Send to KindleI finished the last post with a bang, sharing my brand new Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). I hadn’t actually been diagnosed yet, I simply had all of the symptoms.
We headed to NYC on November 3rd, 2024, with the intention of staying until the day after Christmas. This would be our longest stay since we moved to VA in 2015!
I had scheduled my annual physical with my primary care physician (PCP) who is also my cardiologist (you already know that if you’ve been with me in this series of posts) for the day after we arrived.
Aside from the fact that having an annual physical is good in general, and specifically for someone with heart issues, I had an additional (very foolish) motivation for wanting to see my cardiologist.
Forgetting the RA for the moment, all of the QB (Quantum Biology for those of you who didn’t read the last post) stuff had me down to 173 pounds (I started this journey at 265 pounds, 23 years earlier). In all of those years, the lowest weight he’d seen me at was probably 195 pounds, but more typically, my best average would have been closer to 205.
It was foolish, because I expected praise for being such a good boy, rather than doing it for all the right reasons and not caring what he or anyone else said.
He did comment immediately on the weight, but within minutes of examining me, he had some concerns and scheduled a Stress Echo test for the following week (something I’d done a couple of times over the years). The first post in this series covered the first Stress Echo test, which was brutal.
Given all of my exercise and weight loss over the years, I knew I’d do better, but I didn’t know how much he’d keep stressing me, so I still had some trepidation about the test.
In between those two visits, he got the results of my blood work from the initial annual checkup.
Before we even got to the test, he very gravely delivered the bad news about my change in diet due to the QB regimen. When I was on Atkins, my cholesterol peaked at 276 (a number that concerned him greatly!). This time, it was 319. I honestly thought he might have a heart attack right in front of me. Obviously, he ordered me to change my diet immediately (and I have…).
As for the stress test, I passed with flying colors. I was breathing very heavily at the end, but I was never breathless, and I never needed to run to keep up with the treadmill. We were both very impressed and he stopped the test before I ever got stressed! (there goes my ego again…)
The second he stopped the treadmill, I got on the exam table for the full ecocardiogram. I had no way of knowing what the readings indicated, until we spoke in his office afterward.
The anchor dropped immediately. He said that the time had come to replace my Aortic Valve, and that it was likely I would need the Ascending Aorta repaired as well. He wanted to see me a week later after the rest of the tests were in.
When I came in the following week (on my birthday, yay), he referred me to two different surgeons. He explained why I might choose one over the other, and given the criteria, I knew which one I would contact.
I made an appointment for December 3rd, 2024. That would involve three tests (CAT scan, X-Ray and a deeper Echo of the Carotid Arteries) followed by a physical exam by the surgeon.
Separately, I made an appointment for December 5th, 2024 to see the rheumatologist that my PCP referred me to as well (I hope you didn’t forget that I was suffering from RA, which was no small thing, completely independent of my heart issues…).
When I met the surgeon after the tests, I knew I made the right choice. However, after going over the tests in detail, he explained to me what repair the ascending aorta involved. It was not a repair, it was a wholesale replacement.
While he was capable of doing the surgery, he had someone else on staff that was the head of Aortic Surgery, and he suggested I meet with him instead. That meeting happened on December 14th, 2024, and I really liked him as well, feeling confident that I chose the correct facility for the operation (Lenox Hill Hospital, part of Northwell Health Systems).
I asked if I could delay the surgery until the Spring (which would have been our natural return to NYC, given that our plan was to head home on December 26th). I was strongly advised not to delay…
I scheduled the surgery for January 2nd, 2025 and all future plans were thrown in the air for obvious reasons.
Separately, on December 5th I saw the rheumatologist. After a very thorough exam, he sent me for many X-Rays and blood work as well. Everything came back pointing to RA, with no doubt (there are many kinds of arthritis).
Unfortunately, he couldn’t prescribe any medicine yet, because of my upcoming surgery. The most common medication is an immunosupressant. That’s exactly the opposite of what you need to recover from surgery. That meant suffering with the RA for at least another six weeks. Yay…
The next post will deal with the surgery and the immediate aftermath.
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