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I’ve lost weight recently and have jabbed another hole in my belt and cinched it tighter.
I’m not thin but lean, my slight mid-thirties padding ablated back to its foundation. I have stayed the same weight as before, 72kg or 160#, but am bigger in the arms and chest, smaller in the waist. On Friday at my checkup the nurse measures my height and when I stand up straight on my good leg I am 167cm or just shy of 5’6”. My pulse is too fast and I am told to remove my shirt and lie on a table and the nurse and the physician’s assistant attach sensors to me, their dark hands wandering on my chest. Dr Theobalds examines a printout and talks to me about my heart. He is Jamaican and he points at a recurring spike in the printout. That your left ventricle mon, says Dr Theobalds. It’s too big, it’s too thick, you see? That why your heart beat so fast.
Do I have a bad heart I say and he says, No mon, your heart fine, but we gotta stay on top of it OK? Now I send you to the lab for bloodwork and urine test and then you come back here, we do a echocardiogram. You a young mon, we wanna keep you in good shape.
Early this morning during the blood draw I feel the needle bumping the walls of my vein and I stay very still in the chair and breathe slow and my eyes are closed. The nurse says something. My head nods and I will myself to keep a calm face and sit upright. I would rather get punched in the head than get stuck with a needle. Finally she takes away the needle and palms the dark fluid vial. She says something else and I just sit for a few seconds. After I get up she hands me the cup for the urine sample and points at the men's room.
I spent some of the weekend with Mary Anne. She came over Saturday night and we had not seen each other in a while and she told me her news while I stood at the kitchen sink doing dishes and heating up leftover Chinese food for her. She hovered at the edge of the cramped kitchen and she had much to report and her voice was urgent and fast and I listened to her carefully. We ate and went dancing then came back and it was about four in the morning and it was still raining. I climbed into bed and she went somewhere else to meet other friends though I did not hear her leave.
I’m not thin but lean, my slight mid-thirties padding ablated back to its foundation. I have stayed the same weight as before, 72kg or 160#, but am bigger in the arms and chest, smaller in the waist. On Friday at my checkup the nurse measures my height and when I stand up straight on my good leg I am 167cm or just shy of 5’6”. My pulse is too fast and I am told to remove my shirt and lie on a table and the nurse and the physician’s assistant attach sensors to me, their dark hands wandering on my chest. Dr Theobalds examines a printout and talks to me about my heart. He is Jamaican and he points at a recurring spike in the printout. That your left ventricle mon, says Dr Theobalds. It’s too big, it’s too thick, you see? That why your heart beat so fast.
Do I have a bad heart I say and he says, No mon, your heart fine, but we gotta stay on top of it OK? Now I send you to the lab for bloodwork and urine test and then you come back here, we do a echocardiogram. You a young mon, we wanna keep you in good shape.
Early this morning during the blood draw I feel the needle bumping the walls of my vein and I stay very still in the chair and breathe slow and my eyes are closed. The nurse says something. My head nods and I will myself to keep a calm face and sit upright. I would rather get punched in the head than get stuck with a needle. Finally she takes away the needle and palms the dark fluid vial. She says something else and I just sit for a few seconds. After I get up she hands me the cup for the urine sample and points at the men's room.
I spent some of the weekend with Mary Anne. She came over Saturday night and we had not seen each other in a while and she told me her news while I stood at the kitchen sink doing dishes and heating up leftover Chinese food for her. She hovered at the edge of the cramped kitchen and she had much to report and her voice was urgent and fast and I listened to her carefully. We ate and went dancing then came back and it was about four in the morning and it was still raining. I climbed into bed and she went somewhere else to meet other friends though I did not hear her leave.
