Bill's birthday, Heart Answers and End of the School Year

Happy Friday everyone! How is everyone's day going? Here it is rainy and cold (it is 63 degrees right now!). Our weather has been crazy even for Ohio. I saw this graphic on Facebook...Crazy weather changes. 

I didn't go to cardio rehab this morning as I am still dealing with that stupid head cold. It has decided to take up residence in my throat area with the draining. I didn't cough as much last night overnight, but didn't want to risk spreading germs at rehab today. And I just need to rest as it has been a rather busy week this week. 

Tuesday was Bill's 49th birthday. He had to work most of the day, so we celebrated Wednesday evening with homemade chicken enchiladas (his request) and a chocolate cake that Benjamin decorated with sprinkles. He said that it was a good day. We got him an infinity gauntlet bottle opener and a Ric Flair t-shirt. 

Wednesday morning I went to cardio rehab and then I had a follow up appointment with my cardiologist. I FINALLY got some concrete answers as to what they think is going on. He confirmed my (and many others) suspicions that my heart issue is a combination of the myocardial bridge that they found during my heart cath AND as a result of having COVID back in December. He said he thinks that COVID weakened my heart muscle and that the weakening was making my heart work harder and thus putting more pressure on the myocardial bridge. (Basically during every heart beat, more pressure was being placed on the bridge. With every beat, the artery in the bridge was being squeezed.) That was where the extreme fatigue and then the shortness of breath was coming in. Then the statins that I was put on for cholesterol just sent the irritation of the muscle over the top and that was when I started getting the severe chest pain and back pain along with everything else. The good news is that the combination of medication I am on right now seems to be working finally. Also he likes the way that my numbers look when I am doing the cardio rehab. He thinks that I *should* be able control this through diet and cardio exercise for the rest of my life. I will also be on heart medicines the rest of my life. If the myocardial bridge worsens or gets a blockage then I will have to have open-heart surgery (what they call unroofing surgery) that is only performed at a select number of hospitals in the country. 

What am I thinking about all of that? Well. I am glad to have some concrete answers to what happened and where we go from here. In all the scenarios I guess it is best case scenario. I am glad to have answers, but at the same time it is disheartening to be told that you have these issues. It is what it is and I will try my best to live the way that I am supposed to. It does make me feel old though I guess. 

Another thing that is making me feel old is that my kids are out of school for the Summer. Yesterday was there last day of school. I am now the mom of a high school freshman, a new middle schooler and a 4th grader. How did that happen?!?!?!

Rebecca said that she had a great day. They really didn't do anything special for the 8th graders which was kind of a bummer, but she said she was okay with that. 

Jacob had an awards ceremony and a clap out for his 5th grade graduation. Bill went to that, while I was picking up Rebecca from school. Jacob came home in tears that he would miss everyone and everything about his school. He is really nervous about starting middle school next fall.

Ben came home all smiles. He is looking forward to 4th grade, even though I told him that we would be doing reading and comprehension work this summer as he is still behind where he should be.

We took the kids out to eat at our local Mexican restaurant last night for dinner. It was the first time since COVID hit that we all went out to a sit-down place for dinner. The food was great and the company even better. It was a nice way to end the 2020-2021 school year. 

Today, I am supposed to be doing some housework, but I really don't want to do. I have almost no energy. I do need to get some projects done though. It is slow going, but slow going is better that not going. I think I will go make the kids help with cleaning out under the couch so we can put the new couch cover on it. 

Hope everyone is staying dry and having a good Friday! Anyone have any fun plans for the long weekend?   

S'mores by the campfire, van trouble, and a head cold

 Happy Monday evening everyone! Hope you all are having a wonderful day. Here it is HOT, HOT, HOT! It has been hot the last few days. So much so that Bill put in our window air conditioners upstairs so that we could actually sleep. LOL That is a good thing as we have been busy.

Friday night I took the kids out to my parent's house for a campfire and a sleepover. My sister and her girlfriend were in town, my brother and his fiance were there as well. My dad originally said to bring my tent over, but I didn't want to dig it out of the garage so he said just come sleepover in the living room. So that is what we did...we got to enjoy the evening outside and we got to sleep in the a/c! LOL 

The kids had a blast making s'mores and playing with their cousins.

My dad even brought out his telescope and they were able to see the moon and craters. That was neat. 

One bad thing about the night though was my van started acting up as I was heading to my parent's house. Bill came over after he got off of work and I had him drive it home so that he could see what was going on and could drive it to the shop in the morning before he headed into work. We are hoping it is an easy fix. 

Sunday my throat started hurting and today I am draining. I think Jacob gave me his cold that he has had. Oh well, it is what it is. I will deal. 

Today I had cardio rehab and they have me up to 10 minutes on the 4 machines. I am exhausted at the end but it is okay. It just means I am on the road to recovery. While I was waiting on Bill to come pick me up (as he had our one vehicle right now to take the boys to school) I went to the bathroom and the artwork on the wall just caught my eye. (The building that I have cardio rehab in at the hospital is a new building that just opened right before the pandemic hit. It is open and airy and they use a lot of floral and blues in the decorations.)

What's going on in your world? Anyone else have a head cold? Anything fun going on? Anyone else find decorations that they like in bathrooms and take photos of it? LOL

  

I went for a walk times 2!

 Happy Thursday evening everyone! Hope you all are having a good day. I have been exhausted today because it has been hot in our house and I didn't sleep very well last night. It has been in the high 80s and we don't have our air conditioners in the upstairs so it was hot upstairs even with the fans on. Oh well. It is what it is. 

The weather has been beautiful this week. One of the my goals this week was to go walk 2 times. Tuesday morning I did not have cardio rehab so Bill and I headed out to Ariel-Foundation Park to walk and I ended up walking 30 minutes and about 3/4 of a mile. It was around the smallest lake in the park. It was kind of frustrating as I used to be able to walk 1 mile in 20 minutes and could go 3-5 miles at a time. But like Bill said I am progressing as a few weeks ago I couldn't go from our couch to the sink without being exhausted and dizzy. 

One really cool thing that happened on our walk was that we saw several turtles, 2 snakes AND a young beaver. I have never seen a beaver in the wild before so that was really neat. It was on the shore when we first saw it then it went back into the lake and we were too far away to get a photo.

 

Then yesterday I had cardio rehab in the morning and they had me doing 8 minutes on 4 different cardio machines. I definitely worked up a sweat. Later yesterday morning I met up with my sister and her girlfriend at Ariel to met their new puppy and to take a short walk. Her new puppy is a chocolate lab and her name is Mango. She is adorable. They are hoping to get her trained to become a medical alert dog for my sister. 

Honestly I think that I overdid it yesterday as I was exhausted. Today I continue to be tired. However, I went to the grocery store and was able to walk through the entire store without getting too tired. So progress is being made :) 

Now I need to get ready for bed so that I can get up early tomorrow morning for another morning of cardio rehab!  Hope everyone is having a good night! 

Mother's Day and other life updates!

Happy Sunday everyone! I promised I would be back with a non-medical update! LOL

So besides health stuff, what have we been up to? 

Well, last Sunday was Mother's Day. The boys made me breakfast in bed (eggs, toast and a fruit salad with bananas and blueberries). The kids got me a new pillow and blanket. 

Ben made me a cookbook at school. 

Jacob made me a card. 

Rebecca made me a wreath!

 

In the afternoon, we headed out to my mom and dad's house for Mother's Day. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and we had yummy Mexican food for dinner. 

My sister and her girlfriend gave me flowers, a candle, chocolates and a soap for Mother's Day. 

The kids have been keeping busy with the last weeks of school. They have 2 weeks left until Summer break. Jacob went to 5th grade Science Camp on Monday and Tuesday. Due to COVID, it was a day camp instead of a sleep away camp. I am thankful he was able to go. He had fun and said he loved finding animals in the creek and touching a python. Rebecca had her last middle school choir concert on Friday night. It was a combined end of the year concert with the 6,7,8th and high school choirs. It was really well done. Rebecca had a duet in the song "Wagon Wheel." She did well. I love her passion for music and can't wait to see what her high school musical season will bring.

 

Other than that we have been hanging out at home. I have been doing lots of resting. Bill's been working a lot of hours doing deliveries and then trying to do most of the household stuff. Kids have been driving me nutty but that is normal stuff. LOL 

Not sure what we will get into today. We shall see. Are you doing anything today? Whatever is going on, I hope you all have a great Sunday!  

Another Health Update

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Hello out there to anyone still reading this blog. Sorry for the long absence again. These health issues have been kicking my behind. 

Last time I wrote I was in pain and waiting to follow up with my primary care doctor. Well, I saw her and she and my cardiologist talked and my cardiologist is saying that my chest pain and shoulder pain is not heart related based on the testing they did while I was in the ER. So she said that she was just guessing and really wasn't sure what was causing my issues. She did lower my lisinopril dosage to 10 mg a day as I was concerned that my blood pressures were running very low for me (like in the 90s over 60s where as before I was in the hospital it was running in the 140s over 70s). Then she said she wanted me to have an ultrasound of my gallbladder, a throat scope and a CT scan of my chest as maybe there was something going on with my digestive tract. My response was ???. After doing some research on my own, I decided to go through with the ultrasound but I will not be having the scope done as my symptoms do not match ANY that would show a digestive tract issue. I do not have issues when I eat or after I eat. 

I had the gallbladder, pancreas, liver and kidney ultrasound done this past Wednesday. From what I gather from the results that were posted on my online health record, they didn't really find anything except a couple of cysts on my kidney on the right side. That made my decision not to have the scope done seem like the right one. I also received word that day that insurance was denying the CT scan because it was requested to be done without dye. They said in their letter that they would approve it if the request was remade but with dye. I don't know. Seems stupid to me. 

On Thursday, I also started cardio rehabilitation. This was prescribed from my cardiologist and insurance approved it. Basically I will be going to do 3 cardio workouts and taking an educational class each week at the hospital where they can monitor my blood pressure and heart rate. This will last for 3 months. On Thursday, I had orientation to get a baseline. I was only able to do 6 minutes on the treadmill before they stopped it due to my heart rate. I will admit that I was very frustrated given that I used to walk 3-5 miles several times a week with no issue. I had my first real session on Friday and it kicked my behind. They had me doing 4- 6 minute sessions on different cardio equipment. I was exhausted most of the rest of the day. 

So in a nutshell, I am still having some issues. My shoulder is feeling better and the chest pain is much better (but that could be due to my meds). I am able to do a few things...only 10-15 minutes or so at a time but that is an improvement over where I was last time. I will continue my cardio rehab and trying to eat better and we shall see what continues. I see my cardiologist in 2 weeks and then my PCP in the middle of June. 

So there is my health update. Thanks for the prayers and thoughts. I will be back tomorrow or Monday with an update on non-health stuff that has been going on. :) Hope everyone is having a good Saturday!