It was definitely good nooz/bad nooz visit to Parnassus yesterday. The bad nooz is not all that bad; don't get excited! Because of the massive bruises I have on my poor tummy, I will be switching to Coumadin. So rather than injecting Lovenox, I will be taking another pill. I have always been frightened and confused by any mention of Coumadin, after a friend of my Dad's referred to it as "rat poisen". Somehow that failed to entice me to use it. But unfortunately an ultrasound revealed the blood clots in my left arm are still there, and about like they were the last they were looked at.
Today, our transplant coordinator called to say my cholesterol is a bit high. This surprises and disappoints me, since I need to keep this new heart up and running for the long haul. The total cholesterol is not too bad, but the LDL ("baaaad cholesterol") is high. Therefore another new med and a lot less meat, cheese, eggs etc. to get this in line.
Two high points of the visit were, one, being examined by one of my best and most frequent attending physicians, Dr. David M. He just recently transferred from Cardiology to Transplant Cardiology, replacing another fave of ours, Dr. Kathy T. Dr. T had a one-year deal at UCSF, and now she returns to UC Davis.
The second high point was seeing my heart surgeon, Dr. Charles H. He definitely is not known for his bedside manner, by any means. The coordinator told him we were there, and he shook my hand and said "You look MAHVELOUS darlink". Well not exactly, but he did say I looked good and I assured him I am really good. You may recall that this is the same doc who twice told us it was unlikely for me to get this transplant. Goes to show ya, eh?
SLEEPLESS IN LIVEREATTLE, THE SEQUEL
Oh, here is a photo Cheryl snapped of me on her iPhone the other day. I had just spent another sleeepless Prednisone Night, so I am a bit uh, unhappy as you can see.
A MINI RANT FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE
With your permission (or without it, I'm gonna do it anyway), I want to give you a bit of an idea how I feel, for quite some time, about Mel Gibson. You can hardly go ten minutes without hearing some awful thing about ol'Mel. To this I say "Right On". When he did his drunken tirade about the Jews during a DUI stop, I said "Later, Mel" and I refuse to see any movies involving him. Yeah, I bet he lost some sleep over my reaction; NOT! Anyhow, I consider him a drunk, woman abusing, anti-Semitic hypocrite of the very first order. Didn't he make a seriously intense movie about Jesus? Would Jesus have approved of Mel's antics, especially the Jew-hating? I kinda doubt it. So the more crap that is discovered about him, and the more embarrassment and criticism he receives, the happier I will be. I humbly apologize to all of you Mel Gibson fans within the range of my voice, but hey, the guy is a LOSER!!
Thanks, I feel way better now.
Bob/Irv
Hey Bob,
ReplyDeleteSorry about the Coumadin-I am also frightened of it, when I get my blood drawn and I hear someone check in for a Coumadin draw my head alwyas perks up (I must say-I do check to see how sick they look hahah). But hey-1 less daily "stick" that will be nice!
I have the opposite problem as you with my cholesterol, my LDL is good, but no matter how hard I try I can't get my HDL up. But the transplant team told me no matter what my cholesterol numbers were I would have to take a cholesterol med-nothing lost, nothing gained.
One of my doctors told me it would be a long wait for my transplant-I got called 3 days after she said this for a total wait of 19 days. I found it strange she was also the first person/doctor from Kaiser to see me post-op after surgery (like an hour after surgery) and I said to her: "see, I finally got my transplant" (in a drug induced haze).
I thik Mel is on something....not legal.
Hope you do well on the coumadin
-Allie