Doctors

Tomorrow is a full day of doctors appointments.  It's so funny; all growing up I always thought once you start taking one pill you will start taking more and more and more, until you have a mini pharmacy in your bathroom.  Well it's true! Tomorrow my schedule is as follows:

8:00 Echocardiogram
9:00 Appointment with Dr. Sype, my cardiologist
9:40 MRI of my Cerical Spine (my neck)
11:00 Ultrasound of my Right neck and shoulder
3:40 Appointment with Dr. Liu, my neurologist

My appointment with my PCP isn't until next Friday.  Now you maybe thinking why in the world would someone go to so many doctors, well I will tell you.  In December 2010 I found out I have Cardiomyopathy which basically translates into meaning cardio (heart) myo (muscle) pathy (disease).  The left side of my heart is thinning.  There are many factors that play into this.

A. Pregnancy: While pregnant growing a baby is the number 1 priority for your body and stresses all the functions in a woman's body particularly the heart.  The heart must now pump more blood in the same amount of time, which is a factor to high blood pressure during pregnancy. I have been pregnant 3 times int he last 5 years.
B. Mono: I had mono for the first time in February 2010 while pregnant with Carson.  I had 2 other episodes during the fall of 2010 that came on for no apparent reasons.  The thought behind this is that it could be a viral thing, which means it will get better in time with medication.
C. Unknown: In 2003 I had an echo (ultrasound that looks at the blood flow around the heart) which found that my EF (Ejection Fraction: the fraction of blood pumped out of the right and left ventricles with each heart beat) was at 63% (normal healthy adult is between 50%-70%).  After I started having near fainting spells (presyncope) my PCP decided to do a follow up echo (December 2010).  This time my EF was 35%.  It doesn't get worrisome until you get down to 20% I believe.

I have also had a lot of headaches and migraines.  The neurologist is interested in the branch of nerves in my right neck.  I occasionally have sharp pains in my right chest and then pain down my right arm and into my fingers.  Dr. Liu does acupuncture, so it maybe fun to see where that leads!

In December I also tried to upgrade my life insurance which requires a simple blood and urine testing.  When I got the results back on that last week (February 2011) it showed that my liver functions are low and after a repeat testing they have gone a little lower.  Lets just say I didn't qualify for the upgrade, instead my life insurance is still low and doubled the price.  Today during work I was imputing patients blood work into the computer and a pregnant patient with Hepatitis B had a few numbers lower then mine.  I have been tested for Hep B and C and I have neither, no worries.  And so the adventure continues...tonight I have 4 bottles of medication sitting next to my bed.  Who knows what it will look like tomorrow!