On the health front

[pecunium]

Today 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.

Comments

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

That is scary. My thoughts are with you and yours.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Good luck on the follow-up -- George Scithers was probably right when he said that the VA medical system is quite good once they decide there really _is_ something wrong (or at least after they figure out what it is).

About 30 years ago, shortly before I Retired, I had a worrisome cardiac sinus arrhythmia that Kaiser couldn't quite pin down, but didn't consider especially dangerous. It cleared up within a few months after I jettisoned the Job Stress and my life otherwise became more tranquil.

[firedrake-mor.livejournal.com]

Wow. You're the only other person I've ever known who had Reiter's! I was diagnosed in 1984, when I developed assymetrical Achilles tendinitis for the first time.

So far, my heart's still okay, but I did have a stress induced inferior ventrical infarct in 1997. The scans they made last year before my back surgery show everything's currently in good shape.

Good luck! May I ask what NSAIDs they have you on, if any?

[georgiamagnolia.livejournal.com]

I had to go look up Reiter's because I have never heard of it. Wow. I have psoriatic arthritis and colitis and a whole host of other things that suck, but none of them are likely to do anything to my heart. Reiter's is ten pounds of suck inna five pound sack. Be well, friend.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Good thoughts already headed in your direction, now amplified.

[ckd]

Thinking good thoughts at you.

(The mention of "Polytrauma Clinic", though, was somewhat amusing; given the overall composition of my flist, anything starting with poly- is far more likely to be about relationships than medical treatment....)

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Suck. When you're feeling better and maybe up for a road trip or something, we should meet up in Joshua Tree and do some photo shooting and talk a lot about photography and probably other stuff. I'm thinking of getting down there in March, try to hit the wildflowers again.

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of you. (In Monterey. Someday you should come here.)

[pameladean]

Ack. I'm glad they're on it already. Very best thoughts in your direction.

P.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

Some years ago, I was diagnosed with arhythmia. Nothing was prescribed. Shortly afterwards I met my wife and got out of London. No more arhythmia for me.

Best wishes on getting it all sorted out.

Inflammation

[xenolee.livejournal.com]

I hope the doctors now have you taken an anti-inflammatory.

Something MDs sometimes don't mention (because it's not something they can prescrie, and besides it falls into another medical specialist's zone) is that heart problems are associated with gum inflammation, so if you're not brushing your gums (and teeth) twice a day it might be helpful to do so.

You're in my prayers.

--Lee Gold

[lexica510.livejournal.com]

Very best wishes for a quick and unexciting resolution to this.

And as far as reducing inflammation, you might want to boost the amount of turmeric in your diet. I don't think it has any negative side-effects, other than staining one's cooking utensils yellow. :-)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Actually, I need to talk to you about some photo-business related things... I am working on setting up some workshops, and photo-safaris. Those will be going into the Business Plan for the SBA Loan I'm contemplating (I need to see just what the various terms are. Someone told me today they get an actual stake in the business, not just a guaranteed return on investment, which might change my mind some).

It seems, as I thrash it out I am thinking a little too small, so things I was being tenative on I'll need some advice for.

Shooting Joshua Tree in March sounds wonderful.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, someday I should return to Monterey.

It's where I learned Russian. I miss it, in a gentle way (not as I miss SLO).

Is Epsilon (greek restaurant on Tyler St) still there? There was a time I was a regular, and Peter would keep me from leaving.

[tenderberry.livejournal.com]

Hell of a thing to have on one's mind...hope there's a treatment that isn't worse than the condition - I'd say money was tight here too but I don't have any to speak of...hmm

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Then we probably have the same level of tight.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Yes, let's talk photo business! Use my gmail address for fastest email response.

I'm going to get on some kind of wildflower watch list and be ready to head south in the spring.

[honormac.livejournal.com]

o_o

When your heart does that thing... Do you get a weird feeling in your chest, and then a single short cough?

I haven't noticed the pause before the bdididbup, but I've noticed, in me, it usually causes this little cough...

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Heartbeat irregularities are scary. I spent a night in the ER with heart palpitations early this year, due to low potassium & magnesium. Emotionally, waiting for the monitor to confirm it, I vacillated between wondering if it was all in my head, or if I had serious heart disease.

Hugs. I hope your physicians will take all the right kinds of care of this.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

No cough. The chest has a sense of pressure. When it first happened I was putting the sensatioin closer to my diaphragm, and thinking it was digestive.

I seem to have a skip beat (which is being fairly chronic right now) and the occaisional bi-trigeminid recovery beat.

Workups have been ordered.