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Extremely high calcium score at 42 - is there any positive here??
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Jun 25 3:31pm | Replies (193)Comment receiving replies
I clearly remember the first days after my score came back (407 at age 50), and being afraid to even get off the couch for fear of dropping over dead. I’ve done a lot of reading and listening in the past year, and you will normalize fairly quickly. Talk to everyone you can, it helps. You’ll get frustrated that there are very vocal advocates on both sides of the diet spectrum (vegan vs. keto, to oversimplify) so land on whichever makes your body “feel” healthier - you’ll be able to tell. And this test is still fairly like a shiny new toy - I’m not downplaying it’s validity or even the correlation with potential future events, but some of the cardiologists I’ve spoken to don’t even order the test because they don’t put much faith in what it really tells you. I would bet most of your friends never even heard of this test, and it helps to realize that there are millions of people who are likely in worse or same condition, we just have more info - we are not more likely to drop over than the ones who never heard of the test. I’m rambling a bit now, but this quote always helps me when I get scared - “stopping yourself from living won’t stop yourself from dying.” Feel free to reach out if you’d like to chat more.
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Really appreciate this. Yes, that’s been my basic initial reaction too, just a sense that an imminent expiration date has suddenly been put on my life.
But like I said, I’m trying to balance this with the manner/attitude of the cardiologist as he conveyed the info to me. I left the office based on how casual he seemed not sure whether this was very serious news or not. He just matter of factly told me he’d put me on a statin, that I should take baby aspirin, and that I should do a second CT scan, this time with contrast. But his tone wasn’t heavy, like he was giving me life-altering news or really trying to impress the gravity of this on me. It was only when I searched around online after that I saw how bad the number seems to be.
So I called his office yesterday and left a message saying I was very concerned with what I had been learning about the score and he called me back from his vacation late last night. I missed the call so I only have a voicemail but he said:
“Hi, it’s Dr. Xxxx returning your call. Listen, there is nothing for you to be concerned about. Ok? Really. You have calcium on your arteries. It’s plaque. It’s not a blockage. We’re going to do a scan at some point as a baseline. If I thought it was really an emergency, I would have sent you straight to the hospital for an emergency scan. This is just for a baseline and the truth is, it isn’t even necessary. But I would like to have it for something to compare you to in the years to come. Again, nothing to worry about at all. We’re just identifying you as someone who needs a little more aggressive attention.”
So….I don’t know? I hear what you’re saying about docs apparently having very different understandings of what this test means. I can’t see mine doesn’t take it seriously. After all, the only reason I had the calcium test in the first place was because he suggested it. I didn’t even know what it was. And he is very well credentialed. So I feel like maybe I should take some reassurance from him saying something like this. And I’ve reviewed the other thread here that the moderator suggested; striking how many in there report extremely high scores but no issues on stress tests and no apparent blockages.
But then again, the stats I can find seem pretty clear. 90%+ of people my age get a score of 0 and mine is nearly 400. And the relationship between a score like that and heart attack/stroke seems strong. But presumably my cardiologist knows this too. Again, it was his idea to do the test.