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Well folks,
It’s been an ‘interesting’ few days, - in the same sense as the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”
It started last Thursday when we were at our PCP’s office – Shirley for a follow-up and I to get my PCP and LA Cardiologist playing from the same page. (My PCP has to write the prescriptions etc. for the cardio as he is out of state.) Well, I got a cell phone call from my son. We were with the doctor, so I said I would call him back. After lunch I called his cell phone, and found out he was in the hospital in his home town, Huntington Beach, in Southern California.
He hadn’t been feeling well for a couple of days and went to the doctor who gave him a couple of sprays of Nitro to get his BP down but it had no effect so he was sent to the hospital – they clocked his BP at 220/140. We went home and I made reservations at a local hotel, then we packed and got ready. At three AM, after two hours sleep, we left to drive to Huntington Beach.
On the way we stopped at a McDonald’s for breakfast, and on the way to sit down with the food my wife tripped over a table leg. (Instead of being under the table it was sticking way out on the side, like it was meant to support an attached chair.) Down she went. She has bruises on her ribcage and may have cracked a rib – she still has a lot of discomfort from it. We traveled on, and got to the hospital at nine AM Friday morning. Steven was being seen by an attending (his primary) and a cardiologist. They were running EKG’s every eight hours. I asked the tech if he had an inverted T1 and she said yes, and a few others as well.
On the evening before we left we talked to Steve on the phone and I told him to mention that I had HCM, so they ran an echo and that tech said he had a thickened septum, (Steven didn’t remember what the numbers were – 1.3 or something – so when the dust settles we will have to get copies of all the details.
They didn’t get his pressure down until Saturday, and released him that afternoon, with a list of prescriptions. We had lunch together Sunday before we headed home, and his pressure was above normal again, - but not as bad. (I think it was something like 186/96 with a pulse rate in the eighties.) He had just gotten the prescriptions filled and took them at the table. We got home without mishap, and spoke to Steve again. He had a slight headache, but no tightness in the chest so I guess the med’s are working.
His prescriptions include – Vytorin, Benicar HCT, Avandamet, Lopressor, Norvasc, Allegra, Advent, and Rhinocort, so he not only inherited my HCM, Diabetes, Familial Hyperlipidemia, and hypertension, he’s gone off and started collecting other maladies on his own. I guess I’ll have to put him up for membership in the Malady of the Month club.
I am curious about the Benicar HCT, as it is listed as an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). I know ACE inhibitors are contraindicated for most HCM patients, - What about ARB’s?
I had a ‘funny’ experience myself Saturday morning. I felt lousy and when we got to my son’s room I was SOB for a long time – it just wouldn’t stop. I dozed off in a chair for about twenty minutes and woke up still feeling lousy. I took my pulse which was ragged with an occasional very mild beat. I counted 39 bpm. I got up and slowly walked around the ward. When I checked again my pulse had settled down and risen to 49 bpm – and I was feeling quite a bit better. I walked around a bit more and forgot about the problem after that.
OK, time to shut up.
Burt
PS – For Halloween all the nurses came dressed as - - Nurses.
It’s been an ‘interesting’ few days, - in the same sense as the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”
It started last Thursday when we were at our PCP’s office – Shirley for a follow-up and I to get my PCP and LA Cardiologist playing from the same page. (My PCP has to write the prescriptions etc. for the cardio as he is out of state.) Well, I got a cell phone call from my son. We were with the doctor, so I said I would call him back. After lunch I called his cell phone, and found out he was in the hospital in his home town, Huntington Beach, in Southern California.
He hadn’t been feeling well for a couple of days and went to the doctor who gave him a couple of sprays of Nitro to get his BP down but it had no effect so he was sent to the hospital – they clocked his BP at 220/140. We went home and I made reservations at a local hotel, then we packed and got ready. At three AM, after two hours sleep, we left to drive to Huntington Beach.
On the way we stopped at a McDonald’s for breakfast, and on the way to sit down with the food my wife tripped over a table leg. (Instead of being under the table it was sticking way out on the side, like it was meant to support an attached chair.) Down she went. She has bruises on her ribcage and may have cracked a rib – she still has a lot of discomfort from it. We traveled on, and got to the hospital at nine AM Friday morning. Steven was being seen by an attending (his primary) and a cardiologist. They were running EKG’s every eight hours. I asked the tech if he had an inverted T1 and she said yes, and a few others as well.
On the evening before we left we talked to Steve on the phone and I told him to mention that I had HCM, so they ran an echo and that tech said he had a thickened septum, (Steven didn’t remember what the numbers were – 1.3 or something – so when the dust settles we will have to get copies of all the details.
They didn’t get his pressure down until Saturday, and released him that afternoon, with a list of prescriptions. We had lunch together Sunday before we headed home, and his pressure was above normal again, - but not as bad. (I think it was something like 186/96 with a pulse rate in the eighties.) He had just gotten the prescriptions filled and took them at the table. We got home without mishap, and spoke to Steve again. He had a slight headache, but no tightness in the chest so I guess the med’s are working.
His prescriptions include – Vytorin, Benicar HCT, Avandamet, Lopressor, Norvasc, Allegra, Advent, and Rhinocort, so he not only inherited my HCM, Diabetes, Familial Hyperlipidemia, and hypertension, he’s gone off and started collecting other maladies on his own. I guess I’ll have to put him up for membership in the Malady of the Month club.
I am curious about the Benicar HCT, as it is listed as an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). I know ACE inhibitors are contraindicated for most HCM patients, - What about ARB’s?
I had a ‘funny’ experience myself Saturday morning. I felt lousy and when we got to my son’s room I was SOB for a long time – it just wouldn’t stop. I dozed off in a chair for about twenty minutes and woke up still feeling lousy. I took my pulse which was ragged with an occasional very mild beat. I counted 39 bpm. I got up and slowly walked around the ward. When I checked again my pulse had settled down and risen to 49 bpm – and I was feeling quite a bit better. I walked around a bit more and forgot about the problem after that.
OK, time to shut up.
Burt
PS – For Halloween all the nurses came dressed as - - Nurses.
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