Life Deals From Under the Deck...

Good news!

Excellent news, this could go a long way in improving your overall quality of life!! :thumbsup:

Glad to hear that you're doing a lot better.

We are now ready to begin the round of testing all over again. It's hard to believe it's been 3 months. During that time though I've lost 18 lbs. Doctors are happy about that. Anyway, I had one test this morning, the majority will be this weekend.

Can't remember the name of today's test, if I describe it, maybe one of you will know it.

First, I had to obstain from caffeine or chocolate for 24 hours before the test, a no brainer since I'm not having either of those right now anyway. Then, no food or fluids 4 hours before and until the test.

The test began with electrodes being hooked up to my chest, side and back. Those were hooked into a machine for 5 minutes or so, then unhooked. I was given an IV with Thorium and sent to wait for 30 minutes.

From there to a bed with a CT Scan type machine. It had a full donut at one end which I didn't use. In front of the donut was a half donut, the half being split in two pieces. As I laid on the bed, those two pieces slowly moved up my body till they were over my chest. Then, for the next 15 minutes, they ever so slowly rotated around me moving about 180 degrees.

After that, I was led to another room where they decided to torture me, at least that is what it felt like. This is where they did a stress test, except that I didn't have to do ANY exercise. All I had to do was sit there while they injected me with the substance from hell for three minutes. This medication, or as I call it, evil-torturous-macheiavellian (sp?)-drug-from-the-lowest-depths-of-hell, simulates exercise. What it does is cause all of the blood vessels in your entire body to dialate immediately. What it caused was me to break out in a cold sweat, have severe heartburn, massive muscle cramps all over my body, the dry heaves, a blinding headache and general feeling like the world was caving in around me. Evidently, that feeling is NORMAL. What a wondeful new torture treatment. You don't have to physically even touch a person and in seconds they are in a living hell.

Anyway, that goes on for 3 minutes, then, gratefully, the medicine runs out and within seconds, the symptoms are gone and you just feel washed out.

After that, it is back on to the table for another 15 minute cycle and then you are done and able to go home. About 2 hours in all.

So, that was my morning.

I will be hospitalized over the weekend for the rest of my testing and then it is just a waiting game to be put on the list!

Sounds like a chemical stress test. Have had it several times since I am unable to take the normal stress test. Ya, that chemical is heeby jeeby creator. (Technical term)

Bingo, you nailed it. It is hard to really describe how that makes you feel but heeby jeeby creator comes as close as I've heard.

Just got a call from the doctor's office. I have to go to the hospital fasting tomorrow. My last round of blood tests showed a blood glucose of 208. That is without fasting though. Still, they say it normally isn't above 90 even when not fasting. So, I guess we might be adding diabetes to the list. Anyway, we'll know more soon.

General Update:

I'll have a more indepth update next week as that is when I meet with the transplant team to go over the results of the myriad of tests.

I met with the internist/sleep specialist today. I found out, nobody told me this before, that my CPAP machine was not actually set to the proper pressure, but a lower pressure for me to get used to. They will bump it up Monday to the proper pressure.

I'm truly amazed at good I feel using this machine and the sleep it gives me. Doc says that having it at the proper pressure will make me feel just that much better. He also told me that I was lucky in that the nasal pillows were working for me, many folks have a hard time with them and aren't able to use them because of leakage and the like. They end up having to use a full nasal mask. I've had absolutely no problem with them.

Next Wed. I meet with another specialist, a part of my transplant team whose entire job is medicine maintainance. Their job is to make sure my meds will all work together without some kind of nasty side-effects happening to me or the drugs themselves, meaning one drug making another not function properly.

Before meeting with him, I'll meet with my family doctor to see what we are going to do about the diabetes. He indicated that glucophage will be able to most likely control things there and it should go away as I lose weight.

So that's the update. Nothing too special. Next week's will probably be more interesting.

Nothing too special? Sheeit. All sounds rather positive to me and your mood seems on the upswing too. Pretty special to me! Weird that they only are now sending you to a person specializing in making sure the meds all work together. Seems to me it would be best to have him in place first, but, hey...what do I know? Better late than never I guess.

Edit: Oh...and sweeeeeet dreams!

Good for you Plunge. Things are looking up a bit.

A bit off the subject, but why in the hell are they so secretive about how to change the pressure on your CPAP machine? It has to be done by prescription and then only by a certified technician. If you don't have insurance, it is $100!!!

So, I tell my doc I'm going to have it figured out and changed to the proper setting before Monday and if I do, he buys me lunch.

We'll, he'll be buying my lunch! I got online and some wonderful person from Holland had the instructions. Took me all of 30 seconds to change the pressure to the proper setting.

Another one of the ridiculous things with the US medical system.

Anyway...

It's about time for an update so everyone knows where things stand.

They have done enough testing now to have developed a timeline. The good news is that we have about 3 years to find a heart. This gives me time to lose the weight that I need to in a pleasant manner.

They are flumoxed by the edema. They are looking at killing the main vein in my legs, forcing the other veins to take over. The thinking is the valves in the main vein are no longer functioning properly and allowing the fluid to accumulate. By killing off this vein, the other less stressed veins will take over and hopefully move the fluid out of my legs. This decision will be made later on this month.

We tried compressions stockings, that was a disaster. At first, they felt good, I was pleased. But, as the day went on, pain began to develop. The medium compression socks ended up severely bruising my legs. The doctor didn't really believe it on the phone so I drove over the next morning, looked even worse then, and showed him. It is part of the reason that they feel my main vein is having problems.

So, that is where things sit, Questions?

Oh, you knew I would have a question, lol. Do they do some kind of test with dye to see how and where things are flowing or do they just 'go for it'?

How are you doing with the sleeping? Did that straighten up some?
Is your wife home yet? Did she have a good time?

They are getting ready to do a 'vein' study where they put a wire up the vein and look at the valves. They are 90% certain right now, but will make sure.

Still getting used to the CPAP. I've found sleeping propped up helps a lot. The biggest problem is my throat and nose drying out during the night and shutting down. l wake up, use some moisturizing spray and start it up again.

A CPAP machine has a humidifier as part of its system, but it just doesn't seem to do the job well enough.

Misoon is back, had a great time. It definitely helped.