The last few days.......

Monday I got my stitches out. I was surprised. It didn’t even hurt. After they were out, it was easier standing up. It definitely felt better. But, later that night, I noticed yellow stuff all over the front of my shirt. So, I unbuttoned my shirt and noticed that the incision on the right where my stitches had just been removed was leaking out this bright yellow yuk. So, I cleaned it out w/ hydrogen peroxide and put some triple antibiotic on it.

Tuesday, I went to my primary care physician. She prescribed an antibiotic ointment to put on the incision. My blood pressure was still too high and my heart rate is still in the upper 90’s resting, so she added 25mg of Toporol XL in the mornings w/ my current Cozaar and I am still to take the 25mg of Toporol XL at night too. Other than the infection and my blood pressure still not under control, she thought I was doing pretty well. Later that evening I went to Walgreens to pick up my Rx and when I got home and opened up the bag, it was not the same generic that I had been using (of the Toporol XL). It had the same first name (Metopolol) but it had a different last name (Tartrate, not Succinate), so I called them back. The pharmacist said what I was given was a generic of LoPressure, not a generic of Toporol XL. I explained to him that the doctor intended to give me the same as what I had, but just double the number since I was supposed to take it in the morning as well as the evening. He explained he thought what had happened is when the doctor writes the Rx, they use a program on the computer that has a drop down menu and these two drugs are probably right next to each other and the wrong one was chosen. He said he would call the doctor’s office the next day and get it cleared up.

On Wednesday morning, I realized that my Dr was not going to be in the office for the rest of the week, so I called and spoke to the nurse. I explained to her what I was told by the pharmacist and asked her if she could please call Walgreens and get it straightened out and ask them to refund my money for the wrong Rx since it was not my fault I was given the wrong one. She said she would. A few minutes later, she called me back and said it had been taken care of and they would refund my money when I brought back the med and the receipt. So, that night, Bryan and I went to Walgreens got the med exchanged, my money refunded then got my refund on the Cozaar since they finally got that to go thru. It actually went fairly smoothly. I was quite surprised.

Once I started this new Rx regimen, my blood pressure did come down to a more acceptable level, but my heart rate really didn’t do much. It was still too high. Braverman’s office called me on Thursday morning and I told them that my primary care physician added the 25mg in the morning to try to get my blood pressure back down to an acceptable level, but that it still had not done anything for my heart rate. The nurse said she would talk to Braverman and call me back. In the meantime, Bryan got a phone call from Linnea’s school, she was sick. So, he went to pick her up and bring her home. She has been having a lot of sinus drainage and now starting to cough. Later that afternoon, the nurse from Braverman’s office called me back and said he wanted me to have an EKG. So, I went to Carle Clinic and had that done. They said they would fax it to Braverman and send it to my primary care physician and I would hear from them. After that, I talked Bryan into taking me to Culvers for my Chocolate custard with hot fudge on top. Yummy! I just received a call from Braverman's office saying that all was ok w/ the EKG. I keep telling myself that maybe it is just my heart healing and once it has healed enough, it will get back to what was “normal” before the surgery.

I was fixing my Cream of Wheat this morning and got very short of breath and feeling kind of sick, but made it thru. Once I sat down and ate it, I felt so much better. I am hoping that I just needed some food in my stomach. But somehow, I just get the feeling that something just isn’t quite right. Again, it’s just my body doing its own thing and not paying attention to any of the “normal” things bodies are supposed to do after this kind of surgery. As I have always said, if there is any exception to any medical rule, I will be it.

Yesterday was Bryan’s 43rd birthday. I was very happy to see it. Everything I took for granted before the surgery, now seems like such a big deal. I just really didn’t think that I would make it to see another birthday for Bryan, myself, my kids or anyone. I am just so thankful to be alive. I just don’t think anyone knows how very lucky I am to live to see another day. Bryan and I had decided we would do our celebrating on Friday night or Saturday since his birthday was on Thursday and mine is this Sunday. We picked out a cake at Walmart that says, “Don’t worry, I am just here for the cake.” It’s not really true, but we all LOVE the cakes at Walmart w/ the Buttercream icing and can’t wait to dig in! This truly will be the best birthday ever, no matter how it is celebrated, because I am here to see it!

Today is Phillip’s birthday and he, Shauna, and Stacey came to have lunch w/ me today. It was so nice to have my good friends here w/ me. I really miss seeing them at work everyday. I so want to go to Gill Street w/ Phillip and Shauna to help Phillip celebrate, but I am just so afraid I will get too hot or be in too much pain to enjoy our time together. Well, maybe we can celebrate closer to Shauna’s birthday in October. I guess that will be my goal to shoot for, be well enough to go out to celebrate Shauna’s birthday. And it is a big one for her anyway (I’ll be nice and not tell you which big one it is).

I got the first hint of what Kai’s medical bills will be. I don’t think this total includes any of the doctor’s charges, just the hospital, but it is $60,681. I was guessing at least $50K, so I guess I wasn’t too far off. I wonder how much mine will be. Bryan was just saying last night how lucky we are to have good health insurance, otherwise we would go broke w/ medical bills. I agree, I may have to fight to get things paid and get things straightened out, but at least we have it and we both have jobs. I pray that we will both always have good jobs w/ good insurance so we can at least pay our bills and take care of our medical needs.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, Monday night, I started searching on Google Blog search for Loeys-Dietz. My blog came up about 4th on the list, but I did find a couple of others that were rather interesting. I found a little boy about 6 or so w/ Loeys-Dietz and he has many more problems than we do. I signed his guestbook and told his mother that she was not alone in this lifelong journey and to contact me if she wanted to talk. I also found another guy in England who just found out that he has Loeys-Dietz and surprisingly enough, the doctors over there were not that concerned w/ the fact that his aortic root was already at 6cm! OMG! Can you believe that? 6cm! He is lucky to be alive. Again, glad I live in the U.S.A and have good insurance. Sounded to me like they were taking their sweet time getting him to surgery. I can’t imagine being at 6cm and not rushing him to have surgery. I think he is very lucky to be alive. I wonder if he realizes how lucky he is.

Tomorrow Linnea has her bowling league. I am going to try to go, but will just have to wait and see how I feel. She has grown so much that we need to have her ball plugged and re-drilled again because her hand has grown so much. She just got that ball for Christmas 2006 and we had it drilled then to fit her, then we had the thumb hole plugged and re-drilled, now we have to have all the holes plugged and drilled again. Man! She is just growing so fast. I am anxious to get back to coaching on Saturday mornings. She is now in the Bantam League, no more bumpers and now she bowls 2 games instead of just one. She’s been doing pretty good so far I think. She just needs to concentrate and listen to what she is being told to do and she would do so much better, but she’s a kid. You know how kids are. I can only hope that she will take it serious sometime soon since it will be one of the few sports she will be able to participate in.

Ok, enough for now. Ta Ta!