Pulling this one back up. I am learning how to wait at traffic signals that seem to turn red just as I get up to them. I'm a little naughty. I like XM station 150- the raunchy comedy station. (Lot's of the "F" word.) I sit at the red lights and smile now.

 

I picked up a mug in a book store that was covered with quotes from the book written by Michael Carlson called " Don't Sweat the Small Stuff". On that mug are about 50 or so pieces of good advise. a couple of my of my favorites - "Life its self becomes a classroom, and the curriculum is patience", "surrender to the fact that life isn't fair", & "cut yourself some slack".

 

My wife and I have been waiting since Jan 30, and still have a week to go, to see if medication she is on is working, or if she will have to have open heart surgery to remove part of her aorta. We are on pins and needles, this being about the hardest wait we have ever had. Too many details to go into, but this was a very special Valentine's Day.

 

I feel for you guys on that issue, Morris. My Mom's still waiting for a new study chemotherapy drug to be released to see if it'll work on her bile duct/liver cancer that was diagnosed back in September of '04. Fortunately it's a slow-growing tumor, but the wait is ridiculous and in December the doctor gave her a guesstimate of 4-8 months without the chemo....the clock is ticking. Do you want to know what the holdup on the government approval is? The consent is NOT UNDERSTANDABLE TO THOSE AT A SIXTH-GRADE READING LEVEL!!!!! I'm saying 6th graders probably shouldn't be making these decisions by themselves anyway! My father has a Ph.D in nuclear physics. My mother was a 5th and 6th grade schoolteacher. Presumably both are able to read well beyond a 6th grade reading level. This is horribly frustrating and scary.

 

Morris, this must have been a real trial for you and your wife. Please let us know what happens. I hope the medication works.

And Josey, I hope that treatment for your mother gets approved soon!

Feeling helpless is a terrible thing. I've experienced it at times with my mom's back situation.

 

Follow up on my earlier post. Yesterday we went to UCSF and had another echocardiogram. Her aorta is now clear! The thing that was in there, that clots were breaking off of, was a big clot, (could have been a tumor) and it has now dissolved through medication. So she has avoided major surgery. We are soooo thankful.
Please all of you, if you have medical problems, be sure to get a second, or even a third opinion. If we had listened only to the surgeon, she would have had open heart surgery on January 31st, and it would have been UNNECESSARY!
Thanks Josey and MSPerky, for your kind words.

 

Thrilled to hear the great news, Morris - you both must be so relieved! Will she need to stay on antiplatelet therapy or something to prevent it from recurring, or do they think it was some transient anomaly?

 

Great news!!!

 

She will stay on Cumadin for 2 more months, then switch to aspirin and Plavex(?), till the end of the year, then just aspirin- all subject to monitoring,of course. This was a warning that she is suseptible to hardening of the arteries. She doesn't have it now, but has to do the right things to avoid getting it. It's only guesses what made it happen. The location was actually lucky. Had it been closer to the heart, by inches, the clots that went down to the kidneys and spleen, could have gone up to the brain, meaning a stroke.
To say we are relieved is putting it lightly. The surgery would have been major, with several months of recovery. And for someone that hates doctors, she would have been a basket case. (me too).

 

Both my parents have had some heart-related stuff. My dad has a pacemaker and also had triple-bypass surgery a year or so ago. My mom also has a pacemaker and atrial fibrillation, which hasn't been so bad recently, probably because her back hurts so much it dwarfs the afib.