Yesterday Jeff went to the cardiologist and the arrhythmia specialist. I decided not to go this time. Sometimes I think I interfere with the visits. The docs will ask pointed questions and I will chime in when he doesn't answer as honestly as I think he should. He wanted me to attend but I made an appointment to donate blood around the same time and I didn't have the energy to totally re-arrange my day to acommodate him. Besides, it was just his quarterly follow-up so it should be uneventful, maybe a prescription dosage change or two. With the many medications he takes, I don't really keep up with it all anyway so there was no need for me to go with him.
Then he calls just as I am heading down to my donor appointment. His cardiologist decided that it was time for him to have angioplasty. A year ago when this 70% blockage was found, the doctors determined that it was in a place where the vein was too delicate to chance blowing it out with a stent placement. Besides that, his veins were twisted and turned to where getting to it was troublesome. The plan was to treat him with medication. The strange coincidence is that this blockage is where his original heart attack occurred so that part of the heart is damaged and doesn't work well so the blockage isn't creating great stress on the heart. Apparently two wrongs can make a right. So we have a trip to the cath lab in store for us sometime next week.
It seems that my absence from the visit was a good thing. Jeff told him how tired he's been and that he hasn't been feeling well. He even told the doc he's been having shortness of breath, which he never told me. He's never been so forthright with the doctors in the past when I go along. I wonder if he was trying to protect me from his problems. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what he was doing since he is constantly apologizing to me for being so much trouble. From now on I think I will stay out of the doctor's office.
I went to donate the pint of blood and hung out with some of my co-workers afterward. When I got back to my desk, Jeff's message was frantic. I called him back immediately; the arrhythmia visit didn't go so well, Jeff has atrial fibrillation which means he could easily end up with blood clots so the doctor wants him on coumadin as soon as possible. The angioplasty is moved up to the day after tomorrow because he can't start on the drug until after the procedure. With little time to digest all the information from earlier this morning, this news is a little much to bear.
From now on I will go to the doctor's visits anyway.
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