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What’s Up With Dr. Ron

Wow……see Dr. Ron’s heart…..really!!  It has been over 3 weeks since my last blog post and a lot has happened.  A fun get-away-weekend with Trish; hosted our gourmet dinner group; facilitated 3 annual goal planning meetings for clients; had my daughters nearly entire Nanny & Governess class to the house for dinner; and the list goes on.  However, the one BIG thing has been the surprising results of my cardiolytic stress test that I had taken in mid-November.

The test itself went well.  My heart rate and blood pressure readings were the best they have been in my life.  I felt good.  The following week I met with the cardiologist to review the findings of the nuclear imaging results and my blood panel.  When he saw my weight is down my 18 pounds he was impressed.  When he looked at the results of my blood work he was astonished as my numbers were the BEST they had ever been since 1988!!!  I will be sharing these numbers at a later post in my Dr. Ron’s PUDGE WATCH.  The real point was….everything looked great, with one exception…….the nuclear imaging results.  The report indicated that “the study was abnormal.  There is a moderate amount of anterior ischemia to a moderate to large portion of the anterior wall of the left ventricle.”  Simply stated, it appeared that I was not getting enough blood flow to my heart and I could potentially have heart muscle damage or severly clogged arteries. With these nuclear tests there is a 15% chance of a false positive as they are set to be ultra-sensitive to pick up any potential abnormality.  The only way to know for certain is to do a heart catheterization.  If there is blockage, the options are to place a stent(s) or open heart surgery.

As you can imagine, it was quite a surprise to me as all my other heart indicators and blood tests have been so positive.  On short notice…within 48 hours, I was in the heart cath lab.  The results were positive:  I was in the 15% of test-takers that have a false positive.  The procedure was done early Friday morning and I was home and in bed by 12:30 in the afternoon.

The end result……I am alive and feeling much better.  If you have never had the opportunity to have a catheter “snaked” through your femoral artery and up into the different chambers of your heart, click on Dr. Ron’s Heart to see three different pictures of the vessels in my heart (angiogram) and what small blockages look like.

Also, as I had some time to reflect on the significance of getting a message that you might have to have invasive heart surgery.  It was another reminder of what is important to me.  If you’re interested on what was going through my head and heart click on Things To Live By .

Dr. Ron is the only Master Certified Dental Coach (MCC) on the planet. He has blended 20 years of clinical dental practice with executive roles in financial planning and investment management along his graduate business training to provide his clients with the tools, support, and accountability to accomplish more. About Dr. Ron, "I count you as one of life’s best finds", says Dr. Gary Imm of Reisterstown, Maryland. He has authored many articles; manuals; ThinBooks ^tm; TeleClasses and if you visit http://www.drarndt.com you can receive one of his FREE reports, "9 Painful Mistakes Dentists Make in the Hiring Process"

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