fantastic weather "last week". About 3 days of sun were followed by a couple half-and-half days, then a couple half days of torrential rain (click the picture to see the rain!) and fog ending with probably the more typical showers / clouds all day. Very similar to our weather here in Washington so it didn't frustrate us too much. I guess any time would have been a bad time on our trip to have the worst weather, it reduced our enjoyment of the Ring of Kerry and the Ring of Dingle, as well as the first half of our visit to the Giant's Causeway. But it also adds to the story of our trip. Kind of like a wedding, if everything goes too smoothly it's not as memorable, it's the flubs and goof-ups that we all think back on fondly...

2 - Food. Here we totally disagree. We had wonderful food excellently prepared and served. It may not have all been traditional "Irish" food but it was tasty and enjoyable. There was always seafood options as well as some of the traditional stews, shepherd's pie, fish and chips, "bangers and mash" as well as many other dishes from other cultures. The portions were more than ample, service was pleasant, presentation was appealing.

3 - It's expensive. I noticed that prices were actually very similar to our prices, the part that made it expensive was the exchange rate. While we were there the rate was about 1.3 dollars per euro. So an item costing 10 euros was equivalent to 13 dollars. And the 100 euro B&B was 130 dollars. It was worse in Northern Ireland. The pound was equal to 1.56 US dollars - ouch! Personally I try not to expect to pay the same when "on holiday", it's not our normal life so why should we expect to pay normal prices? We're on vacation! It's outside the realm of normal, suck it up! 

4 - Public transportation. Didn't apply to us but if you're gonna depend on it to get around I guess it would be frustrating to be unable to get to every destination. 

5 - Driving. After an adjustment period driving was fine. The roads are much narrower and very curvy, speed limits are ridiculously high and, of course, the left hand of the road and right-side driver takes some getting used to. Especially shifting a manual with your left hand, and most rental cars are manual. Rick averaged 4 "killing the car" a day. But maneuvering the roundabouts became second nature in a short time. It's all the neuron-paths-in-your-brain thing, it takes a few days.

Overall, I think it's a general consensus among the 3 of us that Ireland was an amazing place and we all could envision ourselves living there - no problem!

Ireland Chaos

Right now there are so many things that are just not right: The backward hours that we're temporarily stuck in. The opposite driving. The strangeness of the roads, narrow lanes with myriads of roundabouts. The lack of street signs and addresses. The jaywalkers...

We arrived in Dublin yesterday (even the term "yesterday" is not quite correct, it was about midnight our time that we landed and now, 4AM Ireland time is 8PM our time) and got our rental car. We had to upgrade from the tiny car we'd reserved and find ourselves driving a Saab. Nice car but some learning involved. Like reverse - how do you get into reverse?!?! I wish I'd started the video camera rolling the minute Rick sat behind the wheel. He killed it twice, then made a wrong turn and had to loop around just to get out of the parking garage.

We'd asked how to get to downtown Dublin and got a reply that included at least 2 roundabouts and a toll. We did a lot of wrong turns and turn arounds but did finally find our way to something that looked like the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Brewery that's near the top of the list of tourist attractions in Dublin. It turned out to be the Jameson (Irish Whiskey) distillery, not planned on but not uninteresting either. A nice lady spotted Sarah in particular walking around with her good camera in hand and warned her that this was't the best part of town and to be careful. We meandered the streets of that part of town enjoying the mix of new and old - not just "old" but, rather OLD, like 1000 years old(!), architecture living side by side in even the seedier part of town.

Since, like Seattle, there is no free parking in Dublin, we had to pay to park even there so we used up as much time as we could and then figured out how to follow a map to the area we really wanted to see. . . and it was only about 4 or 5 blocks away.  We moved the car to another parking garage and enjoyed visiting some planned sights.  The weather was beyond perfect, I had to shed my sweater and Sarah got a little sunburn on her shoulders!

By late afternoon we were in serious need of some food and sleep so decided to put on our big girl panties and find our hotel.  There didn't seem to be any maps that could show us road-by-road just how to do this so we ended up using the sun.  We needed to be south and west of Dublin on the N7, which would be a bigger road so we just started heading toward the sun and it worked!  We found our hotel.  Our room was on the west side of the building so the afternoon sun had warmed it up and we could find no way to cool it off.  We picked up a fan, about an 8" fan, from the font desk to move the hot air around the room with no a/c or windows that open. We also couldn't get most of the lights and plugs to work until I noticed a box on the wall just inside the door that had a slot and red lights, it looked like the key card should be used in it.  So we swiped it and that worked!  But after a couple minutes everything went off again so now that card is living in that box on the wall.

I videoed our drive to a restaurant to capture some of the less stressful, albeit confusing, drive through the suburbs of Dublin.  We didn't end up eating at that restaurant but I think you can see what we're dealing with, driving-wise.  We were trying to find a shopping area where there were more food possibilities and eventually did so.  We ended up eating in a retro "American" burger joint called Eddie Rocket's.  They're all over this place.  We ate at a similar place in Iceland - how do we always find these places?

My decision to shower last night made the room even hotter and muggier so we're sleeping in as little clothing as possible with our 8" fan blowing straight across our beds...

So the chaos - some of it is in my head, feeling drugged from lack of sleep and being up opposite when my body wants to be.  And some of it is the backward driving, suddenly there appears to be no organization at all.  The cars sitting in the middle of the road to turn right - to the far side of the road, all just adds to the confusing, chaotic feel.

I'm sure this swirling feeling will abate and only the enjoyment of this visit will color the rest of our trip - and my blog....

Correction . . .

So I mentioned that I'd had 3 heart attacks. I was equating chest pain with mild heart attack.  In reality the chest pain was angina. I had 1 heart attack and LOTS of angina. Here's an explanation of 3 types of angina from WebMD.com:

• Stable angina. The pain is predictable and present only during exertion or extreme emotional distress, and it disappears with rest.
• Unstable angina. This may signal an impending heart attack. Unstable angina is angina pain that is different from your regular angina pain or pain that occurs while at rest. The angina may occur more frequently, more easily at rest, feel more severe, last longer, or come on with minimal activity. Although this type of angina can often be relieved with medication, it is unstable and may progress to a heart attack. Usually more intense medical treatment or a procedure is required.
• Prinzmetal's angina. This is when angina occurs at rest, when sleeping, or when exposed to cold temperatures. In these cases, the symptoms are caused by decreased blood flow to the heart muscle from a spasm of the coronary artery. The majority of people with this type of angina also have coronary artery disease. These spasms occur close to the blockage.

What I had was either unstable or Prinzmetal's and has not occurred since. So the pain I had was not a heart attack and the heart attack I had had no chest pain. Imagine my confusion! I'll be learning more next week when I go in for my first cardiologist appointment . . . 

Gettin' the Lowdown...

on my health, that is...

Having gratefully acquired health insurance after 4 years I'm finally in the position to get caught up on all the tests that a post-menopausal woman of my age requires. Which is a LOT. (this is being written down mainly for my own info, but anyone of you who received it may find it interesting to continue reading...)

Back in February I started the ball rolling with a normal physical. Almost in an undertone during that exam the doc mentions that I have scoliosis. Great, I think to myself. That's what I get for not taking hormones after my hysterectomy.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg...

I finally get to mention to the doctor things that I've been concerned about but unable to look into while I was uninsured. Foremost was the event I had on the plane in 2011.

So the follow-up tests ensue. Mammogram, overdue by 3 years.  Bone density, also overdue by years.  Labs, of course, to determine cholesterol, check glucose levels, etc.  

I can view my test results on the internet so I don't have to wait for the doctor to tell them to me.  If I can decipher their meaning, that is.  So I go look at my cholesterol numbers as soon as they're available.  High.  Dang!  I research how to lower that and take immediate action. Mammogram - fine. Bone density? The doc wants to talk to me about that. Uh oh!  But wait - I'm scheduled for an echo-cardiogram and treadmill test. I'll wait and discuss the outcome of all those at the same time.

When I go in all psyched up for the echo and treadmill test they tell me I won't be doing the latter after all. My EKG indicated I have a "left bundle branch block" and that form of stress test won't work.  

This doctor is interesting. My visits with her are very much like a professional ping pong game:  I ping and she pongs right back, then I quickly ping again and she's right there to pong it back at me. (Unfortunately she doesn't remember a lot of what I ping to her) She gives me a referral for a chemical-type stress test, a Dobutamine type.  

When I get to the imaging center to do that test, as well as an ultrasound on all my organs (to determine gallbladder health specifically but, hey, if you're looking why not just check it all out?), they inform me that I'll be doing a different stress test due to my asthma.  

This was a lengthy, interesting test which, for the most part, was simply that - interesting. There was one part that was downright creepy, though.

They started out by shooting nuclear isotopes into my blood, waiting an hour for them to find their way into my heart, then using a Gamma Camera to take pictures while my heart is at its resting rate. Then I was asked to go eat some fatty food to clear the bulk of the isotopes out of my liver (where they eventually move) so the next pictures of my heart would be clear.  
Here's where it got creepy. They got the director of medicine in there for him to witness the introduction of the drug Lexiscan and my reaction to it.  It opens the blood vessels to artificially imitate the effects of stress or exercise on my heart, the increased blood flow.  But, of course, it doesn't open just those vessels, it opens ALL my blood vessels, from head to toe. Creepy, I was flush, lightheaded, tingley all over. Not a nice feeling.  Fortunately it only lasts about 2 minutes, then coming back down to normal takes about another 2 minutes. In the meantime more isotopes are injected and as soon as I can stand I'm back at the Gamma Camera for a nap while they shoot pictures again for another 15 minutes. The lights in the room are dimmed, I'm laying comfortably and they're playing classical music. ZZzzzz...

That was Monday. Yesterday I was leaving for my also long-overdue colonoscopy and saw that those test results were available. The ultrasound showed my organs all look normal. As for the stress test, I'm no doctor but it sounds like it's saying that there is evidence of a heart attack and some residual damage.  

In readying me for my next procedure a nurse is asking all about my health. When she gets to questions regarding my heart I tell her about the test and the results and that she should go look at them herself. She goes back and confirms what I suspected.

We attempt the colonoscopy but for some odd reason I've just in the last week or 2 developed a low pulse. They sedate me, start the procedure, then abort it because my pulse dropped into the mid 30's.  Grr... the prep for that test is AWFUL!!!

I get a call from the doctor's office that afternoon and the nurse relays a message from the doctor: the test results "came back normal". WHAT!?!?! The very first word in the notes is Abnormal.  I think that means it's NOT normal.  I pretty much jump down that nurse's throat and start reading her what I see in the results and she tells me the doctor will call me.  I get another call later - another nurse with no real news either. But she says the doctor is standing right there and, after mediating between the 2 of us, finally gave the doc the phone. So the doc starts talking about heart movement, etc and throws in the words "the old MI". I stop her and ask "So I had a heart attack?"  Yes.  I reminded her that I didn't know that, that the reason for these heart tests were to determine if the event I had on the plane in Sept 2011 was my heart. She forgot, she thought I knew I'd had a heart attack. So the tests, she thought, were to check for the current state of my heart. Yeah, there's damage, a dead spot, you didn't know that? Do you carry nitro with you?  No! Why would I? I didn't know I'd had a heart attack!!!  Do you have a cardiologist? Again - Why would I? I didn't know I'd had a heart attack!!!  She was so glad that she finally took the phone into her own hands. Then I filled her in on how my colonoscopy went - or rather how it didn't go.  So now she's all hep on getting me a nitro prescription and a referral to a cardiologist. Yay!

Not that I wanted to have heart trouble. But I wanted to know, if I did.

So here, in a nutshell, is my health situation over the course of my life thus far:

1961 tonsillectomy to help with constant ear infections, age 4 (why I'm somewhat hard of hearing)
1968 I acquire asthma as a real issue, not just when I get sick, age 12, continues til now
1972ish I start noticing a pain in my upper spine which is now causing me bone spurs in my neck, possibly damaged in a car accident in early 1960's
Allergies and hay fever present themselves in my teens, continue to this day although much milder
5 pregnancies, 5 healthy babies
1991 tubal fulguration (5 babies is enough!)
1991 gallbladder attacks.  I start doing at-home flushes, attacks continue til now, although diminishing.
2002 hysterectomy for cervical cysts, fibroid tumors, endometriosis, adenomyosis, age 45
2011 at least 3 heart attacks, age 54
2013 mild osteoporosis & slightly high cholesterol diagnosed
Let's not forget the depression that crept in somewhere in the late 90's

And I always thought of myself as fairly healthy! Haha!