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.