Somehow I had December 2nd on Friday. Jason straightened me out on that last night so I really did make my appointment in Casper at the CardioPulmonary place. I left early so I could meet with Rich and Val and cuz Jim and Susie for lunch. That was ever so nice to catch up with lives and catch a glimpse. Jim is in a state over his cancer recurrence and I don't blame him. Poor baby. A low blow at this late stage but he is lined up with top oncologists from Boulder. Top oncologists or not, having your nose shaved until the cancer disappears is not a pleasant prospect.
Rich went with me to the meeting with the "mid-level practitioner" who turned out to be Wendy, a Physician's assistant who was all kinds of competent, thorough, and took pains to explain a lot to me. Moderate Heart attack-serious enough, no coronary disease, prognosis for restoring a normal rhythm. (four weeks of good coumadin scores are a pre-requisite before shock therapy), limitations, and how to cope, med adjustments (add a statin as a precaution). Richard and I have the same heart and we think our dad did too, though the medical arts were not this advanced then. I knew Rich had an angiogram in 1999 but he did not require a stent (nor would I) but his arrythmia is due to a bundle branch block which cannot be corrected. But we have big old hearts that don't push enough blood. He exercises faithfully and takes his meds and his recent test has his expulsions up to about 65% which is pretty good considering. Mine is less than 40% . I really will need to consider the shock treatment. They are fine with me transferring to Dr. Cohn and driving to Florida.
Got the record requests in place. I was impressed as a techie: My EKG, and all other tests go right into a laptop and to central records. They can print them out at the push of a key. They scanned the records I brought right into the machine. I am now fasting for another blood draw tomorrow.
The ride to Casper was a good test. I am tired tonight but not bad. I will need to take breaks on the way to Florida because I need to move the fluid that settles in my legs.
The doggies were good as gold and got a nice treat. Honey is out barking at the moon right now. Buddy likes to be warm.
