Oh Sandy, I'm so sorry the surgery didn't work. Both my sister-in-law and her daughter (only 15 years old) had to have surgery for bulging disks in the neck. Both had successful outcomes too.
No, Gary isn't sick and these are all just followup appointments. They are grouped so close together because we were supposed to be gone until about July 7th, so all his routine, every three month appointments landed on this week. How lucky are we!
Actually, he has not been feeling very well, he gets quite short of breath of minimal exertion - which is not unusual for someone with heart failure, but he had been doing better before the past few weeks.
Well, I guess technology is good, sometimes. His pacemaker continually measures his fluid volume status and with a monitor the doctor can see a printout of how much fluid he has had during the past three months. People with heart failure get fluid volume overloaded because their heart can't pump blood well enough to go through the kidneys efficiently enough to get rid of all the water that those of us without heart failure get rid of every day. He takes 40 mg. of Lasix (water pill to get rid of fluid) every day, which is a lot and he still has problems with too much fluid. The fluid gets into his lungs and viola, he is short of breath on exertion.
So he started on a new water pill today. It is so powerful you only take it once a week!
They started him on a very low dose because of his kidney problems, if he gets rid of too much water, he will go into kidney failure. Oh joy! So, he took a pill today and another one next Wednesday and then we go back to the doc so they can check his bloodwork to be sure his kidneys are OK. If they are OK and he still has too much fluid on board (they will look at his pacemaker readings again), they will up the dose of the super duper water pill. I hope it works!
His other doctor appointment today was with his neck doctor. He had a neck injection back in May and this was just the followup. He is completely pain free (Sandy, I hope your shot works as well), and he doesn't have to go back unless he has pain again. YAY!
His appointment tomorrow is with his urologist (we call her the pee doc). He has an enlarged prostate and his doctor changed his medication to help him pee more easily. IT IS WORKING GREAT! So this is just a routine followup and thankfully all is well on the pee front!
One of his appointments Friday is with his diabetes nurse. He has to go see the nurse (or doc) every three months, or Medicare will not send his diabetes supplies and his insulin. I guess that's OK, but I bet some people don't go and just go without their supplies and insulin!
If you have diabetes, you absolutely 100% should go to the doctor every three months, but I"m not sure if I agree with "we won't send your medication and supplies if you don't go".
His other appointment on Friday is with his lung doctor. It's just routine every three month checkup and I think everything is OK on that front.
Oh yeah, after the two doc appointments I had class this afternoon from 1-5. YIKES. Thankfully, I had a guest speaker and I just sat and veged out!