MerrinDonahue.com

It appears that the women in my family must continually try to one-up one another. We have each struggled all of our lives to find our own unique style; however, God will not let us forget that we are all bound together by an alphabet soup of cardiac problems. First, it was WPW (that one belongs to my older sister). Not to be outdone, I quickly followed with SVT, clearly the more exotic. Now, it seems my mother has been diagnosed with MVP. Dammit! Who decided she gets to be the Most Valuable Player?
Now, before you all freak out and wonder how I could possibly joke about something as serious as heart trouble, please understand that none of these conditions are in the least bit life threatening. Sure, it’s scary when you have to call your husband to have him take you to the emergency room on Valentine’s Day, but trust me when I tell you that none of these conditions are anything that a good calcium channel blocker and a red wine-aspirin cocktail can’t control.
So that’s the news today, and I, for one, am grateful that Mom’s fainting spells weren’t an indication of a bigger, meaner problem. I’ve been worrying about it for a few weeks now, and I’m extremely relieved. But, now that my stress level is up, somebody pass the Verapamil.