Ways to react when a doctor starts talking about...

So, I'm at my appointment with the cardiologist yesterday, and he is reading all the different test results in front of me, doing all sorts of exams on me, making strange noises as he looks through the huge stack of papers in my chart. All in all, I'm getting mighty nervous. Thirty minutes of this goes on before he starts telling me what he thinks about my heart "stuff."

All in all, I got good news. There isn't something horribly wrong with my heart. The heart itself is very healthy, but for some reason, I am having premature beats and most of them are coming from my ventricle. Which apparently is cause for concern. However, since everything else looks good, it's not too concerning. But it is concerning. Confused? So was I.

And then he started talking about the fact that ventricular premature beats increases your risk of "suddenly keeling over dead." Yep. In a very matter fact tone of voice, he told me that my risk of "sudden death" wasn't zero, but it wasn't too elevated, but it wasn't as low as a normal person's--it's somewhat raised. So basically, I have a somewhat elevated risk of suddenly keeling over dead, but it's not too concerning, but it's still concering, however I can keep exercising, I need more testing and will start taking beta blockers after the testing, but overall, I'm okay. Right? Right.

So, if you doctor began to talk about your risk of "suddenly keeling over dead," I'm just curious. How would you respond?

Disclaimer: Just so you know, I really liked the doctor, and he was very knowledgeable and mostly understandable, my husband and I just got a big kick out of his matter of fact discussion on sudden death. And not just any death. But the keeling over kind.

Friday Five

(I'm actually writing this on Thursday night, but hey, it's almost Friday)

1. Waiting is hard. At any stage, or in any process. Waiting for a critique to come back, waiting for an agent to respond, waiting to go on submission, waiting for an editor to get back to you, waiting for your book to come out, waiting for royalty statements. And in non-writing related subjects, waiting to get medical test results, waiting at an ER, waiting for a baby to be born, waiting for your child to sleep through the night... oh, you get the idea. Good thing I'm such a patient person. Ha ha. Ha.

2. Wanna know a great way to make your day insanely unproductive? Spend half of it in an ER and get sent home looking like a lab rat or science experiment gone seriously wrong. Nothing too horrible (I hope) but I've got some stuff going on with my heart. You know what I don't need right now? More health problems. So, I've decided to tell my heart to get its act in gear, and shape up. I've got enough going on without it messing up too. Are you listening heart? No more! Beat normally! I do all this stuff called exercise for a reason - to keep you healthy. Or, at least, that's one reason. So start behaving!

3. It's hard to get dressed with tons of wires strapped/taped/glued to your body. Just sayin'.

4. No, I am not looking for pity, I just have this stuff on the brain right now, since I just spent the last seven hours dealing with it. On the bright side, I didn't get admitted. Yay for small victories.

5. I love reading. It can distract me from just about anything. Even the horrible stabbing, burning pain of potassium being dripped straight into your blood through a (very badly done) I.V. Also, reading can help you pass hours and hours of time while waiting. (see #1)

Um, in other nonrelated thoughts that are probably more interesting to you than the rest of these, I am so excited for my friend Ally Condie who just announced her amazing book MATCHED has had the film rights bought by Disney! (In a bidding war, how exciting is that??) I'm thrilled for you Ally! Can't wait to see Cassia and Ky and Xander on the big screen.
Also - Elana Johnson just revealed her GORGEOUS cover! Go check it out now (as if you haven't already).

Your thoughts are bound to be more interesting than mine this week, so lay it on me. What are your thoughts today?