It’s almost midnight on Friday night. My wife is asleep, while our cat sits sentinel duty next to me. I’m drinking a cup of jasmine oolong tea and going back over the events of the week, mostly the medical ones. Good lord, there have been a lot of them.
As I’ve mentioned before, I underwent a diagnostic procedure on my back on Tuesday. I can safely report that it is back to its old, painful self, the nerve blocks having fully worn off. I’m going to have to undergo at least one more such procedure so the doctor can find the source of my pain.
Today (Friday), I finally saw the electrophysiologist. He agreed with my primary care doctor’s recommendation and put me on a 21-day cardiac event monitor. I’ve got three wires connected to a device in a pouch slung around my neck. When I feel something that’s not kosher, I unzip the pouch, pull out the device, and start pushing buttons, just like you would on a cell phone. From what I understand, the thing is on a continuous record loop. When I hit the report button, it gathers the previous 15 minutes and the following 15 minutes and transmits them to the monitoring service.
The box that came with the thing had a bunch of replacement electrodes, for when I have to take a shower or if one of the electrodes comes loose. I also have to swap out rechargeable batteries twice a day. Fun on both counts. We’re going to be good friends for the next three weeks (insert sarcasm marker here).
So, where do I stand? I still have to schedule physical therapy. I was coughing too much to call them today (yes, I’m still dealing with the same cough I’ve had for almost two months now), so I’ll call them Monday and get that going. Finally, I have a follow-up appointment with the spine doctor’s medical assistant at the end of this month to give them the results of the spine blocks.
And maybe, just maybe, I’ll find some time to write or work on some music later this month. There’s always hope.
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