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A trip to Morocco and the cardiologist



Where has the time gone? How is it December already? Gary and I had the most amazing time in Morocco! We flew into Casablanca, took the train right away to Marrakesh and toured the city for an incredible 5 days before our driver/guide, Ahmed, picked us up from our riad (Moroccan hotel). We drove 1,000 miles with Ahmed over the next 6 days: to Ait Benhaddou, the African movie studios, the Torda and Dades gorges, the Saharan desert, Fes, Meknes, Volubilis, Chefchaouen (the blue city) and then back to Fes. I then proceeded to get food poisoning and was too ill and dilerious to leave our room in Fes for the next 2 days. Once I got better, we took the train back to Casablanca for a short visit then home to the states. 
El Badi Palace in Marrakesh


Chefchaouen...the blue city
If Morocco was never on your top 10 list, seriously reconsider and bump it to the top! I cannot say one bad thing about the country, aside from not finding mashed potatoes while I was sick…funny that I had posted about them last time thinking I wouldn’t be able to eat anything but.

Thankfully, though, eating hasn’t been as horrible as I expected. The open bite hadn’t really changed how I ate. During the trip and after, I was still spending plenty of time each night brushing, using the WaterPik, cleaning under the expander with another tool, replacing the wax, etc. It can take a good 20 minutes a night and Rex, our dog, always seems to get his hairs all over my wax and then in my mouth. Totally his fault and not ours for letting him have total rein of the house:)

Just 3 days after we got home for Morocco, I went back to Philly to see my ortho. They changed my wires and that was about it, quick and easy appt. My ortho did mention that she could remove my expander next appt and install a retainer. HALLELUJAH! She also asked if I’d be ok with a face mask to wear at night that would pull my maxilla, upper jaw, forward. Sure, why the hell not. She also let me know that it’s be an extra $850. Of course, it will be. On my way out of the office, the office manager, Chris, approached me. She asked if I’d be interested in being interviewed and provide a testimonial for a video crew that would be in the office that day, I’m semi caught off guard, so I agree to it.

Three days later, I meet with my dentist who scheduled me for my tongue tie release surgery a few days after my next ortho appt - my dentist likes to see me right after these appts to monitor my progress. The appts are also $76 for a 30-minute visit. Of course, insurance pays $0 of that.

I also met with a cardiologist to figure what’s going on with my blood pressure. She's the same one my parents see, so she's familiar with family history, very kind and thorough. I had my initial appointment with her in late September. When she saw the initial blood pressure reading that the nurse took, she took it again herself. She then had me lay down on the table and said, “pretend you’re on the beach or something for the next 5 minutes or so and I’ll be back”. My BP was still over 140/100, so, she ordered a plethora of tests: a blood test, a 24-hour urine test, an EKG (which my cardiologist completed that day), a renal artery ultrasound and an echocardiogram.

The container to hold my urine collection and the pan to pee in
The blood test and 24-hour urine collection had to be completed within the same 24-hour period. This was a little tricky as it only left the weekdays for the blood test when the lab was open and the weekends for the urine collection, as I was pretty confident my colleagues would not be too keen on me leaving my urine in the fridge in the office…but it was just a hunch. I ended up hibernating almost an entire Sunday in the house and then went first thing Monday morning for the blood test. Handing my fridge temp urine over to another human being makes me thankful for my career choice…just say no to any job that requires rubber gloves…bleh!

The renal artery ultrasound, which examines the arteries that supply oxygenated blood to the kidneys, scheduled for the morning prior to us leaving for Morocco. It was pretty easy, cold jelly to the abdomen as the technician spent a good 30-40 minutes taking dozens of pictures and sound clips of my heartbeat in that artery. Trying to learn about science related things always makes me head hurt after a while. How did they figure this stuff out? How does the machine work? How do they know it’s telling them what they think it’s telling them? How does electricity work? Why are we here? Gary loves these conversations! We had a particularly fun one when he tried to explain quantum computing to me…all I remember was how tasty the wine was I had to pour myself and him telling me something about a ball spinning in space and we would know it was spinning because another ball here on earth would spin. Why the hell do I want a ball spinning in space? What does that do for me?

Any who… the ultrasound can, allegedly, tell the doctor which way my blood flows in my arteries and is depicted with red and blue colors, among other things. The technician was great and answered all my nosy questions because I was antsy as heck laying there as Morocco was just a few hours away. After we returned from Morocco, I had the echocardiogram on Halloween. It was similar to the renal artery ultrasound, but this time the technician looked at my heart. She was super friendly as well and the test flew by quickly.

My cardiologist told me at our initial consultation that she’d contact me after the echocardiogram. I was eager to speak with her as the results of my EKG came back while I was away and said I had “possible left atrial abnormality septal infarct, age undetermined abnormal ecg”. I found out that this could indicate that I had had a heart attack, or it could mean nothing at all, but I was anxious and eager to hear what the doctor said. After 2.5 days of phone tag (I never have my phone on me during the day because I’m with clients), she told me everything was fine and to just monitor my resting BP and she’d see me in 3 months. What a relief! But it still left me with concerns of my high BP and is it just the upper airway resistance syndrome causing it all. 

That relief was short lived though, because over the course of the next 3 weeks, my anxiety grew and grew at the thought of having my palate expander removed…the multiple needles were very painful to numb the area to screw the expander in, wouldn’t they hurt on the way out too? And then the tongue tie surgery a few days later, ugh.

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