January 27, 2012

Thrill of this week was the right heart cath on Tuesday.  The hospital was very busy and no oxygen bottles were available at the valet parking area.  Only a few wheelchairs there and in the main lobby… The set of elevators we needed to take had one working out of three so the line was long and with a wheelchair you can’t just ‘squeeze in’!  Arrived at our destination in plenty of time and discovered the heart cath lab was running behind schedule by about 2 hours so we spent the next 2 ½ hours in a room waiting. 

They did take us right in to the room since I am on oxygen and would have run out and they treated us well, checking in at least every 20 minutes or so to see if we needed anything.  I asked for something to calm my nerves and they gave me a Valium and then another one just before going in for the procedure.  It helped!!! 

The procedure itself only lasted about 15 minutes.  They put a ‘line’ of some kind into the neck (jugular vein?) and feed it through to the heart to check the pressure between the heart and the lungs.  This determines the level of pulmonary hypertension which is related to the IPF.  I do have some pulmonary hypertension (already knew that) but the doctor said it was not as bad as Dr. Raghu had feared it was and that was good news.   They did have a bit of trouble feeding the line in and had to press really hard.  It didn’t actually hurt but was uncomfortable and my neck was  sore for a few days!  Said to rest for a few days so did not go to therapy on Wednesday.  The bandage they put on the site was clear and thin, almost like skin and when I pulled it off it felt like ripping a layer of skin off.  Ouch!!!!    Bob enjoyed the last part as he got to pull the bandage….  ;-)

Enough of that!!!!  The snow is almost gone except for some shady spots here in the park.  It has been sunny but cold for the past few days.   

Went to therapy this morning and we both got haircuts afterwards.  I’m finding that I can’t do some of the lower extremity exercises with the leg weights on but am determined to keep going as long as I can.  Just have to rest quite a bit between exercises… 

I do think the new medication is helping somewhat.  Not a major change but I’ll take any help I can get!!!  The dosage will be doubled after the first month so we will see what that does.  So far there haven’t been any side affects…..

While I was having the heart cath procedure done Bob went to the cafeteria and ran into someone he used to work with at the Employment Office in Salem many years ago!!!  She was there with her husband who had a heart cath just ahead of me.  What a small world it can be sometimes.  They had a nice visit.

We are invited to Dan and Terri’s tomorrow for lunch.  Decided to do lunch instead of dinner since I’m not as tired earlier in the day… 

Broke down and ordered a satellite dish from DirecTV.  Our little RV dish works great when the weather is nice but when it is raining hard or snowing we get very little reception (and in case you didn’t know it does rain in Seattle!!!)  Also ordered a DVR so we can record programs to watch later.  Had the service at home temporarily turned off and switched here so the payment should be about the same.  I do tend to watch a lot of TV just because I can’t do much of anything else.  Can only do so much reading and need something to do while I’m working on my knitting, crocheting, embroidery, etc. or when I can’t sleep at night which is often. 

Violet and Bob are still finding mounds of snow to play with when they are out but it won’t be long before it is all gone.  She will be sad….

Can’t believe it is almost February and we have been here over 10 months!  Wondering how much longer we will have to wait……