July 2009 Archives

The cardiologist appointment went well. My blood pressure was actually lower than it's been at home -- I was knitting in the waiting room, so maybe that helped distract me from the anxiety I'd been feeling. The tiredness I've been experiencing is normal both for the drugs that I'm on, and because my body is adjusting to having a more normal blood pressure. Good to hear that it's not a sign of something more serious. I confessed that we'd gone on the trip that the doctor had advised us to postpone, but the doctor laughed it off, and said he'd let it slide this time. He also ordered up a sleep study as he thinks that sleep apnea could very well be the main culprit here. I'm fine with that, so I'll call and try to get something scheduled for after the surgery next week. I have a follow up appointment with the cardiologist in a month and that was that. No big deal at all.

Richard and I are looking at both our travel schedule and other plans to see when we can have folks out to the house next for a bbq. I definitely want to wait a few weeks since I've been sleeping so much. I don't think I'd have the energy to pull out a big shindig right now :)

Time to head back to sleep... I woke up around 5am and decided to come downstairs and do some dishes. Those are done, and now's as good a time as any to head back under the covers.

I'm very glad that I didn't follow the cardiologist's admonition not to go on our trip to Seattle. Nina and Tom's wedding was wonderful, and hanging out with Leslie and Adam was so much fun -- I can't imagine having missed a minute of it to sit at home moping about my blood pressure. Tomorrow, though I guess it's technically today at this point, is the appointment with the cardiologist. Hopefully my blood pressure will behave and we can discuss medications. My surgery with the oncologist was postponed til next Thursday, and I'm just looking forward to getting that over with.

And now for the deep thoughts... I still feel very lucky in my life. We've traveled so much this year and had some amazing experiences. Throughout all of the medical drama, I'm very thankful that we have excellent insurance and it hasn't forced any hard choices like so many folks have to make. The time I've been able to spend with Richard has also helped rebuild our relationship -- we'd been going full throttle with work for so many years that it's nice to get some of the spark back from when we were actually two separate entities :)

In other news, the garden this year is kind of meh. My tomatoes aren't doing well, and it's difficult to keep up with the watering the containers require. The mints are doing great and I need to start some more basil inside since I harvested everything before we left. The peppers are resilient so they're still doing their thing.

Good news and bad news. Last week, I went in for my pre-anesthesia screening, and my blood pressure was off the charts. 230/130, and it would not come down. I've had "white coat" before, but it usually settles in the 145/90 range, which is still high, but not 'holy crap your veins are going to explode' high. Three untreated hours in the University of Chicago medical center ER, then home, then off to Edward Hospital for actual treatment. After two nights in the hospital, two EKGs, an echocardiogram, a renal ultrasound, an adenosine stress test, and a bunch of different drugs later, I'm home and chilling out and getting into a routine there. The hypertension isn't shocking given the 60 pounds I've put on in the past 7 months from the megace and general stress eating. I also have family history on both sides for it; so, again, no surprises there. I still need to do a sleep study to check for sleep apnea (which I think is likely, but easy to treat).

It was definitely scary, but as the cardiologist said, it was probably spiking for months, and we just never caught it before. Hypertension is something I'd definitely prefer treated than untreated, even though it means that I have three more pills to swallow every day for the rest of my life (or until they tweak things). I'm watching what I eat, and I've cut out caffeine. So far so good.