Saturday, May 24, 2008

My doctors appointments

Well I figured I had better update my blogs with my doctors appointments before some of you start knocking down my door.

I saw the Cardiologist on May 13. She was in a pretty good mood this time. Her nurse is a pain in the you know what tho. Anyhow a another storey for another day. Well the Cardiologist was not to happy that my stress test results were way down. But like I said I haven't been able to do any real exercise in a long time so that could be a good reason. I was down 3 minutes in length or 3 stages as they say. Which is not all that great. WE had quite the discussion about how much I should weigh and how much I want to lose. She almost had a hissy fit when I told her how much I wanted to lose. I now weigh 158 lbs and would like to get down to 120 lbs. The cardiologist flipped and said that was way to low. Her nurse said that would put me at a BMI of 20. The cardiologist said first of all she didn't think I needed to lose any weight ( yeah right I have a thick roll/s around the middle) then she said that I was to go to no less that 130 lbs. WE shall see who wins that discussion (probably me).

We discussed my meds and if I could change them. My only problem is one of the drugs I was on 5 almost 6 years ago nearly killed me. That is the drug I actually wanted to go back on. NO I don't have a death wish. But it just controls my arrhythmias alot better than any other drug has and I have way less side effects on it. Minus the nearly killing me. She said that a small dose might be ok but she was not going to do it since Toronto is looking after my arrhythmias and pacemaker. So it was left that I would talk with the Electrophysiologist this week when I saw him.

Well I went Thrusday May 22 for that appointment only it didn't happen. Unfortunately he was away cause his mother passed away that morning. Ok I understand but now he is gone for the next 2 weeks to India to do some procedures. His secretary will talk with him as soon as he gets back on June 9.

I got my pacemaker interrogated after some disscussion and presuading. So I knew I was having alot of arrhythmias since I saw them March 18 which was 9 weeks ago. I had done pretty good from my Ablation January 17 to March 18 only 20 episods. Not bad. That was way down compaired to what I had been having prior to the Ablation. I figured I had maybe another 20 to 25 since the last time I was there. Well we find out I had 71 episodes in the 9 weeks. Had my EP been there I am almost 100% sure he would have said that he was booking me for another Ablation. That will make Ablation #5. Like a friend of mine said to me the other day is it really worth having the ablations since the don't last? I wasn't able to talk to my EP about the drugs. I did speak with the doctor who deals with my pacemaker. She said that she could not in good concience put me back on the drug that nearly killed me. So that was out and a few others because any other drug in that class will do the same thing. Then since I am so drug sensitive that eliminates a few other drugs. So she made the changes to the pacemaker that she could but now there is nothing else that can be done that way. Part of it is because there are several programs they want to use but either they are not programmed into my pacer or they will drain the battery faster than they would like. Which we are watching cause that is coming close to start considering replacement. So there is no drugs, nothing that can be done with the pacemaker and they are at the end of their options. I was basically told that the arrhythmias are not serious or life threatening, they are annoying but there is nothing else they can do right now so I essentially have to suck it up and live with it.

That is easy for them to say they have not experienced what I have gone through. I just have to wait and plead my case to the EP when he comes back and see where that will get me. The only thing is his secretary told me she is booking in August now for his follow ups. I can't wait that long. Then the pacemaker clinic told me they are booked solid till the end of August and to see the doc I always do that would be mid September. Not good when you are told 3 months and no going over that because of the battery.

Life sucks.

1 comment:

Sandy P said...

Oh Kathy I'm so sorry your going through all these terrible health problems. Your such a nice person and you've been through a lifetime of this already. I pray they can help you more. Big hugs, Sandy P.