Cardiac Update Update

This is just a quick update on my cardiac post from last week.

Yesterday morning I had a follow up appointment to discuss the results from last week's catheterization and to make a game plan for the future.

I mentioned that Dr. Levy wanted me to pull as much fluid as I could tolerate at dialysis so that I would essentially dehydrate myself and make sure there was no fluid to back up into my lungs. That is the plan for the next two months. I may have already met this goal as I have been pulling an extra kilo (2.2 lbs) of fluid this past week during treatments and last night I woke up with a foot cramp - a sign you are pulling too much fluid. 

At the end of September I have a follow up appointment to reassess and to schedule another catheterization. After that we may do a transesophageal echocardiogram. I'm not sure why that is different than the cath in terms of gathering data, but it must be. And yes, that means they stick a transducer down your throat. Trust me, don't Google it, but just know that is what sedation is for.

The two surprising things about yesterday's visit were that:

    1. He didn't mention a PET scan at all.

    2. His description of the problem with my left descending ventricle sounded different than it did last week.

Maybe he was just going into more detail yesterday, but he seemed to be describing more of a valve issue. He said the lower left artery wasn't closing all of the way when it needed to and was letting blood seep into the upper ventricle. A possible solution that was mentioned was going in catheter-style and putting clamps in.

Look, I am not giving the best explanation of anything we discussed about the ventricle. Honestly the whole time he was talking about it I was trying not to throw up because it sounded so gross. I would have made a terrible surgeon.

Basically my takeaway was this: there is a plan and none of it sounds supremely scary. If we do end up proceeding with the clampy procedure, it's at least not super invasive. No open-heart surgery, which is what I was initially thinking. For now, anyway.

Oh, and I haven't been short of breath in a week ever since I took off more fluid at dialysis. Just excessively tired. I'll take it.

   

A special thank you to everyone who read my last post. I got so much wonderful feedback and support. It truly helps me to do the things I need to do that I don't want to do.