Friday, November 26, 2010

There's no way I'll be able to catch up this time....

but I'll try. October saw Mom in the hospital again for a few days with pneumonia/broncitis and Atrial Fibrillations. Then the 29th of October I ended up in the hospital with chest pressure..it ended up being nothing. Or at least nothing they could pin down. The following Thursday I had an appointment with my new cardiologist..well my first cardiologist. He wanted me to have an angiogram because of the family history. I went for that the following Monday. It was an experience. Mom says she was awake through hers...I don't think I was. I remember bits and pieces of it..for example the doctor saying he was going to have to go in through the groin because he couldn't get the catheter in through my wrist. I think I woke up once and the nurse was pushing on my groin to get the bleeding to stop. oh and my nurse is dating Beck of Kimberly and Beck..not impressed. She was a bit of an old teen ager if you understand what I'm saying. So...angiogram showed 20% blockage in one artery. I'm happy about that. Monday night I started having pain in my upper lungs when I swallowed water or took deep breaths. Ended up going back to the Cath Lab Tuesday but they said my lungs sounded ok so take some tylenol. Wednesday or Thursday I called my cardioloigst office at 7:10..they're website said they opened at 7:00. The phone was answered by an answering service who said they'd have the doctor on call give me a ring back. Within 10 minutes he called. I explained to him what I was experiencing...pain in my lungs and pain in the upper arm that they couldn't cath. He told me to call the office at 8:00 when they started taking calls in the office and tell them to get me in. I hung up feeling good that they were taking it seriously. 10 minutes later the phone rang and it was the office asking me if I could be there at 8. Rush rush and we were there...on time. EKG,Echo cardiogram...back at 1:30 for a carotid artery scan. Echo showed a thin layer of fluid around the heart..but they don't know that it wasn't there already and superficial inflammation in a blood vessel in my arm. Got permission to take Ibuprofen. Mom was having a lot of A Fibs so her visiting nurse called her cardioloigst office and got her an appointment for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. That day we found out that her cardiologist died. He was hit by an airport shuttle about a month ago. She'd been seeing his assistant so we could keep the appointment. He told her he wanted to do a cardio-something or other..where they shock the heart and try to get it into a normal rhythm. That was scheduled for the next day. I'm thinking ...oh great...the day before Thanksgiving. So we were at RGH at 6:15..at 6:30 they called her back and got her ready. I was with her until they got ready to do the procedure then I went out to the waiting room..with in a half an hour the doctor came out and told me they'd tried twice and had failed to get it into rhythm . Great..now what? I'll try to give her a medicine..do you feel confident enough to make sure her blood pressure doesn't fall to low? Other wise I'll put her in the hospital for 5 days..ummmm NO way ..she's been looking to forward to this Thanksgiving with Shaun being home. We had a good Thanksgiving..Ken,Me, Mom,Jen 2, Nicole ,James,Shaun,Jen1 and Ken's dad. We ate early coz Shaun and Jen had to go to her families for supper and Nicole and James went to his brothers for supper. Today Shaun went and got the grandkids..so I have a house full again..and I love it. Next week is Raymour and Flanigan supposedly coming to fix the couch and getting Mom's blood work done on Monday. I have an echo cardiogram and cardiologist appointment on Tuesday..Wednesday is pay the bills day...other then that I don't know what's going on.The week after is 2 doctor appointments for Mom. Cardiologist and Primary Care Physician. And Ken has an appointment that week also. Busy Busy Busy....till next time