January 4 – “Testing … testing”

It was one big doctor day again for Chris.  Not so much big in the sense of discovery or crises.  Just two wildly varying appointments.  One was here in Galveston.  The other was up in League City, I think (somewhere in Texas, anyway). 

 

The first test was one that measured her breathing capacity.  The idea was to rule out any lung involvement with the shortness of breath she has been having.  I know.  It sounds just weird to me.  If she’s breathing, aren’t the lungs going to be somehow involved?  I settled in in the outer waiting area.  My intention was to read a book.  I did get started, but that place was really cold.  I finally put my coat back on and snuggled up to the side of a chair the best I could and tried to doze.  Meanwhile, back at the testing site, Chris was fixed up with what looked like one of those football mouthpieces they use to prevent getting their teeth knocked out.  She also was fitted with a nose clip to block any air seeping in or out through that orifice.  Then she had to breathe in and out through that tiny mouthpiece hole in varying degrees of speed and efficiency.  She said she did fine with all that.  She did flunk one thing, though.  They were going to do one test that necessitated some kind of arterial connection.  But after pushing and mashing around on her hands, they couldn’t find one, or something like that.  That test was scrapped entirely.  They also gave her an albuterol breathing treatment to see if there were any changes afterward.  The whole thing took about an hour or so. 

 

Her second visit was with the cardiologist.  Well, with his office.  She was supposed to see his nurse practitioner last week, but she got sick, so they postponed to yesterday.  And of course the guy she saw was not “her guy.”  This one was an actual cardiologist, but his specialty was heart failure.  And he was not at all familiar with her case, so that was a problem as well.  He finally referred her back to the electro-physiology department.  That’s the team that inserted the loop recorder.  He in thinking in terms of a pacemaker again.  Wonderful, since she just found out that the doctor who did the insertion is no longer at UTMB.  But the good news is, the new guy they made her an appointment with is the one our friend in the heart cath lab wanted us to see in the first place.  We got there, Teri.  Just took us a roundabout route. 

 

I know all of that is definitely more info than you would care to read about in a daily blog, especially when there was really no result and no answers forthcoming.  So we’ll just keep plodding along.  Ever onward, ever upward. 

 

2 Corinthians 9:6 says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

 

Father, once again we are in a waiting pattern.  We are thankful for the connection with the electro guy that Teri recommended, though.  Amen.