Went to see a GP yesterday, he spoke very little English, but I handed him all the files and letters that I had in my possession so that he could see what was going on with me. He asked me, ''so why you here today and not in surgery?''. In broken Portuguese/Spanish, I managed to convey that I wanted to get in better health before surgery and to know if there was any underlying illness which caused the aneurysm in the first place, such as ASVD and that I wanted to know the condition of my lungs, heart, kidney's liver, thyroid etc.
I explained that I had been a smoker for 35 years. He said that he had been a 4 pack a day smoker but had quit many years ago. I think he could relate to what I was going through because he proceeded to write referrals for every test in the book. I had a chest X-ray, Spirometry, EKG as well as full spectrum blood and urinalysis. I go next week to see the results.
I had my little smoking ''relapse'' 3 days ago and am already feeling much better. I think I'll go for a walk today and fill my lungs with clean fresh air. The sun is out and it's a gorgeous day!