Good Morning Everyone!! I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving. Amanda and I made the best of it here at Hotel Shands and had a very nice day. We were thinking of what we were thankful for and of course, the list was extremely long. Amanda had noted about us being in a 200 square foot room for twenty-four hours a day for three months. Many would wonder why we havent killed each other yet. Talk about standing the ultimate test!!! I told her we could handle anything because we passed that test. If you can be stuck in a room with your significant other and last so long without homicide, it is true love! My creatinine level is coming down. The doctors were very concerned at the increased level because my case is truly a catch-22. Im on a fluid restriction, my creatinine is high, but I have low blood pressure. The medications are affecting my blood pressure, and increased fluids is the treatment for that, but of course not for me. My weight is going down. We think that I should be able to go home early next week. They stopped the drip of my diuretic and have me on IV pushes. I will go home with my PICC line so they are taking the next few days to adjust the proper dose for home infusion. My INR is just in the therapeutic range. Finally!!! My cardiologist would like me to stay until at least Monday to be sure that the INR remains stable in that therapeutic range and the proper dosing of my diuretic is accomplished. I have been receiving supplemental potassium, calcium, vitamin D and the dosage of synthroid has been tweaked. The doctors are really not sure what caused these levels to dip so badly. As I stated, I should be going home on Monday. I will be going home with a regiment of IV diuretics, Synthroid and a multitude of blood tests to be sure my levels remain constant. As always, we appreciate all your thoughts, well wishes, prayers, hugs and donations to the medical fund through Give it Forward. So many of you have been extremely generous in assisting us with our medical and monthly expenses during these past few months with me being laid up in the hospital. Unfortunately, until my condition is stabilized, we have to be prepared for these occasional inpatient stays. The doctors have not been able to do anything at Shands as they are not as familiar with difficult heart arrhythmia procedures. This was the case back in 2012 as well. Therefore, we have decided that it is in my best interests to consult with my former electrophysiologist, Dr. Andrea Natale (https://tcaheart/physicians/andrea-natale-md). Dr. Natale is the foremost expert on atrial fibrillation and developed most of the procedures involved in treatment. Basically, he wrote the book on the subject. He is world renowned and travels all over the world to speak on the subject and teach these procedures. I received two prior ablations from him in 2012. We are hopeful that he will have a better plan of treating me so that we can maintain a life outside of the hospital. Dr. Natale was my cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center. He is currently the head of the arrhythmia section at Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia in Austin, Texas. It will be necessary for us to travel to Austin for the consult and treatment. We will have to stay in Austin a week before the treatment, a hospital stay for a few days, and a week or two after for follow up before we can head home. We know that this the regimen because we already did this two years ago and are familiar with the procedures for treatment that Dr. Natale requires. We have made this decision because we cannot live life going in and out of the hospital. We feel that seeing Dr. Natale is our best option until placed on transplant list. So with that, we are sincerely asking that you assist us in our fundraising efforts by forwarding the fundraising page to all your families and friends. If anyone is uncomfortable with the online efforts, we can give our home address. We so very much appreciative of your continued support! We couldnt have survived without it. We are thankful and appreciate all the donations, thoughts, prayers and well wishes as they keep pouring in. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!!! https://giveforward/fundraiser/mhv5/mark-simonelli-s-he-man-open-heart-s-club
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 13:53:13 +0000
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