I posted a few days ago that I have a cat that was recently diagnosed with asthma, and when the radiologist looked at the x-rays he also noticed a slightly enlarged heart. Since I recently lost a cat to undiagnosed HCM, I panicked. I was so scared that I was going to have to go through this again and lose this guy so young.
However, the good news is that we had a trip to the cardiologist a few days ago to get his heart checked out and everything looks completely normal! The cardiologist was WONDERFUL and sat down and explained everything to me, and showed me exactly what he was looking at, and explained the range of normal measurements for different parts of the heart. Everything was right within normal range. He did explain that unfortunately, since heart disease is pretty tricky, this doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have heart disease and he won't ever have it. But it does mean that there is absolutely nothing that can be seen as anything wrong right now, which is obviously a very good thing! Because the cat also has asthma he told me to make sure that at any future checkups the vet pays close attention to his heart because asthma can affect it, but right now, everything is looking good!
I honestly didn't even realize how much I had worked myself up about this. I knew I was worried and upset, but when the doctor looked at me and said "Let me show you what I see - I see that everything looks perfectly normal" I felt like this giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I could actually feel the stress disappearing as soon as he said that. I can't believe I had myself so worked up without even realizing it. I've never been so happy about spending hundreds of dollars and driving 4 hours round trip just to find out that nothing is wrong. The peace of mind it gave me was well worth the money and time spent.
He told me several different reasons why a heart could appear to be enlarged during an x-ray, and not actually be enlarged. The best description he gave me was "If you slice a piece of a football off and you look at it directly from the top it will look completely different than if you had it tilted even slightly." So while I am very thankful that the radiologist who looked at the x-rays is obviously a very thorough radiologist, I'm also very thankful that he was wrong!
Now I still have to deal with the asthma so I'll probably be back asking questions about that. Tomorrow I'm heading to the vet to get an inhaler for him and to learn how to use it. The vet didn't want to start any treatment until we had the heart issue figured out, which was apparently a good idea because the cardiologist said that the injectable steroid treatment for asthma can have an effect on the heart. We're starting with the inhaler though and hopefully this will work out. Otherwise we'll switch to a daily oral steroid and as a last resort the steroid shot.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my good news. I'm just so relieved that his heart is just fine!
However, the good news is that we had a trip to the cardiologist a few days ago to get his heart checked out and everything looks completely normal! The cardiologist was WONDERFUL and sat down and explained everything to me, and showed me exactly what he was looking at, and explained the range of normal measurements for different parts of the heart. Everything was right within normal range. He did explain that unfortunately, since heart disease is pretty tricky, this doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have heart disease and he won't ever have it. But it does mean that there is absolutely nothing that can be seen as anything wrong right now, which is obviously a very good thing! Because the cat also has asthma he told me to make sure that at any future checkups the vet pays close attention to his heart because asthma can affect it, but right now, everything is looking good!
I honestly didn't even realize how much I had worked myself up about this. I knew I was worried and upset, but when the doctor looked at me and said "Let me show you what I see - I see that everything looks perfectly normal" I felt like this giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I could actually feel the stress disappearing as soon as he said that. I can't believe I had myself so worked up without even realizing it. I've never been so happy about spending hundreds of dollars and driving 4 hours round trip just to find out that nothing is wrong. The peace of mind it gave me was well worth the money and time spent.
He told me several different reasons why a heart could appear to be enlarged during an x-ray, and not actually be enlarged. The best description he gave me was "If you slice a piece of a football off and you look at it directly from the top it will look completely different than if you had it tilted even slightly." So while I am very thankful that the radiologist who looked at the x-rays is obviously a very thorough radiologist, I'm also very thankful that he was wrong!
Now I still have to deal with the asthma so I'll probably be back asking questions about that. Tomorrow I'm heading to the vet to get an inhaler for him and to learn how to use it. The vet didn't want to start any treatment until we had the heart issue figured out, which was apparently a good idea because the cardiologist said that the injectable steroid treatment for asthma can have an effect on the heart. We're starting with the inhaler though and hopefully this will work out. Otherwise we'll switch to a daily oral steroid and as a last resort the steroid shot.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my good news. I'm just so relieved that his heart is just fine!
