On the health front
Oct. 14th, 2008 06:31 pmToday I had an interview with the Polytrauma Clinic. That was to see if my head had been so rattled in various moments of general cluelessness/bad luck that my brains were slightly scrambled.
My brains are as good as they ever were.
However, yesterday I started noticing a problem I'd had once before. Four years ago in Korea I had (though I didn't recognise it right away), some irregular heartbeats. Instead of the usual, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup, etc., ad nasuem/finitum I was going, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup..., ..., bdididbup.
It was the pauses which worried me. Happily, for certain values of happily, it was still going on this morning. In Korea I figured out what was going on, just as it stopped. So hooked up to the EKG for about three hours, and no abnormal readings. The docs guessed at some pre-ventricular contractions and sent me home.
This time, the doc felt my pulse, decided it was abnormal, and the pattern needed to be looked at. So he went outside his lane, called in a favor from the Cardio Nurse and got a 12-lead EKG on me. Yep... the ticker isn't being exactly Timex in the way it's working.
So he made a "must acknowledge" note to my file (the joys of the net) and forwarded it to my VA Primary Care Physician. For the Reiter's a Rheumatologist is in order (which I didn't know to ask for. Silly me I figured some follow up from the consult, and the bloodwork would happen), and a cardio consult for my heart.
He's not afraid it will kill me in the next couple of weeks, but he is afraid the pattern after the pause is "tri-geminid" and that can cause one to have a heart attack. Since Reiter's in an inflammatory disease, and it can affect some muscles, and I'm getting into the age range where heart problems are more likely than things like car wrecks, it's not a thing to ignore.
So... that's been on my mind. There are some other things going on too... right now life is greatly in flux, and money is tight.
My brains are as good as they ever were.
However, yesterday I started noticing a problem I'd had once before. Four years ago in Korea I had (though I didn't recognise it right away), some irregular heartbeats. Instead of the usual, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup, etc., ad nasuem/finitum I was going, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup, Ba-Dup..., ..., bdididbup.
It was the pauses which worried me. Happily, for certain values of happily, it was still going on this morning. In Korea I figured out what was going on, just as it stopped. So hooked up to the EKG for about three hours, and no abnormal readings. The docs guessed at some pre-ventricular contractions and sent me home.
This time, the doc felt my pulse, decided it was abnormal, and the pattern needed to be looked at. So he went outside his lane, called in a favor from the Cardio Nurse and got a 12-lead EKG on me. Yep... the ticker isn't being exactly Timex in the way it's working.
So he made a "must acknowledge" note to my file (the joys of the net) and forwarded it to my VA Primary Care Physician. For the Reiter's a Rheumatologist is in order (which I didn't know to ask for. Silly me I figured some follow up from the consult, and the bloodwork would happen), and a cardio consult for my heart.
He's not afraid it will kill me in the next couple of weeks, but he is afraid the pattern after the pause is "tri-geminid" and that can cause one to have a heart attack. Since Reiter's in an inflammatory disease, and it can affect some muscles, and I'm getting into the age range where heart problems are more likely than things like car wrecks, it's not a thing to ignore.
So... that's been on my mind. There are some other things going on too... right now life is greatly in flux, and money is tight.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-15 04:47 am (UTC)