A New Heart Twist to Gram's Story

Today Mom and met with the cardiologist at MD Anderson regarding her heart.  We were not happy with what we learned.  Apparently Mom has had a heart attack at some point in her life.  They cannot tell if it was while she was in the hospital in January and February ... or if maybe the damage was done when she was a child (she had rheumatic fever at age 6).  And we will never know "when" it happened.  We learned that Mom's EF is 38%.  We knew her EF was in the 30's somewhere so 38% beats the heck out of 30%.  We were shocked that she had had a heart attack ... but if you think about it, why would her EF be in the 30's if she had not had heart failure??  On May 13 she will go back to MD Anderson for a cardiac stress test.  This test will tell us how Mom's heart performs under stress.  They will not put Mom on a treadmill ... but they will give her some medication that makes her heart "think" that she is getting exercise.  We do not know yet what this means in terms of the stem cell transplant ... we will know more on May 15 when we get the results of the stress test and we get the results of the last velcade treatment.  The cardiologist changed her heart medications including adding lasix and aspirin  plus moving her to a different blood pressure medications.  We pray that Mom's heart is strong enough to handle whatever the best cancer treatment is available for her.