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S and I are coming down with colds, courtesy of our friend Cindy-the-Librarian, who caught one on her airline trip to visit us, and whom we have just bundled off to the airport for her return to Austin. Generally speaking, I can cope with colds, except that I'm not allowed to take Sudafed or generic equivalents thereof, because of my heart. So if my nose gets really stuffed, my only resorts are Thai food and steamy hot showers.
Speaking of heart, unfortunately the echocardiogram shows that my ejection fraction has gone back down again. The fix for this may be as simple as changing the programming on my pacemaker again, or may require a hospital stay of a couple of days to finally get the third lead implanted. For those going "huh?" I have idiopathic dilated cardiomypathy (a fancy way of saying my heart is enlarged with no discernable cause or reason) resulting in congestive heart failure, which isn't quite as awful as it sounds but is bad enough. ( boring details )
Do not, regardless of the above, tolerate any whining from me. I am way better off than a lot of people. I am way better off, even, than most people w/ CHF - I'm not morbidly obese, and so far I am getting by without having to get a scooter or an oxygen tank, and I don't have diabetes on top of it, and my arteries are all clean as a whistle, no plaque, so I'm not at risk of a heart attack from any of the usual reasons. And there's lots of potential things to treat this, all the way up to transplants, which I am not even thinking about yet. That's where most people with severe CHF wind up, on the transplant list; I am far from that yet. So, if I whine a bit, kick me in the shins and remind me that I am not your average CHF patient and I should suck it up and keep moving.
However, I'm still peeved that I can't use Sudafed.
Speaking of heart, unfortunately the echocardiogram shows that my ejection fraction has gone back down again. The fix for this may be as simple as changing the programming on my pacemaker again, or may require a hospital stay of a couple of days to finally get the third lead implanted. For those going "huh?" I have idiopathic dilated cardiomypathy (a fancy way of saying my heart is enlarged with no discernable cause or reason) resulting in congestive heart failure, which isn't quite as awful as it sounds but is bad enough. ( boring details )
Do not, regardless of the above, tolerate any whining from me. I am way better off than a lot of people. I am way better off, even, than most people w/ CHF - I'm not morbidly obese, and so far I am getting by without having to get a scooter or an oxygen tank, and I don't have diabetes on top of it, and my arteries are all clean as a whistle, no plaque, so I'm not at risk of a heart attack from any of the usual reasons. And there's lots of potential things to treat this, all the way up to transplants, which I am not even thinking about yet. That's where most people with severe CHF wind up, on the transplant list; I am far from that yet. So, if I whine a bit, kick me in the shins and remind me that I am not your average CHF patient and I should suck it up and keep moving.
However, I'm still peeved that I can't use Sudafed.
