Electrophysiologist

Today I saw the electrophysiologist.  This visit wasn't what I wanted it to be.

He went over everything with me and basically said he agreed with my first doctor and that the medication I'm on is what he would prescribe as well.  But he clearly  favored surgery.  He said I was a good candidate for the ablation surgery because my Afib is not advanced yet.  My episodes are short-lived and don't come often.  As time goes on, the chance of success with ablation starts diminishing.

However he said my risk for stroke is about 3% which sounds small but he said that is significant.  He thinks I should think about being on Eliquis (an anticoagulant) instead of aspirin but we will talk about that in January.  He told me that he does about 25 to 30 of these ablation surgeries every year and he's been doing it for about 8 years, so he does have a good amount of experience.  He also said the cryogenic surgery(freezing) is better than the radiofrequency (burning) one.

I told him that coffee was one of my triggers and he said he seriously doubted it.  Supposedly there is a large body of research that proves that not only is coffee not a trigger but that it actually protects from excessive episodes.  (Since I love coffee so much and hated like heck to give it up, I decided to test his "proof" and when I left his office I went to lunch and had coffee with my lunch -- and so far so good.  I would be ecstatic if I could have coffee again; however, I am pretty sure that it is a trigger for me.  But maybe it was the sweet roll -- and accompanying adrenaline rush that comes with it -- I had to have with the coffee!  We'll see...)

So for those of you who are caregivers, I strongly advise that you keep up with your doctor appointments.  It is hard to do -- you don't want to leave the side of your loved one, you almost feel guilty -- but it is so important to your life later on to keep your health up to date.  The doctor agreed with me today when I asked if this Afib could have come to life because of stress.  You want to avoid something like that happening to you.

Anyway, at one point in my time with the doctor he started telling me he had other patients waiting and that we were actually encroaching on another patient's time.  I didn't appreciate that.  It got me nervous and I forgot some of the questions I wanted to ask.

So now I am even more confused than I was.  Why can't life be a little simpler?

After I left the doctor I went back to the ophthalmologist's office because I hate my new glasses.  They are too dark and too big.  But it is very hard to pick out new glasses when you are too blind to see what you look like with the new glasses.  So they said I could pick out new frames.  I emailed Tricia and she called me with Facetime and I walked around the store putting glasses on so Tricia could see them and we picked out a good pair.  I should have them next week.  (Thanks, Tricia!)

Tomorrow the real estate agent is supposed to come over and take a look at the house so he can see what all the new upgrades look like (paint job, decks stripped and restained, new windows, new front door, paint touched up on the inside, etc.).  Then the house should be officially on the market by the end of this week.  I have been steadily packing boxes, there's no rush but every little bit helps.  But I am tired and am looking forward to a few days with absolutely nothing on the schedule.

Still having trouble with ChampVA paying my pharmacy bills.  So far I haven't heard anything about the doctor appointments I've had so i am cautiously assuming that those got paid.  I'm a little nervous about that.  I don't want these bills to build up into something I can't handle.  I guess I'll try to call them tomorrow and see what they say.