Dr. Kim in Celebration
The nurse practitioner says what you need. You definitely need a chest xray and an ekg. Everyone needs those. I had to have a pulmonary clearance and a cardiac clearance. I have sleep apnea, so I assume that's why I had to have that clearance, but I can't imagine why I'd have to have a cardiac clearance other than it being required for everyone. You will be told this at your initial appointment. I made my appointments with the specialists as soon as I left Dr. Kim's office. I sat in the lobby downstairs and made the calls. Some people try to get their appointments all on the same day, but I wanted to get it done quickly, so I got first available appointments. That meant a lot of driving for me since the hospital is 40 miles away from me. The doctors will send the clearances directly to Dr. Kim's office. The pulmonologist gave me a copy but also faxed it to the office.
I had to do a stress test on a treadmill. Dr. Din said I did okay and could clear me but since I don't know my family history (I'm adopted) I should have a ct angiogram to see if there were any significant blockages that needed to be cleared out before surgery. There must not have been any because my clearance went through. I overheard Dr. Din talking to other patients and he has a really nice bedside manner. I chose him because he's the one who we will see at the hospital. If you have your own cardiologist you may be able to use them to clear you.
The pulmonary clearance was just a bunch of blowing into a tube. The guy at Dr. Alabi's office was very personable. Dr. Alabi was very nice but it seemed like he didn't spend a lot of time with me. That was after I did the tests, so I must have passed them. They had me bring in my cpap machine to check my compliance. For some reason it said I skipped a night but that never happens, so my machine must be buggy.
After I saw the nutritionist on 6/17 I stopped by the pulmonologist Dr Alabi to see if they could squeeze me in a day early. I got to see Dr Umeh and do the tests. All nice people. They had me take home a sleep study monitor. I returned it today. I have significant sleep apnea events (many years). I am CPAP and BIPAP intolerant. They decided to order me a BIPAP and have me use it for 3 weeks. They want a BIPAP on standby in case I need it after the surgery. After the 3 weeks they will check it for compliance and give me the clearance.
The portable monitoring device measures oxygen saturation, heart rate, air flow and effort. It will also records snoring and position. It can provide a baseline needed to setup the BIPAP.
