TIERNEY JAMES

Lipstick & Danger

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My Achy Breaky Heart

I always hated taking a test. Thanks to my first-grade teacher, I now have unrealistic expectations of how I’m going to perform when a test is measuring my where with all. We took some kind of aptitude test. When the results came back, she lined up the kids who did very well on one side of the room and the ones who didn’t do so well on the other. And yes, I was on the dummy side. Even though I was six years old, I can still feel the horror and shame that maybe I wasn’t good enough. Can I pass you the tissues yet?

Even now after all my accomplishments, I hear the word test and I can feel my blood pressure spike. I’m lucky enough that my health has been good. The only meds I take are eye drops and some vitamins. This knee surgery needs to be done, but I figured no big deal. I got this. Then it happened. The anesthesiologist didn’t like the looks of my EKG. Well jeepers. Now what?

Oh, a stress test? Whoever thought of giving a stress test where I walk uphill on a bum knee was a good idea, put me at odds with the process. (This was happening without my morning coffee, I might add. I like to refer to it as a mood stabilizer. Am I wrong?) Was I being set up for failure? Later that day I was called and told I failed the test. Talk about standing on the wrong side of the room again. My knee surgery was canceled until I could get a heart catheterization to determine if I had a blockage.

That little procedure is this week. Prayers appreciated, of course. At least my doctor is cute. Actually, he looks like he just graduated from high school. I thought about asking to see his credentials. Then again, I didn’t want him to feel I didn’t trust him or thought he couldn’t do the job. I know how that feels. Anyway, that’s where we are this week.

I have a ton of stuff to do before things start happening, because I know soon after they are going to start working on my knee. Next week? The next? I figure whenever it is I’ll not be ready. I’ve got the garden to clip, laundry to do, a book promotion to do for The Knight Before Chaos and another big promo for the Enigma Series. But you know what? I am blessed. I have good doctors and insurance. A husband who doesn’t mind helping me through all of this and lots of friends who are pulling for me are all on my side of the room. They don’t even know about me failing the aptitude test when I was six. Some of them even think I’m really smart. Lol.

The Knight Before Chaos is .99 on pre-orders. This is what YA author Shirley McCann had to say about #6 in the Enigma Series: Not since Home Alone has a Christmas story provided this much fun. When Chase is left in charge of Tessa’s three children, decorating the tree becomes the least of their problems. Heart-pounding suspense mixed with fits of laughter provides an evening of fun and things that go bump in the night. – YA Author, Shirley McCann

12 Responses

  1. God bless you and I hope the medical team finds the best way to help you! Prayers for the best!

  2. They probably want to be sure there will be no complications or surprises so they are taking care of anything questionable at the outset. Remind yourself they are doing their jobs and it will be good to have any potential problems taken care of first. Thank God they are cautious and then give it all over to God.

  3. I can’t wait to hear the good results of this test. You definitely got this, Tierney. And your friends and colleagues are all pulling for you With all the prayers, there’s no way this can go badly.

  4. Best thing I ever did was to have my right knee replaced. Hope you do well and everything turns out great for you. Remember to do your therapy, it is most important.
    As a former math teacher your teacher was horrible, I would never do that to a student. I had to encourage 118 seniors who had failed the state yearly exams and would not graduate. I had one year. All of them passed except for the one’s would never showed up for school. Positive thoughts go a long way.
    As a math teacher when my doctor told me I had to be able to bend my knee at 90 degrees or they would re-operate I was in tears the first time I rode the therapy bicycle. “I’ll never do this” I thought. But I was determined. On my last visit before the doctor I was terrified of the “90 degree” requirement test.
    My therapist had set the goal at 90 degrees in order for me to at least get to 75 or 80 degrees which I didn’t know at the time. My doctor was very pleased with my progress and determination. I write this two years later as I type with with my lower leg curled around my comfy chair leg at a 130 degree angle. It was worth the pain. Hope to see you much better.

  5. DO NOT READ UNTIL AFTER YOUR CATH PROCEDURE
    I hope your cath procedure went well. 15 years ago I was having an angina attack (I had a stint placed four years previously) so they med flight’ed me from Joshua Tree, CA to Palm Springs. In the Cath Lab they finished doing their thing at 8 o’clock that Saturday night and they told me they had scheduled an emergency double bypass for midnight. As they were removing the wire everything went pitch black. The next morning I was told I blew my right ventricle (the Widow Maker) and they had to revive me after my heart attack. I was told if I had not been in the hospital I would not have survived.
    This September, I had a Nuclear Stress Test (I don’t know why they forced a person with a pre-op knee to do a regular stress test) and when I went to the Cardiologist at the VA he said, “Why are you here?” 15 years now and no problems since the heart, though I will be on certain heart meds for the rest of my life.

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