At the risk of giving away TMI about myself (which I may have already done in previous reviews, so why become suddenly modest now?), this past year has been a wearying slog of doctors, appointments, examinations, tests, medicines, more tests, etc. etc. It started with:
(1). A physical with my doctor. I went specifically because I had to in order to get a refill of my migraine medication. My doctor found something about my heartbeat disturbing enough for him to make an appointment for me with...
(2). The Barnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center in Livingston. Got tested there. But I wasn't finished. Not by a long shot. I had more tests at...
(3). St. Barnabas Hospital. Good hospital, but my experiences there haven't always been the best. Then...
(4). Sleep Disorders Center at St. Barnabas (somehow, my review for their Livingston location changed to West Orange, but I'm too sleep deprived at this point to try and rectify that error...).
By then, I was resigning myself to the probability of having sleep apnea. Shortly afterward, I received a phone call and was told (I'm paraphrasing, but not by much), "Not only do you have sleep apnea, you have SEVERE sleep apnea." Needless to say, this wasn't news designed to help me sleep easier at night. An appointment was made for me at Pulmonary Consultants in Milburn, a town not too far from where I live, but one I know very little about.
On the day of the appointment, I used a copy of Google Maps to help me navigate my way to the location. It didn't go smoothly. I was ok until I hit a high-class residential area. I asked one woman walking on the sidewalk where Milburn Ave. was. She ignored me. I asked 2 women loading a car. They, too, ignored me. Feeling increasingly like I was in a Twilight Zone episode ("Have I died? Am I ghost? Can they even see or hear me?"), or had been mistaken for a masher, I drove straight ahead and thankfully managed to find Milburn Ave on my own and the medical complex where Pulmonary Consultants have their office.
Once you actually get to Milburn Ave., it's a convenient location. Go straight a little bit and turn left, right into the medical complex. Plenty of parking, and a building with a variety of doctor offices catering to different medical conditions. My problem on entering the office where my appointment had been set up was that Dr. Vagram Ovnanian was sick that day. The office had called me to let me know, but our wires had somehow gotten crossed. It didn't bother me too much (I'm perfectly willing to procrastinate, especially when I suspect that the news I'm going to get from the doctor I'm visiting isn't going to be good news). At least I now knew where the office was. An appointment was set for the following week.
At that appointment, everything went smoothly (although I again got lost in the residential area, and there were no residents walking around to ignore me when I asked them for directions). The office staff was polite, efficient, friendly. There was no long wait in the office. Dr. Ovnanian was pleasant, informative, and he was able to put me at my ease (not always an easy thing to do with a neurotic hypochondriac like me). I didn't feel rushed; my questions were answered patiently, even when they were off topic (for instance; the following day, I was scheduled to have a blood test with my regular MD to see if I have hemochromatosis, a blood disorder that Irish people tend to get. My genetic great aunt had it. Dr. Ovnanian said it was "rare," but he wasn't all that familiar with the specifics of the disorder). My sleep apnea wasn't severe; in fact, it was "mild to moderate." Still, he recommended I use CPAP and the order for the CPAP unit was placed. I'm not necessarily looking forward to using it, but it is what it is. If it helps prevent me from dying of a stroke or heart attack (heart health in my genetic maternal line is not good; my youngest genetic sister, in her 30s, already has a pacemaker), I'm all for it.
I have another appointment in a few months. I'm not going to lie and say I look forward to it, but after my initial visit, I have full confidence that I'm in "good hands."
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