Tag: cardiologist

My month (or so) of medicine

Echo

My month (or so) of medicine explores why September, leading to October, seemed so darn complicated this year. It doesn’t USUALLY land so many events in such a narrow timeframe.

ITEM: I received a telephone call from CVS, a real, live person(!), asking me if I wanted a flu shot. Sure! The next day, I got an electronic message. Do I want the COVID shot too? Why not?

On September 2, I went to my nearest store. Oh, they haven’t RECEIVED the shipment for the COVID shot yet. It wouldn’t arrive until Labor Day. (This was true; my daughter got both shots that day.) Then the text I received indicated that I had DECLINED the COVID shot! What? Anyway, I got one on September 16.

ITEM: I went to my podiatrist on September 11. The office recently switched to a new computer system, so paying the $8.66 balance I owed required going back into the old system, which the new receptionist didn’t know how to access. It took a while. So it goes.

ITEM: I had been seeing someone to remove excessive earwax every three months; yeah, I could PROBABLY try to do it myself, but whatever. The problem is that I was supposed to see my person in July, but their system said they weren’t available until late September.  Then I got these tantalizing texts saying there was an earlier opening, always at a time I couldn’t make.  Finally, I got in on September 14, and the impaction, which wouldn’t have taken place if I’d been treated on schedule, had created an irritation that required prescription eardrops. I didn’t get them because they cost $170. 

I gotta have heart!

ITEM: I was supposed to get a tooth implant, but I couldn’t remember the date. September 21 at 9:30 a.m. Fine.

Then I got a message from St. Peter’s Hospital portal saying my procedure would be fully covered. What procedure?   It turned out to be my TRANSTHORACIC ECHOCARDIOGRAM (TTE) W/COLOR FLOW & DOPPLER (CONTRAST/BUBBLE/3D PRN). And this one was scheduled for the morning of September 21. They didn’t ask me; they just informed me. At least Medicare fully covers it. 

So, I had to reschedule the tooth implant to mid-October.

I’m guessing my cardiologist’s office will contact me to set up an appointment to interpret my echo results.

ITEM: Teeth cleaning in late September; no issue.

ITEM: I had a follow-up for my cataract surgery from two years ago. But the doctor had to reschedule until later in the month. C’est la vie.

ITEM: The annual physical is in early October. My Primary Care Physician is retiring at the end of the year; I am sad. I was her patient when she worked in a two-doctor office. Her practice, like so many others, was taken over by St. Peter’s/Trinity Health. I have followed her to several locations; the current one is the most inconvenient. If I don’t get a ride from my wife, I have to take a bus to the Rensselaer train station, then an Uber.

But she’s been a great doc to me for over two decades: direct, opinionated, thorough, occasionally quite funny. I’m not looking forward to breaking in a new PCP.

Health report: blood pressure

Emergency surgery for the baby sister

blood pressure

One of the things my cardiologist – I have a cardiologist?! – wanted me to do is to track my blood pressure. I’m not sure why. My BP has usually been pretty consistent over the years.

Still, all month, I’ve been religiously waiting for 8:20 a.m. I don’t eat beforehand. After opening the device and attaching this tool to my left wrist, I sit on the sofa with my left arm elevated by the davenport’s arm.

The idea is that I sit quietly for five minutes before pushing the button to start the reading. Why do 300 seconds of doing nothing seem so long? I hear the second hand of the analog clock in the kitchen ticking.

What have I learned? Other than the tracking of this information has become an obsession? Not a whole lot.

According to the current standards, a systolic reading of less than 120 mm Hg, and a diastolic score of less than 80 mm Hg is considered normal. If it’s 120–139 systolic/80–89 diastolic, it’s considered At Risk (prehypertension), and higher than that is considered High Blood Pressure (hypertension).

When I gave blood regularly – 176 times, thank you very much – my BP was never over 130/80, and usually far less. Only on two occasions has it ever been over 140 systolic. One was for my physical in anticipation of my hernia operation in 2015 when it was 163. The other time was when the cardio surgeon started talking to me about having a procedure in August 2020, and it was about 155 the first time, 142 the second.

The numbers bounced around this month, but it hasn’t been over 120 systolic since the 17th. It’s never exceeded 76 diastolic. But I’ll keep doing it for the foreseeable future.

The baby sister

My sister Marcia called me Friday night at ten minutes before ten. This is NOT my best hour, as I was heading for bed. I hear on my answering machine, “Er. Call [my daughter], maybe in the morning. I’m having surgery.” Wha?

I rushed over to the phone. Marcia had been having digestive problems all week and ended up in the emergency room at about 6 p.m. By 9 p.m., the doctors determined she needed surgery. THAT night. Without getting too specific, her digestive tract was out of alignment, probably due to surgery from 30 years earlier. Think of a garden hose that gets twisted and needed to be unkinked.

I called her daughter Saturday. My sisters, and their daughters(!) and we had our Zoom chat on Sunday. we’re hoping she’ll get out of the hospital later in the week.