I finally had my cardiologist consult yesterday. I was fortunate to get an NP who seemed to care about my symptoms and ask questions about my symptoms. The NP referred some additional tests such as an echo, treadmill stress test, and a heart monitor. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone getting a heart monitor, so it does make me a little nervous. I’m guessing it will be externally visible, but I’ll do some more research on it later.

My echo and treadmill stress test aren’t scheduled until September 5th because I wanted to do them on the same day to decrease the amount of time off from work. And September 14th is already scheduled to follow up with the NP for the test results.

The EKG done at the cardiologist also came back as “probably normal.” There is an anomaly or variation in my EKG, but it could just be how my heart functions on a normal basis and could be nothing. I’ve never established a baseline before so it’s difficult to determine for now. Hence, the additional tests.

The NP also pointed out that it’s unusual to have a high cholesterol at my young age (27), which makes me wonder how I had gotten high cholesterol. Genetics? My diet? I’m usually pretty conscious about what I’m eating, and I try to exercise regularly even if it’s just yoga. But there’s plenty of other people my age that don’t exercise regularly or eat a regular, healthy diet and they don’t have issues with their cholesterol. So, why me?

The NP further stated that my iron levels were “critical” from my last blood test. My iron % saturation resulted at 7%. According to quick Google search, severe levels are considered anything under 10%. Normal range is 15-55%. So why did my doctor only tell me to increase my red meat intake? Why didn’t my doctor tell me to start taking iron supplements?

I’ve been doing fairly well in my diet lately. Mainly just overnight oats for breakfast and salad for lunch / dinner. I’m cooking for once. I mainly just cook some type of protein for the salad. I’m also taking fish oil, vitamin D, and magnesium supplements daily.

I do feel better physically and mentally, but I’d like to know what the cause of my symptoms were in the first place. Was it all psychosomatic? Is there something else going on?

My sleep pattern is still irregular. I’m still not sleeping until ~1 AM most nights.

But at least some things are getting better. Can’t have it all, right?