An Update from the Heart

All right, finally done with the long trip to the cardiologist. Seriously...why do I bother being on time (I was even a few minutes early) if I'm going to have to sit in the exam room for a whole hour before the doc even shows up?

The short version - not looking too bad. Yes, I've kicked into high A-Fib (I like that term, because it sounds like a euphemism for a lie). They can't quite tell me why (and they really don't seem to care much about the why, interestingly. Maybe it's just me...). It's possible it was the change in meds a couple weeks back, so I'm starting on a new med today, at a higher strength, to see if that tackles the problem. And there's another possibility for a fix here - a surgical one. Since I went to the ER, I've gotten info from some folks about their own trials dealing with A-Fib, and things they've had done. A couple of folks have had a procedure done that pretty much takes care of (most of) the problem and removes the need for one of the meds that I take each day. That'd be nice. I discussed it with my doc. It's not totally his area, so I'd have to see someone else in the cardiac clinic to discuss it, but it's something they hadn't discussed with me before, likely, because it didn't have that great of a success rate up until about five years ago. Now it's definitely much better. So it may or may not be something that would work for me, but I'm going to have to put off seeing them about it and looking into it until the insurance things gets squared away (I'm technically between insurance right now (hence the $100 deposit I had to pay today)), waiting to here if coverage is in place and will cover all this stuff I'm doing this week). Until then, I can't jump into anything big. Long as I know the current problem is not a serious life-and-afterlife one (it's not, I've got that (fingers crossed...) verified), I can wait until I find out that all's well with coverage. And then, this little episode may have been the thing that opened to door to a solution that makes things much, much better for me. Silver linings, people!

Until then...well, I hope this new med at this higher dose knocks out the problem, because while it's not immediately dangerous, it's not pleasant. And I do NOT like spending all this time in bed. I want to be getting stuff done (like writing, dadblammit!). But it's too hard to 1) stay upright and 2) stay focused when this is going on. I was reading an article online about A-Fib last night, and heard someone describe the sensation as having a jackrabbit in your chest that's trying to get out. That's the best I've heard it put so far. So I'll give it a few days, take it easy, see how the new med does, and continue my Buffy DVD marathon (I'm on season 4 already). This is just like what I went through with my kidney stone fiasco of a few years ago...lots of TV time, but this time without being pleasantly high all day on pain meds. So this time I can pay attention to what's on the TV a lot better.

So, for those wanting an update - the news is good. The situation sucks, but could be muuuuuch worse, so I'll do my best to dam the gripes. The biggest fear I had was the possible financial devastation of a forced hospital stay and some kind of immediate surgical procedure, and that appears to be off the table (as do I!). Sweet!

Oh, and hey...if you're a fan of Dollhouse, don't forget to tune in on Fox tonight. Only about three weeks left to get those ratings up to see if we'll get a second season. Don't hold your breath, but you never know...

BONUS OF THE DAY: Hot pharmacy girl with Russian accent to flirt with. Da, baby!