Then there was that time I had mono…

I grow very very tired of the “health scares.”  It kind of comes with the game though when you were born with a heart defect.  It happens.  They seem to happen every two years, too…you know, like the Olympics?  And well, what would you know, Aubrey is two so it’s been two years since I’ve had a heart scare so here we go!

It was unexpected.  I got routine blood work done for a physical.  Cholesterol and what not, so I got the blood work done and thought we’d go over it the next week at my physical.  Instead I get a call Friday (blood work was Thursday), and it’s the doctor’s office asking if I’ve had any muscle aches because apparently my muscle enzyme levels were very elevated.  Um, no, I haven’t.  What does that mean?  Does this have to do with my heart?  “Oh we don’t know but we’ll run some tests that are heart specific and we’ll rule it out.  But don’t work out this weekend.”  SO, yeah, you know how that goes.  WebMD it!  Sure, I know better but the doctor had me alarmed, and all I kept thinking of was my previous cardiologist telling me he was consistently checking to see if my muscle lining in my heart had thickened.  Muscle enzyme.  Heart is a muscle.  Mine works harder than most.  So you see my logic.  And it turns out that high levels of muscle enzyme are indications of a heart attack or serious muscle damage to the heart. 

Shit. 

So of course all weekend I worried.  I worried when I got blood work done Monday and also Tuesday when no call from the doctor’s office.  I finally got a call on Wednesday that said everything was better and maybe it was an error in the lab.  Hmmm, what? 

By this point my muscles were hurting.  I kept thinking it was all in my head after hearing the “news.”  So Wednesday at work, I was getting kind of ticked with myself.  Why am I achy?  Why do I feel like such crap?  I went home to lie down, which was good because I quickly developed a fever, well over 103 degrees.  I had a fever from 100 to 102 for like four or five days straight.  Yep.  Mono.  Blood work confirmed it, even though I kind of knew it.  I had it in college really badly.  We’re talking very badly.  This was more mild and after two weeks it’s pretty much gone and I feel much better.  I guess I wore myself down so much with everything that I got sick.  And when I get sick it’s go big or go home. 

Hey, you know what else the high muscle enzyme levels can indicate?  Mono! 

Huh.  It makes sense now.  Glad I thought it was my heart because that was a lot of fun.  Let’s do this again sometime.

I swear if it’s not something it’s another.  But I am thanking God that I am healthy and my heart is just fine.  I am blessed because most kids who had the same surgery as me had follow-up procedures later in life, and here I am 33 years after my surgery, and I’m doing just fine.  Thank God.