Medical Update

After the sleep test last week I was feeling pretty good. I was encouraged that finally, after all of this hard work, eating healthy and exercising, having lost over 100 pounds, I was seeing some positive benefit. My sleep apnea was less severe.

Now two things have happened to discourage me again.

First my dietitian has decided to change jobs. I do not blame her. The company she works for is not good with either client or employee relations. If it had not been for her, I would have given up on them a long time ago. SO I am happy for her, but sad for me. She has been my rock in my healthy eating/weight loss battle. I had to say goodbye to her today for our last appointment. I would like to think we could stay in contact. She would like to think she can continue to support me. But I realize how life gets busy and time gets out of control. SO now I have to figure out what I am going to do about finding a new dietitian. I do not like the thought of starting over from scratch. Having to catch someone up on all I have been through and tried. All of the frustrations and victories. I feel like I have a team of people who have been helping me with all of my medical issues and now thee is a hole in that team.

Monday I saw my primary doctor. We went over the information from the sleep doctor. She wants me to have another CT scan of my chest. We got that approval process in the works. We talked about my blood pressure and he agreed for me to go off of my water pill for two months to see how I do. Part of this decision is to see if I will not wake up so often at night and thus sleep better.

Yesterday when I returned from the gym, I had two messages on my phone from the sleep doctor saying she needed to speak to me and call her right away. I left a message and she called back within a few minutes.

During my sleep test last week a heart issue surfaced that was totally unrelated to the sleep apnea. It happened only once during the night and it occurred during a time I was awake. I was not having an apnea. My heart started to race at 130 beats per minute and it was triggered in an area of the heart that was not usual. She said I needed to see a cardiologist, that she would fax the information to my primary doctor and I should get the name of a doctor from him. I asked if there was any concern about my continuing to exercise. She said she had no idea.

Since it was already late in the day, I figured I would give my primary doctor a chance to get and read the information from her, and be in touch with him on Wednesday.

This morning I had my appointment with the dietitian, said a sad goodbye and lost no weight. Then I went to the grocery store. After lunch, the doctor called me, saving me the trouble. He told me about the report from the sleep doctor. He feels looking at the "strip" it was just a one time incident and nothing to worry about. But he said it is better to get it checked by a cardiologist to make sure. He referred to it as possible "vtach". He gave me the name of a group of doctors.

I called and have an appointment on November 10th. My primary doctor said I should continue to exercise and do what I normally do.

Please continue to pray for me. At first I felt disappointed that here is yet another medical issue popping up after I am doing so much to regain my health. But I had to remind myself of all of the years I was not making healthy choices and there will be consequences for that. I do not feel worried, but have the peace of God, knowing it is all in His hands. And really it is a blessing I had the sleep test and this showed up, so I can get it checked out before it presents a bigger problem.