Doctor's Appointment

 

A couple of days ago, I had an appointment with the heart specialist. He said that everything seems to be ok but make sure I keep active. I do my 1 mile walk most days, it depends on the weather. I was also doing 20 min. Tai Chi but I found it was husting my ribs so I stopped it for awhile. Have to try that again. Then he said that we have to discuss my other problem. I also have a heart valve that is not working properly and may have to be operated on. So next fall I have to do the dye test and all that again to see if things are getting worse. If they are, I will need another operation, just like the last one. Didn't want to hear that. Oh well, that's a couple of years from now and things may not change. 

OPEN HEART SURGERY

 

Just the mention of it can send shivers up your spine. I was waiting for a phone call to tell me when my operation would be. Got that call on Nov. 3. Your operation is tomorrow morning at 5:30 am. No time to think about it. The operation seemed to have gone well and I was out of the hospital in six days.

They gave me a small pillow, which I had to keep pressed against my chest, keeping my ribs from moving. The ribs had been broken apart and were now held together by a piece of wire. The worse pain was always when I sneezed. 

Four days later, at home, working on exercise etc. when I had an adverse reaction to my heart medicine. Had a collapsed kidney, blood pressure fell sharply, became dehydrated and had a stroke on the right side. Fell on the bathroom floor and an ambulance took me back to emergency. After five more days in the hospital, it was back home again. 

While I was in the hospital the second time, my daughter had a problem with the feeding tube going into her stomach. It started to bleed so she had to go to emergency. My son & wife put her in the van but the straps to hold the chair in place didn't work so they had to call an ambulance. 

When the ambulance came, they were unable to load up the wheelchair so had to call a second ambulance. They said we didn't need them, all we needed was a strap to tie down the wheelchair. They let us have one which we returned later. Now it's off to the hospital, same one where I am, at 10 pm

We knew the tube had to be replaced, it happens about every year and we always have a spare. After five hrs. in the hospital they said that they couldn't help right now, my wife would have to make an appointment and come back later. I think my wife may have lost it at that point, telling hem she was not leaving and she wanted something done now. 

Another doctor came, looked at my daughter, pulled out the tube, shoved in the new one and that was all. Maybe two minutes. Didn't even have on rubber gloves. This operation is similar to you checking the oil in your car. 

Then my wife said she was going to take our daughter upstairs to see me because she didn't know what was going to happen. Of course they said no, which started another battle. Finally the doctor took her to the elevator himself.

On the 7th. floor, they said no wheelchairs allowed. Away we go again. Finally they relented and the next thing I know, my daughter is wheeled into the room, face mask on and eyes as big as saucers. They stayed a few minutes and were gone. Now they had to put my wife into emergency because her blood pressure was so high. They finally got out of there at 5am. Seven hours for a ten minute fix.

After all that, I lost 17 pounds and my right foot drags a bit when I walk. Hopefully that will clear up. 

Sore Ribs

Can you imagine? Breaking my ribs apart to get at the heart and then bringing them back and tying them together with a piece of wire. 

Surgery Wow!

 

The description of the surgery is enough to give me heart failure.

Open Heart Surgery

 

Interviews done, all tests done, waiting for date for my open heart surgery.

Hospital Visit

Had to pay a visit to the hospital last evening to get an x-ray of my thumb. A couple of weeks ago, it started popping out at the joint. I tell you that's a surprise when it happens. Went to the doctor last week and then I had to make an appointment for the x-ray. So now I wait for the doctor to call to see what this is all about. You don't know how much you use your thumb until you lose the use of it. A simple job like opening the button on my pants is difficult. 

The Ugly

Yesterday I mentioned the good, the bad and the ugly. Afterward I went to check the movies on TV. Of course on one channel was The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I told you that happens to me all the time. Too bad my lottery numbers wouldn't show up.
So, when I was at the doctor the other day, he gave me a new prescription. The pharmacy closes at 6:00 PM so I was there at 5:30. There was no prescription and it didn't seem to be anywhere in the system. Waited till next morning and called a few other places. It was a new doctor so I thought he might have sent it somewhere else. No luck anywhere. Called back the first place and they said it just arrived. Slow email I guess. Told me it would be ready in twenty min. Waited till the afternoon, then went. Wasn't ready. This time I waited for it.
It seems the new pill would interact with one I was already taking so this caused some confusion. They had to get in touch with the doctor, get it changed and so on. The pill I am already using now has to be cut in half. Now this pill is smaller than a small aspirin, so now cut in two, it's really small. I wet the tip of my finger to pick it up.
With all that going on I didn't win the lottery, mainly because I forgot to buy a darn ticket.

Intelligence

Remember that when you are in the room with a doctor, he or she may not be the smartest person in the room.

My Daughter's Hospital Saga

      My daughter, Natasha is 46 yrs old and has severe Cerebral Palsy. She got sick in May and we took her to Dartmouth General on 28th. They said she had pneumonia and started treating her. It was cleared up in a week but she started having other problems. The feeding tube going into her stomach started to leak so they decided to change the tube. It was a type available at the hospital but not the same as we normally use. We do have a spare for emergencies but they still wanted to use theirs.
       Almost immediately she started having more problems. Her temp. fluctuated between 37+ to 39+. A red circle appeared around the tube entrance, getting larger and larger. They thought she had a virus and started giving her antibiotics. I was sitting with her one afternoon when they gave her a dose. The nurse left and within a short time my daughter started turning red, her face, her arms. I went and got a nurse. She disconnected the antibiotics and said she must be allergic to it. I'm wondering what would have happened if I had not been there. I don't think the nurse would have returned in the next hour.
      We wanted them to replace the tube with our own but no one would do it. Said it was too difficult. She has a specialist in Halifax that always does this work but he would not come to Dartmouth General. Said he did not want to step on other doctors toes. There is no cooperation between hospitals.
      Last Sat. her doctor was able to convince another surgeon to come and look at the tube. My son was there at the time. The doctor apologized and said that she should never have gone through all this shit. The red circle was a burn caused by stomach acid. He replaced the tube with ours and said it was so simple, he didn't know why they didn't do it. My son was watching and said it was so simple he could have done it himself. He told the nurses to put Malax on the burn. The red started to disappear, changing to brown like a suntan. Now, it is peeling like a suntan.
      The temp went down but there is still a small leakage around the tube. Screwed it up with the hospital tube. We made a mutual agreement with the doctor to bring her home. Getting nowhere at the hospital. Now making an appointment with the doctor in Halifax. Took her home on Wed. She acted so so. When she woke up Thur. morning, she was all smiles. It wasn't a dream, she was really home.

Hospital Visit.

      Last week I went to the hospital to visit a friend of mine. He's 76 yrs. old and he fell and broke his hip. That seems to happen a lot. As luck would have it, it was the day before his birthday. There was no one around, so he lay on the floor for awhile. In the end, an ambulance took him to the hospital. Then, the hospital climbed all over his wife.
"How could you do that? leave him all alone at home?"
"Well, why wouldn't I - there wasn't anything wrong with him until he fell."
      Sometimes, my friend has a bad attitude. The type that says, "No one is going to boss me around." Bad attitude for a hospital. They tell him that he's not allowed out of bed without assistance. But he didn't listen. He gets out of bed when no one is around and falls. So that caused a big panic. They were afraid he might have broken his other hip. But he didn't, just ended up with a lot of bruises.
       The other day, while his family was visiting him, he started to climb out of bed.
"Whoa, where are you going?"
"I'm getting up."
"Are you allowed to do that?"
"Sure, I can get up when I want."
"You just stay there until I ask a nurse."
      Well, the nurse came, gave him hell and told him to get back in bed. He'll be going home soon, I imagine, and I can see a lot of problems arising there.

With the help of a Doctor, you can now commit suicide. I think it is a short step from here untill society tells you to get in that lineup.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has finally arrived. I'm sure the mad rush for presents will go full steam till closing at supper time. I don't have the excitement of opening my presents to see what I have. For me the rush is when my wife opens her presents and I see what I bought her. She has a system of buying her own presents, wrapping them and putting my name on them. This works out well for me as I don't have to go shopping. For her, she can buy what she wants and I can't say anything. After all, it's her Christmas presents.

The forecast is for snow on Monday. Since I just came home from the hospital three weeks ago, there won't be any heavy lifting, which means no snow blower for me. Snow flurries outside right now, at least that's what they call it. In Europe they would call it a disaster.

The doctor called yesterday and made an appointment for my daughter for this morning. Has to check out the foot again, so my son gets to do the lifting. He has taken her for more appointments in three weeks than I've done in a year. This included a trip to the supermarket for her and she even got snowed on. Big excitement. Also, no more bandage on the foot.

Went continental this morning and had a cheese croissant for breakfast. During my European and African continent travelling days, I never had a croissant. Bed and breakfast consisted of dinner rolls with cheese and jam.
♫ Tea, a drink with jam and bread.♫  From "The King And I." Had to put it in there.

Packing The Wood

Just looking at the airport radar and the big rain is on the way. It's supposed to last for four days. Hearing that yesterday, I decided to mow the back yard. Going at it and when I looked behind me, there was my son with the other mower. So with the two of us, it only took twenty minutes. Hardly any leaves visible now.

My daughter had a doctor's appointment this morning to check out that heel. I was already to go when my wife said she was going to walk over. So, to and fro it was. My daughter will need ex-rays later on this month.

After lunch I went at the front lawn. I use a bag with that mower so it took a lot longer. That bag filled fast with those leaves. Dump out the bag, back and forth. My next job was to clean out the gutters. Got my son to help. There wasn't too much to clean out. If I was doing it, each drain would have been full of leaves.

After that I had my son help me set up a rack on the patio for firewood. Told him I would put the wood there next week. After awhile, I changed my mind and did it anyway. My reward for that is a sore back.

From Doctor To Taxes

April 29, 2010


Visit to the doctor turned out as expected. Going to get a prostrate operation in the fall. Or they may phone early and ask if I am free. That way , I don’t have time to think about it. The worse pain after the operation will be the first time I go to the washroom. Then it slowly decreases. Can’t do anything or travel for two months. But that’s not today, so onward.

I was nagging my wife to make tea biscuits for me. She said that I was the baker so I had to help. So we did it yesterday. Made two marble cakes, one cheesecake and tea biscuits. Notices my weight this morning was two lbs. more than the day before.

That was an interruption to doing my taxes, but I still did them. Now I’ll wait to see if I have some extra money in my account. Then I’ll know all went well.

A Doctor Day

April 27, 2010

Sliced off those fence posts yesterday. I was going to paint them but had no paint of the right colour. Have to look for a similar colour at a recycling place. After all its only a fence.

We had a holdup in the “Subway” behind my house last week. They say the robber got away thru the houses behind the mall. And that house would be me. There is a high metal fence behind all the houses. But I am the only one that has a large tree up against the fence on the other side. The bottom branches resemble “steps” to the top of my fence. I can see where he climbed my fence because of the mess on my side. So yesterday, got the chainsaw, walked all around that fence and cut off those branches. That’s the end of that.

Have a doctor’s appointment at noon. About prostate. I don’t think it’s any different than any guy my age. It’s just that I’m on the radar. I had a different problem last year and the doctor is also a specialist for prostates. So I ended up as a project. He is trying to decide whether I can use pills or have an operation. Once you’ve been made a project, that’s it. It has to go the route.

Sitting here yesterday, I could see out the window that a squirrel was making trips to my shed. Was getting in thru the vent. So I had to fix that. Always something.

Light rain today. Looks like it is going to be that way all week.

How Doctors Tell Patients They're Dying

Telling patients they're going to die is less dramatic than one might think, and contrary to popular belief, most doctors refuse to estimate how many weeks or months patients have left to live.

While initial reports of Patrick Swayze's pancreatic cancer diagnosis came with predictions that the star would have only five weeks to live, the actor's doctor quickly released a statement refuting the rumors.

"Patrick has a very limited amount of disease, and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far," Dr. George Fisher, Swayze's physician, said in the statement. "All the reports stating the time frame of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic

Putting a time stamp on someone's life, several doctors told ABCNEWS.com, is something that few doctors are willing to do. Instead, they employ much more methodical and caring techniques of breaking the news to terminally ill patients.

"It's not [a doctor's] job......

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=4402744&page=1