Last year my DP suffered a heart attack. He has been left with damage to his heart. Initial consultations with the cardiologist were grim, placing him in a heart failure category and talking about scary things like transplants. As time went on and we had more appointments, there were modest improvements and the general hope that his condition can be managed with medication. He has gone back to work and is mostly comfortable and happy but often anxious and depressed over the limitation this has placed on his life and the things he can no longer do. Nobody knows how his life will be affected long term and it is very much "wait and see."
DP went for a scan last week and I was sitting in the room watching it being done and looking at the screen. I am not a doctor of any kind, but after his heart attack I read and researched anything I could get my hands on about his condition. I knew the key things to look out for on the scan and could clearly see the numbers and stats. One vital number, an indicator for the heart's overall function, was much lower than it should have been.
After the scan my DP asked me if I thought it would be a good result, as he is very worried and desperate for an improvement. Not wanting to alarm him, I went on about how I was sure it would be and that he seemed so well that there was surely no way it could be bad news. He is aware of this number as well and is hoping for it to increase, he didn't see the actual number on the screen.
A few days after the scan he got a call from the hospital asking if they could move his consultation forward by a month. This obviously freaked him out but was assured it was for admin purposes and not to do with his results.
We're going to the consultation tomorrow and I feel like the result isn't going to be good or at least not like we'd hoped. But I've gone and filled his head with assurances that it will probably be ok. When they moved the appointment forward I said it will be for admin purposes like they said, they wouldn't be allowed to lie about that, but I don't know if I believe it myself. I feel like I have set him up for a fall and should have stayed neutral.
My only comfort is that I am not trained to read these results and that I hopefully have gotten it wrong. "A little knowledge is dangerous" is a phrase I have used throughout my life. But it still keeps me awake at night and I feel conflicted that I have told DP it will be ok when I have the expectation it won't be.
What should I do? He'll be talking about it a lot tonight and on the way to the appointment. Do I keep saying i'm sure it will be fine or should I try to change the subject? Should I manage his expectations?
Sorry that this is long and maybe a bit of a grim problem for this board, I guess I just feel like I need to get it out.