Where Do I Begin?

It has been so long since I have posted I am not sure where to begin; but I guess a good point is with Roys health.

We were very happy with the care he was receiving here; but we had also reached the point where he was going to have to have some tests done in hospital and where I couldn't be with him to translate.  He wasn't comfortable with that as his Spanish is very minimal.

We discussed it and he decided that he wanted to go back to Canada for treatment where he could understand what was going on when I couldn't be with him in the room.

We arrived in Canada around the 6 th of June and stayed with my son and his wife and two children.  Very good of them to take us in as they had just had a new baby and along with a two year old the household was very busy.

We began with a visit to a general doctor and showed him our reports, etc. and discussed what had been done and what medications Roy was on.

We were quickly sent to have pretty much all the same tests done with the same results as here.  He was referred to a cardiologist and had an angiogram done.  Good results there as he only has 4 or 5- 40% partial blockages in minor veins.  No big deal according to the Dr..  He was then booked for a cardioversion to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.   The Dr. also put him on one more medication and this one seemed to be the charm, within 3 days things were back to normal.  We hung around for awhile and as things seemed fine, the Dr. cancelled the cardioversion and basically said he was good to go.

We headed back home after almost two months and got back in time to re-new my drivers license here and head to immigration to do our paperwork.

We returned to the cardiologist here and explained everything that had gone on, we had kept in touch with him while we were gone.  He told us to get some blood tests done and check back with him in a few months or if there were problems.

So, paperwork being looked after, larder stocked up again.  Dental visit done, vision checked and new glasses purchased.  Seems like lots of running around; but all is well.

Summer is here so it is hot and humid; but we have just soaked it up as we had been really cold in Canada as they had a lot of very chilly, rainy weather while we were there.  Not our idea of summer.  We have had some nice rains here and the mountains are a lovely shade of green.  It is raining, lightning and thundering loudly as I type this as another storm goes through.

Other than that we haven't been doing much, I have been doing some painting and have two done and in the mail to Canada.  If you read my art blog you have probably seen them.
I am working on another one that has to go to Canada and have several here that I had started before we left that I haven't had time to touch.

I signed up for art classes again and that started on Monday evening.  I hadn't been for a year or so and decided it was time to go back.

So, life is basically back to normal for us.  We spent some unexpected quality time with family this summer that we weren't expecting and had some anxious times, which are hopefully behind us for now.

So that is how our last couple of months have been spent.  It feels good to be home.

I want to thank everyone for their emails and concern.  We appreciate it.  My apologies for my slowness in replying and the lack of blog posts.  I just didn't seem to have the energy or inclination for writing much; perhaps too much on my mind or plain laziness.

Update on Roy

After seeing the Cardiologist here in Guaymas the other day neither Roy or I were feeling good about the consultation with him.  Something just didn't feel right, nothing concrete, just both our feelings/instincts.

When we got back home we discussed it with our landlords/friends and found out that this Dr. does not have a good reputation here.  We discussed other options with them about heading to the city south of us for a second opinion with a Cardiologist that they and others they know have dealt with.  They feel very confident in this specialist as they and others have had good results with him.
Our landlady couldn't find his card with phone number on it; so we headed home to sleep on it.  Yesterday morning she still hadn't found it; but she knew his name so I looked him up in the Yellow Pages and found his number.
She phoned him and got an appt. for 12:30 PM yesterday, same day appt..  She went with us and showed us how to get to his office and we waited for our appt..

Our turn came and of course there was another ECG.  He read all the other test results and compared them to his own and then sat and explained what he thought, a very in depth, detailed explanation.  His opinion was that we should see another Cardiologist; but one with a specialty in arrhythmia.  He got on his phone and called this specialist and asked if he could see us the same day, (yesterday).  He said he could and gave us an appt. for 4 PM.

As it was now after 2 PM we barely had time for a fast lunch and then off to the other appt..  This Dr. is also a Cardiologist and a Electrophysiologist, which is a Cardiologist trained to treat heart rhythm disorders.

He did an Echo-cardiogram,  a type of specialized ultrasound to look at Roys heart.  He asked our landlady and I to watch and as he performed the test he explained it to us as we watched Roys heart on the screen.  After he was done he then showed Roy the test on the machine and explained it again to him.  Interesting to see with Doppler colour and all sorts of views of his heart and watching exactly what was going on with it in real time.

He then discussed the treatment options, starting with the least invasive.  Roys heart is beating over twice as fast as normal and untreated he could easily go into heart failure or have a stroke.  Normal is around 60 and his is going at 130, not good.

The first option and the one we are trying starting today, is medication to regulate the heartbeat.  The downside of this is that there could be adverse side effects such as weakness, dizziness and falls, if he feels any of this he is to go ASAP to hospital.  The drugs can also cause damage to liver and/or kidneys.  Roy will have to have regular blood work done for his liver and kidney function for the Dr. to compare to the one he had done today.

The second option would be to do a Cardioversion which is where they shock your heart into beating normally.  The Dr. said that before he would do this though he would need to do a Transesophagael Echo Cardiogram so that he could see the back of the heart also to make sure that there were no clots/thrombosis.  If there is the shock could break them loose causing a stroke.  If there were none then they would shock the heart and see if that worked.

The third option is a Pacemaker to regulate the heartbeat.

We were both very happy with both of the specialists we saw yesterday and came away feeling much better mentally.  The attitude and demeanor of both Drs. was excellent, they both took lots of time to explain things and make sure we understand everything that is happening.  The second Dr. could actually speak some English which was nice, between his English and my Spanish and our landlady dumbing down the odd Spanish words both appts. went great.

Both Drs. gave us their cards with all their phone numbers on and the second one which is now treating Roy told us to call him at any time even if it is 2 AM.  He is making us a CD of the test and we will get it probably when we return to see him in 3 weeks.

Roy went for the blood test this morning and then started on his pill treatments.  We are both feeling a lot more upbeat today than we were a couple of days ago.
Hopefully the pill treatment will go well and we won't need to deal with the other options, only time will tell.

We want to thank everyone for their kind comments/emails/messages.  It means a lot to know that people are thinking of us.  Thank you one and all.