Lynn is back in the hospital...things have not been going well for her when it came to the fluid build-up. Her ankles continued to stay swollen, even after she took the Lasix, which is supposed to draw off fluids. She went ot see her family doctor, Dr. Conaway, and he decided that, due to this and some other symptoms, she needed to get admitted to Riverside. That was yesterday. She will be there for a few more days, as she has to wait until Monday to see a heart specialist. Fortunately, the increased dosage of the Lasix she has been getting has really helped out. The swelling in her ankles is all gone now. Of course, we still don't know why she has no stamina and doesn't appear to be getting better. In fact, she has actually gotten worse the last few weeks when it comes to stamina. It has become noticeable to her, and she is getting pretty tired of the situation, to say the least. The thing that makes this so frustrating is that no one can figure out what the problem is. It seems to defy description or analysis. What could be happening that will make her heart condition get worse? There doesn't seem to be any explanation for it, and all her doctors are equally baffled.
She is in room 5012 at Riverside. If anyone would like to visit, she really would enjoy the company. She will be there for another day or two, so feel free to drop by. Her cell phone number is 614-507-0653.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Cleveland Clinic and Other Events
September 8, 2009
Things continue to be interesting around here for Lynn. She continues to have difficulties catching her breath, and her stamina not only hasn't improved, it had seemed to be getting worse. Well, we found out why...her heart function, measured by the "EF" number, is now down to around 20. That means that her heart is about at 20% efficiency, roughly speaking. For most people, it's above 50. Here's how we found that out.
She had been undergoing a number of tests throughout her recovery. Unfortunately, she was not able to see her heart doctor very often, so they were kind of strung out over time. Well, she finally decided that what she needed was a good solid second opinion. Based on recovery rates of her fellow McConnell Heart Center rehab patients, she just was not getting any better. Of course, the Cleveland Clinic has an excellent reputation, so she lined up a consultation with one of their cardiac doctors. Her name is Dr. James. I took a day off and we headed up to the clinic on the 4th. The ride up was uneventful, and we had very little difficulty figuring out where to go. The campus was beautiful, and we enjoyed the place in spite of the reason why we were there.
We spent all day up there, and she got a number of tests. We met with Dr. James in the morning. She went over Lynn's medical records (all 10 lbs of them), and Lynn told her about her loss of appetite and about her high heart rate. At first, she felt that the problem might be in her lungs. So, she wanted Lynn to do a pulmonary test in addition to the other tests scheduled. She also wanted her to have another of the ultrasound tests, despite the fact that Lynn had had one not too long before. She wanted to do her own interpretation of it. We finally wrapped things up around 5PM.
We had quite a bit of company visiting over the week-end, and by the time everyone left, Lynn was pretty wiped out. We thought it was just because of all the people, but that turned out not to be the case. Today, Lynn got a call from Dr. James. It turns out that her heart function was down to 20...it had been at 30-35 in mid-August. Obviously, something is wrong, for her to have such a drop in efficiency over such a short period of time. She also told us that Lynn had developed some kind of infection somewhere in her system. This was undoubtedly picked up by some of the blood work that had been done up there. She recommended that Lynn set up an appointment with her family doctor right away, and cancel the stress test that had been scheduled for today. She also wanted to do two more testing procedures...one will be another angioplasty, this one less intrusive, which will check out part of her heart. Can't recall what the other one will be. However, we think that these can be done down here in Columbus. Then the results can be sent up to Cleveland. That way, we will not have to go up there and spend the better part of a day just getting the tests done. With the consultation, it would take two days to get through it.
One thing that is troubling about the 20 EF number is that it is at the threshold where cardiologists recommend that a pacemaker be installed. Lynn's heart rate is way too high, at 103 to 106 beats per minute, so it will not step up her rate. Rather, the way I understand it, it will activate if her heart stops beating. Yes, it is that serious. She went to see Dr. Conaway, her family physician, today, and he got her on more Lasik, to help out with the coughing. He also ran a couple of special blood tests, presumably to get some more information on whatever infection she has. Still hoping that things get better soon...the hardest part of this situation is the fact that we still don't really know why this is all happening, what exactly is wrong with her heart. Hopefully, we;ll at least get the answer to that soon, and then can proceed on some kind of strategy that will get her back up to where she was BEFORE her surgery.
Things continue to be interesting around here for Lynn. She continues to have difficulties catching her breath, and her stamina not only hasn't improved, it had seemed to be getting worse. Well, we found out why...her heart function, measured by the "EF" number, is now down to around 20. That means that her heart is about at 20% efficiency, roughly speaking. For most people, it's above 50. Here's how we found that out.
She had been undergoing a number of tests throughout her recovery. Unfortunately, she was not able to see her heart doctor very often, so they were kind of strung out over time. Well, she finally decided that what she needed was a good solid second opinion. Based on recovery rates of her fellow McConnell Heart Center rehab patients, she just was not getting any better. Of course, the Cleveland Clinic has an excellent reputation, so she lined up a consultation with one of their cardiac doctors. Her name is Dr. James. I took a day off and we headed up to the clinic on the 4th. The ride up was uneventful, and we had very little difficulty figuring out where to go. The campus was beautiful, and we enjoyed the place in spite of the reason why we were there.
We spent all day up there, and she got a number of tests. We met with Dr. James in the morning. She went over Lynn's medical records (all 10 lbs of them), and Lynn told her about her loss of appetite and about her high heart rate. At first, she felt that the problem might be in her lungs. So, she wanted Lynn to do a pulmonary test in addition to the other tests scheduled. She also wanted her to have another of the ultrasound tests, despite the fact that Lynn had had one not too long before. She wanted to do her own interpretation of it. We finally wrapped things up around 5PM.
We had quite a bit of company visiting over the week-end, and by the time everyone left, Lynn was pretty wiped out. We thought it was just because of all the people, but that turned out not to be the case. Today, Lynn got a call from Dr. James. It turns out that her heart function was down to 20...it had been at 30-35 in mid-August. Obviously, something is wrong, for her to have such a drop in efficiency over such a short period of time. She also told us that Lynn had developed some kind of infection somewhere in her system. This was undoubtedly picked up by some of the blood work that had been done up there. She recommended that Lynn set up an appointment with her family doctor right away, and cancel the stress test that had been scheduled for today. She also wanted to do two more testing procedures...one will be another angioplasty, this one less intrusive, which will check out part of her heart. Can't recall what the other one will be. However, we think that these can be done down here in Columbus. Then the results can be sent up to Cleveland. That way, we will not have to go up there and spend the better part of a day just getting the tests done. With the consultation, it would take two days to get through it.
One thing that is troubling about the 20 EF number is that it is at the threshold where cardiologists recommend that a pacemaker be installed. Lynn's heart rate is way too high, at 103 to 106 beats per minute, so it will not step up her rate. Rather, the way I understand it, it will activate if her heart stops beating. Yes, it is that serious. She went to see Dr. Conaway, her family physician, today, and he got her on more Lasik, to help out with the coughing. He also ran a couple of special blood tests, presumably to get some more information on whatever infection she has. Still hoping that things get better soon...the hardest part of this situation is the fact that we still don't really know why this is all happening, what exactly is wrong with her heart. Hopefully, we;ll at least get the answer to that soon, and then can proceed on some kind of strategy that will get her back up to where she was BEFORE her surgery.
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