User:NDCompuGeek/News

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First and foremost: for all of you who signed my "get well card", I thank all of you with all of my heart. I thought I was just working away here in my little corner of Wikipedia, not really affecting too much or too many people. I was, happily, wrong!

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[edit] News: 30 April 2007

I came back from the doctor's office today with some distressing news that has shaken me up a bit. I found out that the Myocardial infarction that I had in October 2000 damaged more of my heart than originally thought. I also had what I thought to be an Angina pectoris attack a few months ago, but now my mDoc thinks it was actually another minor heart attack. I found out today that I am at a very high risk of another heart attack: I have been diagnosed with Cardiac arrhythmia, problematic Bradycardia, Hypocholesterolemia, and a few other things that I can't pronounce, let alone write about.

The effect of all of this is that I want to spend more time with my family before I go into the hospital next week. I may still be active, I may not. I don't know. My son (user:Bunch-a-Munch) wants to become more active, so I may refer him to the adopt-a-user program. I'm not looking for pity, for consolation, for anything. I just feel strongly that the best defense against bias is full disclosure, so I'm disclosing. Who knows - maybe all of this will allow me to edit these heart and circulatory system articles that are troubling me in real-life now.

If you are a praying person, please pray for me during these troubled times. Thank you.

NDCompuGeek 08:31, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] News: 2 May 2007

Well, after some tests, the doctors have decided that I need more tests. How surprising (not).... I have asked the nurses for my chart so I can go over the numbers with them, but they have to defer to the doctor, who does not want me to see my chart. I'm going to get to the bottom of this tomorrow. Anyway, the results so far (that I remember) are as follows:

Cholesterol: 140 overall, 26(!) HDL
Triglycerides: normal (forgot the exact numbers)
Thyroid function: hypothyroidic (but normal for me)
heart functions: Arrythmia verified, ~20% permanent damage to the heart due to prior heart attacks
blood pressure: normal (forgot the exact numbers)

Tomorrow I have a cardio stress test, as well as a few more pokes, prods, and tests that they want to do to me. I'll keep this page as updated as I can.

For user:Sir Intellegent and all the other well-wishers, I want to say a very sincere Thank You. Seeing that page and reading all the notes has made my week!

NDCompuGeek 06:24, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] News: 5 May 2007

Well the doctors have let me go home for a week or two while they decide what to do with me. I found out the following (it'll be in layman's terms, so forgive me if I don't quite get the spelling or anything like that right...):

  • I have "Ulnar Nerve Damage" in my left arm, which explains why I can't feel anything with the outer half (pinky-finger side) of my hand, going all the way from my fingertips to my lower wrist.
  • I have weird cholesterol. My overall cholesterol is good, my LDL (bad cholesterol) is OK, but my HDL (good cholesterol) is too low. More sour cream, anyone?  :-)
  • My heart is about as normal as my personality. In the words of the cardiologist: "You have some extra heartbeats, but you're also missing a few heartbeats. In the end, it all works out, but it isn't normal, and is an issue to try to fix". They're talking about a pacemaker. Great....
  • My thyroid has a growth on the left side, and is abnormally large on the right. Go figure....
  • When you go to the hospital to report in for your "ultrasound", make sure you tell the receptionist that it is for you, and it is for your thyroid. They tried putting me in the OB/GYN wing to test for pregnancy before I corrected them. I guess having a gut doesn't pay....

I believe that's about it for now. Thanks everyone for your well-wishes, continue to pray for me ('cuz it ain't over yet!), and I'll let you all know what's going on either here or on some blog somewhere that I may or may not start. Who knows! NDCompuGeek 10:47, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] News: 22 June 2007

New chapter....

Great. I was back in an ambulance after I passed out. After moving furniture.... One piece of furniture... A piano....

I know, I know - "Why in the world was someone with a known heart issue moving a piano?" Simple. It needed to be moved. It was in the detached garage, blocking the way to the lawnmower and the other various things in there that I need (the engine puller & stand, the air compressor, the '46 Dodge, etc...), so I took it on to myself to move it. I also had the help of two of my friends (yes, I have friends!) who happened to visit at the same time that I roped into helping. It's an old upright, and moving it from the detached garage to the attached garage was relatively easy. It was getting it up three stairs to the entryway and then up another stair to the kitchen that proved to be the real kicker.

The only problem is that, during the move, I thought my heart was about to pop, so I took some "Nitro-Quik" tablets (3 - as listed on the prescription - about 15 minutes apart). Well, the nitro dropped my blood pressure (already known to be low anyway), and I bottomed out. Literally. On my bottom. I fainted.

From here on out, I will relate what I was told about the evening.

Matt (one of the aforementioned "voluntold" friends of mine) called 9-1-1 because Lori (my wife) was freaking out too much, and her crying wasn't helping the issue at all. Matt tried to take my pulse, but he couldn't find it - thus the call for emergency assistance. He and Scott (the other "voluntold" friend) dropped me on the floor to prepare for CPR, and as a precaution, Matt checked me again for a pulse. This time, he found a weak one, but I had decided that this was a good time to stop breathing. After being slapped around a little by Matt, he told Scott to hold on to me and single-handedly finished moving the piano into the kitchen (it was half way in at this point, and providing a rather formidible block to the gurney and crash cart and ambulance personnel and police and all the other people who came to help.
The first emergency personnel the scene was a county sherrif with one of local EMT workers. They assessed the situation, and declared me an idiot for moving a piano while I have a heart condition, but also decided to help me anyway. I'm just glad they didn't try to pin an honourary "Darwin Award" on me.... They cut off my (favorite, I may add) T-shirt, and tried to get a ECG out of me. The leads were defective on their machine. So, they had to run down to the local fire department (about a block away, thankfully) to get replacement leads. These ones worked, and declared my heartbeat healthy - or at least healthy enough that they didn't need to shock me or give me compressions. During this time, I had tried to stop breathing a few other times, and the EMTs were still rather concerned about the fact that my face had approximately the same color as an albino polar bear (think about it....). It was during one of their slap-fests that I came around.

The next thing I remember is someone with a beard yelling at me to take "two big breaths - breathe!" He next told me to focus on him (as I also understand that my eyes were doing some interesting calisthenics while I was out), and I tried, but all I saw was a blur where his face was supposed to be. This is about the same time that I realized I lost my glasses somewhere along the way (Lori had taken them off my face during the "lets tear his shirt off his body" party earlier). This comforted me a bit - I thought I just couldn't focus....

They loaded me up on a back board to get me onto the gourney and into the ambulance, and during the manouver, someone goosed me. I mentioned that fact, and was told that it was on the house. Gee - nice people! They got me out of the house (past the #$^%&%^&@ piano, now sitting in front of the 'fridge in the middle of the kitchen - thanks for moving it Matt), into the ambulance, and on the way to the hospital.

On the way, I was relating to the nurse with me in the back of the ambulance that I could almost tell where we were by the bumps and dips in the road. All except for one - this lady wouldn't get out of the way (it's an AMBULANCE, you stupid ...... nevermind...), and then to top it off, she almost hit a deer. She hit the brakes, the ambulance had to hit the breaks and swerve to miss this ......., and that's when I wondered where we were because I didn't remember a steep hill with a curve on it. Well, my memory was good - it was just an imbecile driving a 2-ton guided missle with wheels.

Anyway, long story short, I got to the hospital, they did X-rays, blood tests, ECGs, tests, tests, and declared that it was a drop in blood pressure that caused all of this, brought upon by me taking the nitro. I was thouroughly chastized, and sent home. At 1:00 A.M.

Now mind you, we started moving the piano about 8:00 P.M. (I was waiting for it to cool down a bit). I think it was around 9:00 P.M. that I collapsed, all of this was in a 4-hour time period. So much time, so little consciousness....

The doctors said that I should be OK, but to take the week off and take it easy. And don't EVER move a piano again. Oh yeah - they also verified that last month's trip was because of an attack of angina.