Recent Posts

Thank you, thank you!

My recommendation would be for DH to be seen by an Electrophysiologist, which is a Cardiologist that specializes in heart rhythm disorders. Not knowing DH's health history I couldn't really guess why he is having heart arrhythmias (slow or fast) but some common causes would be heart disease, heart valve problems, or cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart). Sometimes (like with me) there is not an identifiable cause. The echo he is scheduled for is a good start. That will show things like cardiomyopathy or valve problems if they are there. They might want to do a cardiac cath if the Echo is normal. Getting on the beta blocker is also good. I've been on one since my 30's when my heart arrhythmias started. They will help keep the heart rates lower and also lower blood pressure and can cause fatigue, especially in the beginning.

Having confidence in your medical team and being able to have a meaningful conversation with them is so important.

Liz, NSVT is the arrhythmia I have the most. Feel free to ask me any questions you or DH might have. 30 years of working in Cardiac rehab and having personally experienced heart arrhythmias since I was in my 30's and having a defibrillator since I was 42 makes me pretty well versed in the topic!

119.8 - and Justice is 11.2, about 3/4 of a pound overweight. DH is such a softie with him. My bulk order arrived yesterday. Packaged very differently than my previous stuff because it came from a different pharmacy which I knew would be the case. It had all the stuff but not in the fancy box that Hallandale uses and the vials are different. I now have a year before I have to figure out what to do alternatively. I think I could use LillyDirect which would be $399 a month at my dose but I paid less than that for my purchase.

The cardiology appointment was somewhat less than satisfying and we aren't totally sure how worried we should be. The cardiologist is away so he saw the nurse practitioner who we have seen before and do not like. We really need to tell the cardiologist that we don't want to see her again. Last year when we saw her she blew into the room all frazzled, didn't introduce herself or state her role, couldn't find the pacemaker reports so didn't even give an update. This time she did say who she was and had the reports printed on paper but clearly didn't know how to read the data. She has this negative attitude and getting her to give information is like pulling teeth. She kept arguing about when the incident occurred which she said was at 2:00 am the night after DH felt it (at 5:15 pm). I even asked if that was the time that the monitor sent it and she kept saying that it was when it occurred but then suddenly said, oh did it happen just after 5 pm? And then she looked randomly through the papers and found some other similar instances. So at this point we don't really know how often it occurs because she was struggling with the papers. Bottom-line is that he is having episodes of tachycardia (NSVT). The one he almost passed out with was at 237 for 33 seconds. So she moved up his echocardiogram which was due in February and scheduled a stress test - both within the next 2 weeks. He also has to start taking a beta blocker. All the proper way to handle it but boy she is awful as she did not explain any of the reasons why. Hopefully we see the actual cardiologist next time and can communicate our frustrations with her. After reading up on the issue since she didn't explain any of it, it appears that it isn't terribly serious as long as there is no structural heart disease and stress doesn't aggravate it (hence the 2 tests). He passed both with flying colors a year ago so hopefully that is still the case.

Anyway, speaking of stress, our friends are getting ready to leave at 8 am (it is 7:30 right now). The 3 family members coming today arrive at the local airport at 11:30. So we have a few hours to get the bed and towels changed, swab the decks, then pick them up.

It is 48 this morning (it was 45 yesterday). It looks like a warmup starts tomorrow so by the time the others arrive in Florida on Monday we should be back to a sunny 80 degrees, much more pleasant for their visit this time of year.

Time to start getting our act together. Have a smart Saturday!