Best wishes for a full recovery!

Regarding your comment about blood pressure they call hypertension the silent killer, because it is overwhelmingly asymptomatic and you won’t know you are walking around with it

Praying for a full recovery! I understand the stress you're going through with selling, packing, buying and moving. See you in FL!

Tony.

Wondering if you had the ablation because of heart palpitations and if any of that has anything to do with your current state? Best wishes and hope you are out using some of that M855 soon.

Smudge and I talked on the phone yesterday. Smudge is doing good but is busy trying to get things packed up so he can trailer his goods, and thus his truck, down to Arizona.

I didn’t get into it here the other day, but one of the things that also came out of this was it turns out I have elevated thyroid levels. Enough that the doctor who was treating me said if it wasn’t for my liver disease, I’d have walked out of there on a medication for hyperthyroidism. She said I need to see an endocrinologist. On top of everything else, all I could think to say was “that’s great.”

After a little looking into it, I have pretty much all the symptoms I see listed for it, and have for quite some time now. I was looking at it in the light of liver disease and had come to accept a lot of it, the big ones being the fatigue, muscle weakness (which combined with the muscle wasting from cirrhosis had people asking me if I had cancer last year), and tremors. Sleep problems, irritability, hair loss, inability to tolerate heat and cold being other noteworthy symptoms. The cardiac stuff… has already been corrected through surgery and medication. I wonder if it needn’t have been. Regardless, reading that this is relatively easily controlled once diagnosed, I’m more hopeful for my quality of life than I’ve been in a year and a half.

I saw my primary doc this morning, and talked it over with her. She ordered blood work and imaging for my thyroid. The bloodwork is off to the lab, and I will probably have to get the imaging done when I move. If I can get in there this week, then it’s possible we’ll know what the problem is and I can begin some sort of treatment. We will see.

I’m only 39. My cardiac, hepatic, and now endocrine systems are malfunctioning. The men in my family all die before age 70, and now it’s little mystery to me why. The medical examiner’s report on my fathers autopsy came back about a month ago. I read it a few weeks back and supposedly his liver was in great shape and showed no signs of fibrosis. I simply don’t know how. However, he had right ventricular cardiomyopathy. His father had his first heart attack at age 34. So that’s three of us in a row with bad tickers. Going to have to closely monitor my son for that. Really hoping he got the cardiac genetics from the other side.

quote:

Originally posted by wingspar:
Wondering if you had the ablation because of heart palpitations and if any of that has anything to do with your current state? Best wishes and hope you are out using some of that M855 soon.

Thanks! I did. I lived with strong afib for years before the surgery in December 2020. Having it corrected has totally changed my life.

Benny, we’ll be moving to Arizona next week, not Florida. Florida was at the top of the list since we have family and friends there, but Arizona was our only chance to escape, so we took it. Honestly, anything at all would be an improvement at this point, but after learning some, and spending a week there recently, I’m really excited and think we were very blessed with the chance!

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

quote:

Originally posted by wingspar:
Wondering if you had the ablation because of heart palpitations and if any of that has anything to do with your current state? Best wishes and hope you are out using some of that M855 soon.

Thanks! I did. I lived with strong afib for years before the surgery in December 2020. Having it corrected has totally changed my life.

Thanks for the info. I might start a thread on ablation after I see my cardiologist in a couple of weeks. I’ve been dealing with palpitations since November 2020. Not pleasant when they are strong.

Certain arrhythmias well served by ablation. Make sure you talk to your electrician. Not so much the plumber.

Makes life safer for other people when you’re driving a car. Plus on a personal level it is life-changing, as P220smaudge said.

Wingspar, I know exactly how you feel. Start that thread, there’s a number of us here who’ve dealt it, and the surgery. We also have a (recently retired, I believe) cardiologist here who is active and tends to post in the cardiac threads. If you have questions and you’d like input or some reassurance, this is great place to bring it up. You know you’re also welcome to email me any time if there’s anything I can do for you, just check my profile for my updated email address.

New procedures as well. Watchman. I would wait on that one.

UPDATE :

I just now received a text from Smudge ... he had another episode and currently is enroute to the hospital.

Thoughts and prayers with ya Smudge.

quote:

Originally posted by old dino:
UPDATE :

I just now received a text from Smudge ... he had another episode and currently is enroute to the hospital.

Thoughts and prayers with ya Smudge.

Damn! I'm with you here.

smudge, I’m praying for you.

Fudge … Prayers sent…

Ok, I’m home again. I’m fine.

I was having my followup with cardiology, this time at the big medical center I usually go to instead of the little podunk nearby that I raced to last week. I walked out to my truck to go home, and the vision in my right eye was going wonky again. Looked in the mirror and my right pupil was dilated again, so I walked back in and they had me back to an ER room in nothing flat again. Sent Old Dino a text real quick before I hit the dead zone because he was the most recent on the list.

CT scan was clear, no other symptoms. This time, I got treated by an actual neurologist. The short version is, I have something called benign episodic unilateral mydriasis. Basically, one pupil gets dilated for no reason, and it’s no big deal. I did not have a stroke today, and after having the CT scan from last week read again, the neurologist says I didn’t have a stroke last week, either. It was an artifact in the image, and they didn’t get a clear shot because the resist hadn’t made it to my brain yet. They weren’t sure last week and did they best they could. Not mad about it. I am discontinuing the Xarelto, as my calculated stroke risk was less than one percent, compared to higher risk with the blood thinner thanks to esophageal varices.

Needless to say, this is excellent news. I had two ER trips, but the sum effect of these was I discovered I will need another outpatient catheter heart surgery to repair some holes in my heart, and I have a thyroid issue. All things considered, very good findings in trade for a little inconvenience and worry.

Thanks for the well-wishes and prayers. Someone was listening. Onward to Arizona.

^^^^^^^^
Re: “Onward to Arizona.”
You are one tough dude, Smudge!

That is awesome news. Having a stroke is no joke. I know-I’ve had one. But is the new diagnosis any better?

Do you have migraines? (You don't have to answer if you'd rather not.)

We'll take that news and go w/ it as it seems to be good news.
Keep on hanging in there. One day at a time w/ all you've been dealing w/.

Consider this a blessing.

Had the consensus been "a stroke" and the treatment and follow on proceeded with the incorrect diagnosis/assumption, you could find such deviation having you missing the moon when it comes time to land with your less than copious amount of fuel.

Or, damn good thing it was sorted now, rather than when things might be critical.

Just an FYI: MRIs and CTs aren't 100%; they 'skip' a certain amount of tissue then take a picture, then skip again, take another picture etc. Things can be missed in the 'skipped' area. One can request closer slices be done if one speaks with the radiologist and lets them know the area of concern (like the brainstem, etc.) Also timing of events can affect what shows up on the scan, especially on CTs.