Sunday Stroke Survival: What's Ahead

 I'm beginning to have doubts about my cardiologist choice of doctors, I had an inkling at our first meeting and now after my last appointment, that inkling has started to rattle inside. It's like you suspect there is something wrong with your car, nothing really major at first. It's just a suspicion until a rattling or vibration starts. Then you really know something is up. That's how I now feel about him now.

I moved up my appointment from the 15th to last week. I was that concerned about my fluid retention and the heart twinges I'd been feeling. Not really chest pain like angina, just little twinges that last maybe 2 seconds. These had the duration of 20 minutes to an hour. They occurred while I was not active or exerting myself in any way. I was concerned enough to move up my appointment.  I was puzzled and couldn't figure out. I needed to pick his brain as I had done in the past with my other specialists.

When I mentioned a possible link to my heart condition. He was like what heart condition. I reminded him of my status post MI. the stent placement, and three bad valves in my heart thinking he hadn't reviewed my chart before coming in. Unbelievable but understandable in a busy practice. Tech did run a 12-lead EKG after I was put in the room. He said, the stent fixed my heart from the MI, right? I nodded. What about my valves, I asked? Oh no need to be concerned over them. The nuclear study and echo showed only minimal leakage. The edema in my waist and legs? Oh, that isn't coming from your heart. As we age, he began. I halfway tuned him out at this point. He was speaking to me as if I were a child.

This irritates me to no end! I can understand trying to be helpful, but he was borderline of being condescending. He was basically telling me that I had no heart condition. That this visit was a waste of my time and his. All my other cardiologists were wrong and just stringing me along for the past fifteen years! Who would you believe?

He did placate me by scheduling me a heart cath on the 22nd to check on my heart twinges. He doubted whether he'd find anything. I was wondering if he'd be surprised like Dr Bolch was when he had to place a very large stent in my heart in 2005? He didn't think he'd find anything either. He was just placating my regular cardiologist who had seen me through four years of heart concerns. Not that I'm wishing for this mind you. I'm just saying. I know this isn't a Munchausen Syndrome type thing or anything like that. I know my body and listen to it. It may be time to interview a new cardiologist.

Conversely, I love my new endocrinologist! He took the time to read up on Hashimoto's before my appointment with me. To me, that's a sign of a good doctor. He wasn't afraid to say I don't know. We actually had a good chat and exam. He took time examining my thyroid and goiter. He even had me do a swallow test while he examined me. When I mentioned changes in my nails and hair, weight gain, he countered with questions about exhaustion levels and insomnia. He ran another complete thyroid panel and said I should have one done every three months instead of biannually to catch charges before the levels drop off severely. I agreed. He could fine tune it to monthly if needed. I read a NIH study that recommended this approach. This way we might head off the devastating effects of the spontaneous nosebleed symptom of this disease before it happens again and better sleep patterns. Proactive thinking, I love it.  

I was offered a way to live with this disease and not crimp my style too much. He gave me hope. It may not cure me, but at least it's a way out of my doom and gloom box.

What a difference a good doctor makes. I didn't bother my cardiologist with a referral to a vascular surgeon, I left that up to my PCP who I saw later in the day when I got the referral to an orthopedist for my shoulder. Of course, I got that referral too. As I said before, when I say refer me to a good doctor, I mean a doctor you would send your mother to. I'm looking forward to my Botox and getting back into therapies again. Onward we go to more positive gains. 

Nothing is impossible.

Sunday Stroke Survival: Great News for a Change!

I hope y'all celebrated the 4th of July and your independence yesterday. I know I did.
I've been doing the Snoopy dance of happiness this week.  Here's the reason why...

1)The latest scan of my thyroid cancer say it's GONE. The chemo kicked it's hinny right out of my body again.

2)I went to my Vascular surgeon for another scan of my right carotid artery. The report was the artery is less than 70% blocked so no surgery is required. He doesn't need to see me again for a year.

3) I saw my cardiologist for the results of my echocardiogram. My numbers looked so good that he doesn't need to see me again for 6 months! I've seen my cardiologist every 3 months for the past 5 years. He told me whatever I was doing to keep it up.

4) I saw my PCP this week also. It's been a whirlwind of appointments this week. I was in his office just two months ago for my six month check up, but my insurance company requested a physical be done now.  So we chatted/griped about insurance and big pharma. LOL He went through the motions again for a "physical." He said what he always does which I love, "Call me if you need me."

I still need to see my neurologist in two weeks for my standard six month check up. Now that the quarantine has been lifted I need an order for PT again. I also want to schedule Botox again. I desperately need some relief from the spasticity even if it's only 45 days out of 90. It's a stop gap measure until I figure out what else there is. Atlanta is still too hot with COVID-19 to even consider getting another baclofen pump. Not that I've decided to get another one.

I see the endocrinologist it late August about my gone again thyroid and my hypoglyclemia. My A1C on Monday was 4.2. I'm eating 6 times a day already. Maybe she can tell me why my stroke caused my pancreas to go from dead to kick into hyperdrive. No other doctor including my old endocrinologist knew the answer. Maybe, just maybe. I guess I should be thankful for not giving myself two to three shots of insulin a day like before my first stroke in 2012.

So y'all joined me in the Snoopy dance of happiness, won't you?

Nothing is impossible.

Sunday Stroke Survival ~ Botox Revisited

Well the long awaited date is almost here. Monday I have the second series of Botox injections for my spascity. I say long awaited because the last series wore completely off inside of two months instead of three. A month with Charlie Horse pain in my muscles despite muscle relaxers is a long time to wait.

My body will be happier. Maybe the tremors in my left, good hand will stop if I'm able to reduce the amount of meds I'm currently taking. I know my cardiologist will be pleased when I can reduce one of my muscle relaxers that has created my hypotension. Hopefully, everything I've read and talked about with therapists will be true. The second series should produce better and longer alleviation of spasms. That would be a blessing. I will have more effective therapy sessions.

Luckily, it's a new year for my insurance. It means another $7,500 of therapies coverage. No more paying out of pocket for them. Maybe at long last, I'll get some more active movement in my elbow and wrist. Now that the shoulder issue is almost a mute point, OT should be less painful. This will be the main focus of my insurance bucks. A physical therapy office closer to home has a $15 a month plan where I can come in and use their machines twice times a week for PT. I would pay more than that for a gym membership.

I'm still planning on getting the Bioness H200 I told you about last year. Probably now I'm looking at February. Seventy-five miles is still a long drive for me. My oldest daughter, who has been chauffeuring me around, graduated from college with her criminal justice degree and immediately got a full time job with benefits. It's going to depend on her schedule, but I'm happy for her.

The cold weather has finally hit us. So gone are the easy to put on shorts and t-shirts for another two months. Arise a new problem. Donning sweatshirts or sweaters, and long pants. I have found it is easier to to put the long pants on in the bed after I put on my AFO, and before my shoes. Then I'll get up and go to the bathroom in the morning. Yes, it is time consuming but it is easier to do instead of going to the bathroom, taking off my shoes, pulling on my pants, and putting my shoes back on.

We don't run our central heat unit because it runs on gas. They charged us every month even if we didn't use the gas. It was an added expense we didn't need.

We do have a wood burning stove that we burns pucks in and a small electric space heater. Our bathrooms have a in floor heating pad under the tile. Basically, it heats up the rooms we do use to a toasty 75 degrees. When we have guests over, which isn't often, we fire up the wood burning stove. For how we make heating pucks, check out my book on Amazon or Smashwords Are You a Survivalist or a Prepper? They are made from wood chips and leaves from our yard, and old newspapers. Basically free fuel for heat. Can't beat it.

No this is not me!

I don't know whether it's just me getting older, or my Yankee blood thinning, but I start getting chilly at any temperatures under 70 degrees now. I could wear t-shirt up until the temperature dropped below 50 degrees before. Either way it's a nuisance. My DH is the same way, but he has an excuse...he has no bulk on his body at 133 lbs as he did when he was forty pounds heavier. Maybe that's it for me too? I have lost forty pound in seven months, but I still have a sizable amount of fat on me. I used to be six ax handles across the butt and thighs but now I'm only four. LOL A lot of mine is still muscle where he is now losing muscle mass due to his illnesses.

On a much lighter note, I've decided to make Don't Get Your Panties in a Wad into a collection of short humorous essays. I realized it was going to be impossible for me to join it all into a chapter book like I normally do. I'm just too dizzy like all the dumb blonde jokes to do it. Since I have extreme difficulty writing in a linear fashion, why fight it. I figure I can get it all written by the end of the year, and edited and published 2014. At least I'm crossing my fingers to finish the rough draft and two editing passes by the end of the year. I'll be getting a lot of help from my Compuserve and Southeastern Writers Association buddies. I'll need all the help I can get. I'm at 35K words of rough draft as of today. So far it's 35 essays like Chicken Soup for the Soul books although mine are longer at roughly 1,000 words a piece. I figured short reads on points was better than a lot of fillers tying them all together. At least to my damaged brain it makes sense.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.