We are back seeing doctors again. Today we had two appointments yesterday, one in the AM and one in the PM. The first one was with the Cardiothoracic Surgeon. The second with was with Electro-Cardiologist.
We had to drop of an Oxygen test kit at the lung doctors office first. So we charged over to his office to drop of the kit. We will hear later about what ever the test results are.
In the case of the surgeon, we learned at his office that she had a telephone appointment with the doctor that took care of the office visit. So we turned around and loaded up the van. We decided to go eat breakfast at the "Old Pancake House" which as modest restaurant chain located in Fort Worth. This particular establishment was also often visited by the pianist Van Cliburn. He has since past away but it was one of his favorite spots.
The second visit with the Cardiologist was successful. He had been treating her for A-Fib and since we stopped a counter active drug, the A-Fib has also stopped. The contra active data came from Express Scripts, the military Pharmacy. They would not fill either prescription until the doctors or someone took action. We elected to stop the other drug and maintain the Pacerone which treats A-Fib, As said, since then she has had no A-Fib attacks and her pulse rate is normal again.
We saw a spine specialist last week and he did an electro conduction test on her right hand. He confirmed she has a severe case of Corporal Tunnel syndrome. He said perhaps she could be treated by a shot to reduce the inflammation. Judie is shy of getting surgery for anything now days. He also said she had had a neck injury some time in the distant past. We could not recall such an event but accepted his opinion. There was nothing that could be done for the neck injury.
We also saw last week her Pulmonologist, the lung doctor, in Weatherford. He was the one that ordered the Oxygen test. She had to where a device that measured her Oxygen levels through the night while she was on Oxygen at a 2 liters per hour rate of distribution. We have an Oxygen concentrator, a bit blue device on wheels that literally filters Oxygen right out of the air. They have to change the filter periodically, I think it can send a signal out indicating when it needs to change the filter.
The lung doctor put her back on a breathing treatment twice a day use her breathing mask. The treatment takes about 7 or 8 minutes. I do not know nor notice any relative improvement but neither do I note any degradation. Sometimes I think that doctor tries different things here and there on her with little or no effect. He had her on a sleep Apnea machine for a while and that was a paid in the butt. She eventually just stopped using that machine, it is in the closet somewhere. She has yet another machine that literally thumps her chest, we call it the thumper. She did that for a year or so with no change in anything either.
So we are finding ourselves back into a more regular routine. It is a job to prepare her to go out and I know it is taxing on her meager reserves, but it is getting done. We have yet to do the hand doctor again and Urologist yet. But that is coming up soon.
The beat goes on . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment