It has been a really wild, wooly, but wonderfully blessed week despite spending most of it at doctors appointments and/or trying to obtain new medications that my health insurance companies (two of them) would pay for. Well, PTL! It is Friday and I am glad the normal work week is over! I am still out on disability, but I feel like I have been working overtime on a proposal (ask Dave Droste what I mean - he knows). OK, heres a brief chronology of the week as far as medical news is concerned: First, on Monday, Becky took me to my first appointment with my cardiologist, Dr. Laney, since he attended to me while I was in the hospital and who has been the one coordinating medications with the Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Clinic each week. Dr. Laney literally threw one of my prescriptions in the trash can (I had not taken any of it as yet) because he said it tends to aggravate kidney function and they are already having enough trouble with my kidneys. The good news is that there are two other meds that accomplish for the heart what that one was supposed to do only not make things worse for my kidneys. He doubled the dosage strength on one other prescription and took me off of my old blood pressure medication (the one I have been taking for years) altogether since it does nothing to strengthen the heart itself. On Tuesday, Becky took me to see Dr. Gualtieri at the Cancer Center. Dr. G also attended to me while in the hospital and is the one who has been monitoring the hemoglobin and other blood-related issues they found in the hospital. Dr. G is the oncologist (he is also a hematologist) that we saw after coming back from Texas/Mexico in 2005. He wants me to come back within the next couple weeks for more blood testing as my red cell count is low and I may need some iron infused via I/V like I had while in the hospital. Wednesday and Thursday I had no doctor appointments, but made calls to find out why one of the monthly meds I have taken for years went from a co-pay of $0 to over $25 in a single month. Get this...the med was a generic to begin with but now there are cheaper generics and the pharmacies are passing the costs along to the patients. Another wonderful by-product of Obamacare! Oh, well! Becky took me to the CHF Clinic today to have blood tests run to check some things that Dr. Laney wants to track now that I am on different heart meds. No saline I/V required due to being dehydrated today! Yippee! PTL! Overall, the medical staff this week assured me that I am progressing well and I can feel my strength returning day by day. Dr. Laney said it was OK for me to go back to work on the 26th of this month providing I do no heavy lifting or any such thing that would stress my heart. I measure my intake of fluids each day to make certain I take in exactly 64 ounces - no more and no less. I am also limited to no more than 2000 mg of salt per day, so we check all the labels on foods and dont eat out as much as we used to. Whew! Lots of other activities here at the house this week, but thats a saga for another time. Thanks to all for your prayers - they are working! We have been praying for those in our church family who are going through deep waters right now and/or grieving over the passing of loved ones. So glad that our Heavenly Father is deeply touched by our infirmities and sorrows! Hope to see many of you real soon. :)
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 03:46:08 +0000
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