I think that my effort on the treadmill yesterday jarred something loose... both legs are hurting now, the right one more than the left. The left side is the one with the stint.
Back to that later. Right now I'll elucidate a little on the cardiac results... they were pretty much unchanged from last year. In fact, I thought that the images looked better than the ones last year, but the cardiologist didn't mention that.
When I got to the hospital yesterday morning, the first thing that I did was go to the lab for the blood draw for the lipids test. Well, they couldn't find the paperwork, dammit, so there went ten minutes. Then a gal walks in who knows right exactly where it should be, and there it was. So I got registered and drawn and I headed to breakfast.
Did I mention that I had to abstain from eating for ten hours? Well, it was more like eight, really, I did cheat a little...
But still no coffee until the thallium was done. I miss my coffee... I think that I'm way too dependent on it, and I love it.
So, a light breakfast. I wanted an omelette, of course, but I didn't get one, just some pretty-stale pancakes and powdered reconstituted eggs. But it was good. It was food.
Back downstairs at 07:00 for the first scan. I was razzing the tech about how, for the last two years, the tech had missed the vein on the first try. And how I was so confident in her sticking abilities.
Well, they like to try hand veins. Easy to see, easy to stick. But.
I have this simply beautiful vein in my left hand. Looks good, feels good with a tourniquet on.
But it gets scared easy. Actually put a needle anywhere near it and it shrinks up like a .... a... well, it shrinks up. Goes away. And it's still a virgin vein.
She got the one in my forearm on the first try, though.
So... had the scan... 20 minutes of laying still... not quite enough time for a nap. Then up and to the stress lab in the cardiologist's office.
Chest hair... patches shaved out. Makes me look funny. Then the lady goes over the shaved parts with a piece of scotch-brite. Then alcohol. Ow. OW! Then the pads, BP, ekg laying down, ekg standing up, etc...
The doc comes in and we get started. Before long, my right leg starts hurting. In about another 30 seconds, the left one does too. In 5.5 minutes, I'm done... the legs can't go no more.
I've been avoiding stressing my legs lately for a reason... it hurts when I do. Claudication... it's a nice long word that means the pain that occurs when a muscle hurts from the lack of a good blood supply, mostly used in reference to the legs. It's a good word, but I don't like it a bit. I'll just say pain.
Anyway, after I get off of the treadmill, the legs are OK in about ten minutes. When I'm sitting on my ass I'm fine.
So, the rest of the testing went OK, but I was hanging around the workroom and the supervisor wanted to talk to me, but she was busy... after about a half-hour we got together.
Well, she didn't really want me to work all of that overtime, afraid that it'd wear me out, she said. And that pissed me off. She wouldn't say that to a young guy, would she? And she knows very little of my actual medical problems... so I try to find out who's getting the deal here. Something is going on, and I can't figger out what it is.
The gist of the story is that she (or they..) want me to work four tens and be off for three... through the end of July. My proposal was that I would work six tens and be off one. I would like this because...
I would really think that everyone would be better off that way. Working the 4-on, 3-off was horrible for me the last time I did it... not enough time to turn around, but too much not to try. Or, rather, to have my body try for me, regardless of what my mind though. Just didn't work for me.
The six-on, one-off would also leave them with more day and evening staff, too, which they are sorely in need of. The only full-time evening tech turned in her resignation last Friday, but she'll be working PRN, supposedly. But then, they all say that, then fade out as the memories of the hard work here overwhelm their feelings of friendship with their former co-workers...
Anyway.
My appointment to visit with Dr. Meyer was at 13:00, and I was there on time and he wasn't, of course. When he got there we had a nice chat and he looked over the printout that I'd made of the lipid study. I told him that I would get something done about the legs after he kinda insisted...
So, right now, I'm waiting for my family practice Doc to call back, 'cause he has to set up the angiogram with the Radiologist in order for the insurance to pay for it.
And I really just want to go to sleep.
As you may recall, my problems are in the iliac arteries, just after they bifurcate from the aorta. Not easy places to dilate, even harder to put stents in. Dr. Allen, the radiologist who has done them both times, said that he would be willing to try again when I talked with him a coupla months ago... normally, twice and yer out, the surgeon gets you. But the circumstances of the last dilation, plus some new technics, have made the likelihood of a successful outcome higher.
Always a consideration, of course.... the surgery.
The surgeon opens up the belly and clamps and removes a section of the aorta and the iliacs almost down to the pelvic outlet, then puts in an expensive plastic/fabric/who-knows-what replica. Sews it all back up and hopes for the best.
Eight weeks later, the patient can go back to work... if everything worked.
10:41...
Well, that was a lie, I'm gonna finish this first, then go to bed. I do have my priorities straight, skewed as they may be...
Something that I wanted to talk about today but that will have to wait until tomorrow: Napster vs Metallica vs the real world vs music-lovers. Vs, of course, the pirates and other greedy people who do not fit in the above categories.
O'yeah, and the artists, too.
Finally got a call back from the GP - he's setting up an aortagram/angioplasty at St. Francis, they're supposed to call me back with a date and time. I told the gal to just leave it on the recorder, 'cause I was going to bed.