Sunday, February 10, 2008

Bob Update and a New Toy

The meeting with the pulmonary doctor on Friday was mostly just to get a preliminary check-up. It was kind of a meet and greet since he didn't perform any tests today. He will be running some kind of breathing/lung tests and he is setting up a sleep study because he is sure sleep apnea is exaserbating Bob's breathing problems. Or maybe his breathing problems are exaserbated by sleep apnea. It's a catch-22.

We were glad to find out that this doctor is actually going to refer Bob to another doctor in the pulmonary clinic. Apparently this other doctor is a pulmonary specialist with a neuromuscular specialty. This was EXACTALLY the kind of doctor we were looking for when we moved all Bob's health care to the U. This doctor will be setting up and monitoring the sleep study and lung/breathing tests.

The final appointment of the day was with Bob's primary care physician. He told us that all Bob's blood tests came back normal. He has good regular blood pressure, good thyroid, great cholesterol, etc. He did say that Bob has low iron count though he is not anemic. Still, he wants Bob to add an iron pill to his daily vitamin regime.

Right now we are still kind of in limbo as far as a diagnosis is concerned. Thankfully they are not concerned enough to hospitalize Bob. They think there is a possibility that one of Bob's heart valves is weakened. They want to be sure and that is why they have ordered the lung/breathing tests. The tentative diagnosis is pulmonary hypertension. They will know more after these other tests come back. So it's more waiting and wondering. Thankfully Bob is doing better and has lost about 15 lbs of water weight. He feels much more himself and is anxious to feel even better.

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So, we got our tax refund back already. We paid some bills and then split the remainder. I have enough to get a zoom lens for my camera as well as this:

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Be sure to let us know how the new vacuum cleaner works out. I'm going to be shopping for one that's good for pet hair, but I don't think I'll be able to afford a Dyson or anything like that.