A very nice physician’s assistant came in and went over what we needed to know.  I’ll never be able to get across how this sounded, but read it as if you were a preschooler and a grown up was teaching you a big word.  Not condescending, just ‘big-word-y’. She said, “Now, I’m hear to tell you about your condition, which is called (holding up the folder of information with the title) ‘Heart Failure’.” Zoinks!!! Again, she wasn’t weird, it was just that first sentence It sounds much, much scarier than it is. One of his ventricles is just a little weak, so he needs medicine to help it get stronger  (I think I talked about that before.) She said that since he’s so young and in pretty good shape, he really just needs to take it easy for a while and restrict salt from his diet. We went down the list of foods high in salt and….. well, let’s just say that snacks are right out. We scored bonus points for not eating out very much, although it’s due to my cheapness rather than health maintenance.

We asked to visit with the doctor again, because what he told Lloyd about ‘take it easy’ and what the nice p.a. said seemed very different.  Well, as we all know, seeing the doctor is a tough task. We finally decided to just go, and ask questions over the phone tomorrow.  As of now, we’re going with what we believe they recommend – Lloyd’s going to take this week off, then go in next week and just teach his 7th grade math, not the high school stuff.

So, we’ve unloaded the car, put the stuff away, I made a fairly salt-free dinner that was loaded with three different kinds of Mrs. Dash, and now I’ll show some pictures. If you click ‘continue reading’, all those pictures will come up  Lloyd’s folks and my folks have dial-up, so it’s tough to load pictures.

Here’s Lloyd, waiting for the ambulance from Lincoln.

Here he is after getting checked in.   Note the time – we’ve been up for 4 1/2 hours. Dang it, Saturdays are for sleeping in!

This guy did not think it was amusing when I asked about taking pictures. I think he thought I was asking for a print-out, because he kept saying, “I think this printer doesn’t work”. Anyway, he didn’t know I took this picture. (Don’t tell him.)

This was the cool couch I ‘slept’ on Saturday & Sunday night. The photo is for demonstration purposes.ÂI really had a pillow and cover.

This is Lloyd’s patented ‘i.v. protection glove’ for taking a shower and keeping your hand dry.

 

Ok, that’s all for now. We have to tape Lloyd’s second lesson.

Lloyd, if you have the inclination, you should really write a little about this picture.

This evening he showered, put some clothes back on, and we videotaped his geometry lesson for the 7th graders.  He used the whiteboard in one of the conference rooms, and it went quite well!  I hope they like it. 

We’re heading for bed.  Tomorrow I’ll go back to Seward to teach in the morning, then back here.  We’ll keep you ‘posted’!

We named this post ‘Heart Cath’ because ‘Shaved Groin’ might have put you off.  So, it’s a little more serious now. The doctor came in and said he’d like to rule out myaparacarditis (spelling?), where the actual muscle is affected, not just the sac.  That involves doing a heart catheter. (spelling?)

Zoinks!

So, we watched a little nine-minute video about the procedure.  I said that wouldn’t be necessary, since I watch lots and lots of medical shows, but they insisted.  It was very informative, but they put some nut-job in charge of the soundtrack.  It had sad, slightly creepy ‘beginning of the horror movie where the innocent family is moving their belongings into the doomed house’, haunted-music-box music.  It washard not to laugh.

The nurse informed us of the risks, and they were ready right away!  Lloyd had to strip down to his gown and socks, and they took him to the cath lab.  He said it was very interesting, but he’s resting now and I’ll let him describe it later.

After about an hour the doctor came out and said that he does have a little myaparacarditis, but it shouldn’t be a problem. His chances of getting better are quite good.  They’re going to get him on some medicine and keep him here for a few days to watch him.

That’s all for now.  I appreciate you leaving comments rather than calling  – our cell phone batteries are pretty low.

More updates later!

Where to start? First of all, Lloyd’s ok. (Sounds ominous, eh?)  Let’s begin with what we’ve told countless nurses, aides, physicians’ assistants and a doctor. 

As you know, Lloyd’s been sick with a cold for a couple of weeks, and he had a fever last… Tuesday?  Anyway, Thursday night he had some mild chest pain around midnight, but it went away by 2:00.  (He didn’t wake me up.)  Friday morning his chest started to hurt as he was driving in to school.  He didn’t have his cell phone, so he was trying to figure out the safest way to drive off the road should something happen.  At school, he wondered if it might be gas, so some co-workers offered some Tums and soda.  It went away by 9:00, so that was that  (He told me about it after school.)

Friday night I awoke at 2:15 to Lloyd sitting by the bed and saying, “Lauren, you need to come downstairs and sit with me.”  (Now THAT’S a shot of adrenline.)  We sat in the dining room while he drank some pop – I offered baking soda water, since I’ve watched lots and lots of medical shows.  Finally he put his head on the table, and we decided to go to the emergency room.  “Better safe than sorry” and all that.

We went, and they were very kind and helpful.  Lloyd got hooked up for an EKG, had an i.v. port put in, had oxygen pumped into his nose, had a chest x-ray, and got some blood drawn.  (Lloyd did not pass out!  Usually he’s kind of a woozy guy with that.)  We kept thinking, “It’s probably just gas.”  Well, they said that some heart enzyemes were pretty high, so they were going to send us to Lincoln.  We thought we’d just drive ourselves in, but the P.A. shook her head and said, “No. You’re really sick. I’m surprised you don’t feel a lot worse.”  They said it was probably pericarditis, and inflamation of the sac around his heart, probably caused by his cold virus.  Lloyd had to take an ambulance.  By they way, it arrived around 5 a.m., and by this time he was feeling fine.  These episodes just last about two hours.

I went home to get the car that had enough gas to get to Lincoln, Lloyd’s toothbrush and some extra clothes, and – of course - the camera.  (Don’t think we’re morbid, but we’ve joked that if anything super-serious should happen to one of us, the other one has to make a post about it.)  Unfortunately we can’t load pictures yet, but perhaps this evening or tomorrow we can.)

Lloyd rode in, I followed, we arrived at St. Elizabeth around 6 a.m.- a very nice facility!  He had all the same tests over again, minus the x-ray, and waited to hear from the doctor.  We had to wait quite a long time, because it was Saturday and there was only one cardioloist on duty.  He was probably helping people who were in big trouble, so it wasn’t too hard to be patient.  We sat around, had people come in and do the same tests, and around 4 p.m. we met with the doctor briefly  A bit later, Lloyd had his first dose of actual medicine – the experimental wonder drug….. Motrin!  We joked with the nurse that we weren’t sure about Lloyd taking such strong medication.  Whatever.

We were pretty tired all day and tried to nap, but people kept wanting to take Lloyd’s blood away.  Annette and her family were coming into Lincoln and we asked if she could bring Lloyd’s keys and his papers to grade.  I got his laptop from school and we had a pretty nice setup  When Lloyd took a shower he had to pull 23 sticky tabs off his chest, and 2 from his ankles. He ate the hospital food without complaint, and we went to sleep around 10:30.

An hour later I woke up to him calling the nurse because the pain was back, but not as severe.  It took a while for them to come in.  Anyway, someone came to draw some blood and the nurse said they needed to run ‘a complete set of tests – he hasn’t had the three blah blah blah test since he’s been here!’.  Then they gave him morphine - just like on M.A.S.H.!

We actually got some sleep after that, though they stole his blood again in the night.  It’s been fascinating watching his heart rate and blood pressure change throughout the day and night.  So, a nutshell, he’s just fine 93% of the time, and a mess 7%.  We’re hoping to leave today, but we’ll have to talk with the doctor today.  We’ll keep you “posted”!

A sweet side note – they play a snippet of a lullaby over the intercom whenever a baby is born, and seven babies have been born while we’ve been here!

So, Brad, I guess this trumps Amsterdam, huh?

The MRI was really easy. You just have to lie still and not have a metal plate embedded in your skull. It’s really loud, but not an entirely unpleasantly loud. They give you headphones to wear and literally pipe in (no magnets in the MRI) music, but you can only hear the music in between scans. At the end of the of the scanning I used the old line, “My wife is a preschool teacher, can I have X?” where X is anything up to their first born child. In this case X was, “a copy of the image you made”. He asked if a copy on CD would be okay and I said sure.

   On the CD were 18 scans (we can’t decide if that is likely to be all of the scans) and a program to manipulate them. We can rotate my head in 3D and also make those red/blue 3D pictures. Anyone have a pair of 3D glasses? The eye doctor said that the MRI would let him know whether I needed to see a Neurological Opthomologist or and Ear, Nose and Throat guy. I’m not sure which one to hope for.

P.S. You can manipulate the first image by right clicking on it.