August 13, 2009

August 13, 2009

It's been a while since I last wrote in this blog...since Lynn looked like she was pretty much all fixed up, and since it looked at the time that she had pretty well recovered, it looked like the main reason I had been keeping the thing up and running had been done. Well, unfortunately, it just isn't the case. Lynn's arrhythmia has disappeared, for good we hope, but she's still not back to where she had been. The big issue is still the heart circulation. She has nowhere near the endurance she had previously, and has all kinds of trouble with coughing. This is due to the fact that fluids build up in her lungs, mainly because her heart cannot pump them out sufficiently. It also means that her body does not get enough blood flow, and the minute she exerts herself, she gets all out of breath and has to rest. Any kind of exertion is difficult for her. The biggest problem, though, is the coughing. It gets much worse when she lays down, and that means that when she tries to sleep, the coughing keeps her awake.

We've been going through her doctors lately...her regular doctor has been helpful, but getting in to see the specialists has been very difficult. For example, they tell her to come in for a monthly follow-up, and then cannot schedule her for 2 to 3 months. I think that this is really ironic...all the right wingers out there are slamming Obama's health care program because it will lead to rationing and will put limits to how much you can see a doctor, while Lynn is experiencing that very situation right now. Today, she got fresh Doppler done on her heart. On Monday, she will discuss the results of the test with a pulmonary specialist, one, incidentally, she should have seen weeks ago. Hopefully, they'll have some ideas on what can be done to get her felling better. The overall theme, of course, is that this is all due to the radiation she had years ago. Of course, this defies logic...if the radiation is causing all the fatigue, how come she never had that problem BEFORE the open heart procedure? How come all this started AFTER they did all the bypass plumbing work? It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or an engineer!) to know that something that was done in the operation is causing the pulmonary failure situation, not some damage from radiation applied to her back during the Reagan administration.
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