I say now because the test got into my head. My GP, the one who doesn’t seem to know much about diabetes, decided not to do an EKG at my physical. Instead he ordered a calcium score test, which I’d never heard of until he informed me it’s an x-ray and much better at detecting a blockage than an EKG. I wasn’t expecting a blockage…but of course he explained that I’m much more likely to have one because I’m diabetic. I didn’t think much of it at that moment other than the continuing thought that he’s never heard of Type 1. I took the order and headed out of the office.
Before calling to schedule my test I looked it up online
to find out what I was in for. I found
out it’s a CT scan and is recommended in specific cases where people are
at high risk of a coronary event. I
chuckled to myself before making the call for an appointment. Here is
who University Hospitals in
Cleveland recommends has a calcium score test:
We recommend this test for men age 45
or older and women age 55 or older, with no history of coronary artery disease,
and with one or more risk factors for heart disease, including:
·
High blood cholesterol
·
Low HDL cholesterol (“good cholesterol”)
·
High blood pressure
·
Cigarette smoking
·
Type 2 diabetes
Where should I start? For as much as I joke about being old, I’m still a few years away from even celebrating my 50th birthday. I do have high cholesterol, but my HDL is through the roof and actually exceeds my LDL. My BP is controlled with medication, I’m an ex-smoker, and…there’s the diabetes that I don’t have. Combine all of those with an active lifestyle and zero family history of heart disease and it makes little sense to me for a doctor to suspect I have a problem.
The good news is the test went well. But though I made the CT appointment feeling
confident I had nothing to worry about, tests are scary and sometimes my brain
likes to mess with me. By the time I got
to the day of the test I’d worked myself into a frenzy worrying about what I’d
find out. We all hear the constantly changing
recommendations about who should get tests like mammograms and colonoscopies. One of the reasons given for having tests
later or less frequently is to avoid the fear created by false positives. I’ve had that fear after a mammogram, but based
on genetics I know have a fairly decent risk of breast cancer and I'm all for whatever they need to check to know if there's anything there. I have little risk of a heart attack, but my
doctor put me through a test because he expected to find something. I was so stressed that day my heart was
racing and I felt like I could have a heart attack out of fear alone.
The reality is that having diabetes doesn’t mean terrible things are going to happen to me. There are all sorts of potential complications from T1 and T2, including heart disease. Though I know that no matter what I do to avoid them I could still wind up having problems in the future, I have to keep doing what I can. The presence of diabetes doesn’t cause heart disease. As I talked about recently, I try to maintain my blood sugar at the same levels as a non-diabetic as much as possible. The whole point of doing that is to try to prevent long term complications, including heart disease. I’ve had more than one physician say something followed by “because you have diabetes,” and this is the latest and most infuriating instance. But this isn’t a one size fits all disease. Please don’t jump to conclusions because the D-word is on my chart, and don’t assume that something horrible is going to happen because you’ve heard about correlations. Your math may not be right.
The reality is that having diabetes doesn’t mean terrible things are going to happen to me. There are all sorts of potential complications from T1 and T2, including heart disease. Though I know that no matter what I do to avoid them I could still wind up having problems in the future, I have to keep doing what I can. The presence of diabetes doesn’t cause heart disease. As I talked about recently, I try to maintain my blood sugar at the same levels as a non-diabetic as much as possible. The whole point of doing that is to try to prevent long term complications, including heart disease. I’ve had more than one physician say something followed by “because you have diabetes,” and this is the latest and most infuriating instance. But this isn’t a one size fits all disease. Please don’t jump to conclusions because the D-word is on my chart, and don’t assume that something horrible is going to happen because you’ve heard about correlations. Your math may not be right.
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