I am seeing my regular Dr. next week, and I'm going to discuss my test results with him. He has a real common sense intelligence about my condition that I value very much.
May 18, 2012
May 07, 2012
Beep boop bloop
I used my home pace maker monitor today for the first time. I am scheduled to have readings every 90 days, alternating between home and clinic. The thing requires an AN--OO--LOG (POTS) phone line. I had to travel to my sister's house to find one. Can you believe it? A $65,000 device that can send a wireless signal to the monitor from up to 3 meters away. But the monitor needs too shorts and a long to ring through to Mert to send the data. (A)
Medtronic #Fail
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1
nature boy
Medtronic #Fail
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1
nature boy
May 04, 2012
Ok so this valve thing
I've had a night to mull it all over, and now feel I can put my spin on this whole situation. My valve is not doing its job. It seems to be repairable. If they let it go to long, it will need to be replaced, or worse, I will. If they replace it, some poor genetically engineered porky will have to give me his valve, and I may not be able to eat any more bacon. Not that I should anyway, but I like to think I can in moderation.
The cardiologist suggests I have it done in about 3 mos. That translates to august for me. This give me the summer with no recuperation down time, but run the risk of valve-pap-ilatauditory-ism (bad flippity floppity valve).
According to calculations made from an echocardiogram from within my body, each minute 3.`
3.1liters of blood rushes backwards from the forward pump. Liters compare to quarts, quarts are composed of pints so over 6 pints of blood does not make it through my heart, per minute that should have. That just seems like a lot.
Well according to my notes, its about as bad as bad can be don't cha know. So I think I am probably going to get it fixed, unless someone can talk me out of it in the form of a second opinion.
Why was I so excited after my tests? I realty only had feedback of my angiograms, which showed my 4 big bypasses are working fine. the valve issue is unrelated to the size of the highway. Like - wide roads, but broken stop lights. Bad valves being out of sync stop lights.
So, cum august, I will be having Valve surgery. stay tuned.
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1 (liters back spalshing)
nature boy
The cardiologist suggests I have it done in about 3 mos. That translates to august for me. This give me the summer with no recuperation down time, but run the risk of valve-pap-ilatauditory-ism (bad flippity floppity valve).
According to calculations made from an echocardiogram from within my body, each minute 3.`
3.1liters of blood rushes backwards from the forward pump. Liters compare to quarts, quarts are composed of pints so over 6 pints of blood does not make it through my heart, per minute that should have. That just seems like a lot.
Well according to my notes, its about as bad as bad can be don't cha know. So I think I am probably going to get it fixed, unless someone can talk me out of it in the form of a second opinion.
Why was I so excited after my tests? I realty only had feedback of my angiograms, which showed my 4 big bypasses are working fine. the valve issue is unrelated to the size of the highway. Like - wide roads, but broken stop lights. Bad valves being out of sync stop lights.
So, cum august, I will be having Valve surgery. stay tuned.
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1 (liters back spalshing)
nature boy
May 03, 2012
Valves
 |
| 3 Liters per minute |
Two weeks ago I had imprecise feedback on the angiograms. But I had no information on the inside echo. TEE.
Without going into details, my valve is leaking to the tune of 3 liters per minute. Way into the range of "needs to stop doing that".
Tentatively I plan on scheduling valve repair surgery in August.
Surgery
Short update to be followed by details. I need to have valve surgery in 3-4 mos.
More info later. I'm still in exam room
Appointment
Today I am meeting with my cardiologist today for the follow up to the tests I had a few weeks ago.
April 22, 2012
Cross post from other blog
I strive to make this blog just about my health experiences. It is difficult to draw lines in the sand sometimes. In any case, my feelings about the Ticket to work program to get off disability are described in my personal blog
"Hear Be Dragons"
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1
nature boy
"Hear Be Dragons"
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1
nature boy
April 21, 2012
A blood relative of mine
Treating Heart Arrhythmias with Ablation
Is scheduled for an ablation. We discussed it for a time tonight. Fascinating sounding. This post mainly serves as a bookmark for me while it's on my mind.
April 18, 2012
Hospital food at the end of a long day of tests.
After not eating all day, hospital food is like a feast (Taken with Instagram at Abbott Northwestern Heart Hospital)
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC nature boy
aka Kevin 3.1
Instagram-Ke7in12
Tumblr-Ke7in
Chapter Four
Since moving to Minnesota, I have begun the process of transferring my care from the Gill Heart Institute in Lexington, to the Minneapolis Heart institute.
I have been at this for 8 years. I remain a well informed patient, and my recovery is pretty remarkable. But I will kind of do a recap to where I am now, and why I have named this "Chapter Four"
In 2003, I had a flu like virus that may have settled in my heart. In my delirium, I vaguely remember having what I know now to be classic heart attack symptoms. Now, I know I should have called 911 then, and perhaps early treatment would have preventing the subsequent heart failure. I will never know for certain.
Moving on, the best reaction I had in my 3 digit temperature delirium was "wow, if I feel this bad in the morning, I will call 911". I took my phone to bed with me. That could very well have been my last act. But I woke up feeling better. I kicked the virus and developed a case of the coughs. I associated it with my chronic allergies I had been fighting the past few years in Kentucky, and kept saying "I need to get my inhaler prescribed again". Days turned to weeks and months, and I still did not get my $100 inhaler. Finally I did, but the cough did not get better. Ultimately I went to the doctor with swollen legs, and I was rushed to the emergency room. That event started this blog.
Yada yada archives March 2004 yadada, I started to get better.
With the drugs and mechanics of my treatment, my heart started to shrink toward normal size, but also come back to life. Currently they are unsure if any of my heart tissue is dead. Earlier the opinion was about 20% of my heart was dead tissue.
My heart, at its worse was estimated to be pumping only 7% of capacity (Ejection Fraction EF) . When it reached 20%, my doctors were ecstatic. Over the years it has steadily increased. When I first established care in Minnesota, in a meeting with my cardiologist, I quoted what my new primary care doctor had gleaned from my Kentucky medical records-- that my EF was close to 40%. She scoffed and suggested he misread my records, looked at them more closely and determined that indeed was what my Kentucky records were stating. I also remembered hearing that number at one of my last tests at Gill.
She then scheduled me for an Echocardiogram, which confirmed the higher number as well. In Minnesota percentages LOL. In a way that seemed cautiously pessimistic, she ordered a stress test to end all stress tests. It was an all day affair of base line echo, stress echo, rested follow up echo. This time the EF seemed closer to 45%.
Why on earth was my heart getting better when it is in such bad shape?
Back during our first meeting she immediately noticed my [flippity floppity] valve. I paraphrase. But it did not make sense that my heart function was improving when it was supposed to lead to worse EF in the long run. I did say, I have had a "weird" heart beat on record from the first time I remember them testing that stuff in the late 80s. Possibly it has been such all my life.
This week, I was scheduled for another, what I came to call one of my "Days of Beauty". In reality these days were long days of fasting lab tests, filled with probes, weird potions, gratuitous shaving and more. But remember, this was not new for me. Kind of routine.
I have been so used to these things as a long term Congestive Heart Failure patient, I am used to it all. When I "check in" at a hospital using social media, for me it is not much more than if I were to do so at the Dog Park. Just with slightly less personal hair in places. But I have come to realize that people reading snippets here and there on Facebook, perhaps seeing pictures of IV bags, which I take to illustrate an artistic expression of blasitude, people get alarmed. So instead of posting my random routine health updates to the larger social media, I am going to start keeping this up to date. That way, people can come here and look, if they are so inclined, and not become alarmed if their news feed "feeds" them a newsbyte that, without context, could suggest I am dying.
Trust me, If I am dying, the last thing I will be doing is taking instagram photos. LOL.
My official follow up to this day of beauty is 2nd of May. But my unofficial feedback from the Dr performing my angiograms was like that of a coach at the end of winning game. My EF from this was estimated to be 45-55%. To clarify the significance of this, as the tests become more and more exact, my function appears to be better and better. I imagine it like that of a bell curve. The numbers of the EF quoted are on the left side. the first test the bell was shallow as the tests became more exact, the "hill" or bell got taller and thinner, and they generally only report the left side.
Now they want to figure out if it is indeed as urgent to "fix" my flippy floppy valve, or has my body adapted to it. Back in 2003/4 I had adapted to a nearly non-functional heart with virtually no oxygen in my system, carrying an extra 25% of fluid in my body.
On a good news note, the Dr that admitted me yesterday, not my regular cardiologist, but her colleague is a fellow Kentucky Colonel. That really made me feel I was in the right place after all.
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1 nature boy
I have been at this for 8 years. I remain a well informed patient, and my recovery is pretty remarkable. But I will kind of do a recap to where I am now, and why I have named this "Chapter Four"
In 2003, I had a flu like virus that may have settled in my heart. In my delirium, I vaguely remember having what I know now to be classic heart attack symptoms. Now, I know I should have called 911 then, and perhaps early treatment would have preventing the subsequent heart failure. I will never know for certain.
Moving on, the best reaction I had in my 3 digit temperature delirium was "wow, if I feel this bad in the morning, I will call 911". I took my phone to bed with me. That could very well have been my last act. But I woke up feeling better. I kicked the virus and developed a case of the coughs. I associated it with my chronic allergies I had been fighting the past few years in Kentucky, and kept saying "I need to get my inhaler prescribed again". Days turned to weeks and months, and I still did not get my $100 inhaler. Finally I did, but the cough did not get better. Ultimately I went to the doctor with swollen legs, and I was rushed to the emergency room. That event started this blog.
Yada yada archives March 2004 yadada, I started to get better.
With the drugs and mechanics of my treatment, my heart started to shrink toward normal size, but also come back to life. Currently they are unsure if any of my heart tissue is dead. Earlier the opinion was about 20% of my heart was dead tissue.
My heart, at its worse was estimated to be pumping only 7% of capacity (Ejection Fraction EF) . When it reached 20%, my doctors were ecstatic. Over the years it has steadily increased. When I first established care in Minnesota, in a meeting with my cardiologist, I quoted what my new primary care doctor had gleaned from my Kentucky medical records-- that my EF was close to 40%. She scoffed and suggested he misread my records, looked at them more closely and determined that indeed was what my Kentucky records were stating. I also remembered hearing that number at one of my last tests at Gill.
She then scheduled me for an Echocardiogram, which confirmed the higher number as well. In Minnesota percentages LOL. In a way that seemed cautiously pessimistic, she ordered a stress test to end all stress tests. It was an all day affair of base line echo, stress echo, rested follow up echo. This time the EF seemed closer to 45%.
Why on earth was my heart getting better when it is in such bad shape?
Back during our first meeting she immediately noticed my [flippity floppity] valve. I paraphrase. But it did not make sense that my heart function was improving when it was supposed to lead to worse EF in the long run. I did say, I have had a "weird" heart beat on record from the first time I remember them testing that stuff in the late 80s. Possibly it has been such all my life.
This week, I was scheduled for another, what I came to call one of my "Days of Beauty". In reality these days were long days of fasting lab tests, filled with probes, weird potions, gratuitous shaving and more. But remember, this was not new for me. Kind of routine.
I have been so used to these things as a long term Congestive Heart Failure patient, I am used to it all. When I "check in" at a hospital using social media, for me it is not much more than if I were to do so at the Dog Park. Just with slightly less personal hair in places. But I have come to realize that people reading snippets here and there on Facebook, perhaps seeing pictures of IV bags, which I take to illustrate an artistic expression of blasitude, people get alarmed. So instead of posting my random routine health updates to the larger social media, I am going to start keeping this up to date. That way, people can come here and look, if they are so inclined, and not become alarmed if their news feed "feeds" them a newsbyte that, without context, could suggest I am dying.
Trust me, If I am dying, the last thing I will be doing is taking instagram photos. LOL.
My official follow up to this day of beauty is 2nd of May. But my unofficial feedback from the Dr performing my angiograms was like that of a coach at the end of winning game. My EF from this was estimated to be 45-55%. To clarify the significance of this, as the tests become more and more exact, my function appears to be better and better. I imagine it like that of a bell curve. The numbers of the EF quoted are on the left side. the first test the bell was shallow as the tests became more exact, the "hill" or bell got taller and thinner, and they generally only report the left side.
Now they want to figure out if it is indeed as urgent to "fix" my flippy floppy valve, or has my body adapted to it. Back in 2003/4 I had adapted to a nearly non-functional heart with virtually no oxygen in my system, carrying an extra 25% of fluid in my body.
On a good news note, the Dr that admitted me yesterday, not my regular cardiologist, but her colleague is a fellow Kentucky Colonel. That really made me feel I was in the right place after all.
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADC
aka Kevin 3.1 nature boy
February 07, 2012
February 06, 2012
New Look
I am giving the blog a new look, but am going to try and keep the archives in the old style. I am also playing up my Kentucky Colonel commission, which allows us to use "Honorable" in front of our name, as long as the Governor that appointed us is still in office. With the rseults of the last election he is in for four more years.
The Honorable Kevin Fillips, ADCaka Kevin 3.1 nature boy
MHI
I had my first cardiology appointment today at the Minneapolis Heart nstitute (MHI). My Dr. is Esther Shao M.D. I like her.
Overall my numbers are impressive. But she did notice one of my valves was inefficient. She is going to want to keep an eye on it. A pig valve may be in my future.
She does want me to lose weight.
I see her again in 6 weeks with some tests just prior.
On the device front, they like to check it every 90 days. To that end, I am going to get a phone device for half of them. I can have the others done out in Chaska.
-Kevin Fillips
January 14, 2012
Still around
I relocated back to my home state of Minnesota. That was in August in time for my 30th HS reunion. "Go Flyers!"
As such, I had to establish care here. I decided on the Minneapolis Heart Institute. My initial appointment is next month.
As such, I had to establish care here. I decided on the Minneapolis Heart Institute. My initial appointment is next month.
Kronick aka Kevin 3.1
[...driving by in the White Car...]
[...driving by in the White Car...]
June 15, 2011
February 19, 2011
February Check up
I've let myself go, I am afraid. I am still healthy overall, and much healthier than I was 7 years ago. But I am not very active. My built in motion detector only clocks me as being active about one hour a day. ONE. I could double that and still be considered lazy. That is something I need to work on.
I love the NP, Peggy I am going to now, she is no nonsense, yet has a sense of humor. She poked my belly and said "what's going on there?"
At my October meeting, she said my heart function seems to have improved another few percentage points, and according to my echo, my heart is no longer enlarged. Careful readers may remember it was about triple normal size 7 years ago.
Going over my treatment recovery, I can see a lot of things I have not done best. My exercise has lapsed, my diet is less strict, but I have been religious with my pills. I also have dealt with stress much differently in the past. These latter two are what I am giving credit to for my remarkable recovery.
Ke7in
Kronick aka Kevin 3.1[...driving by in the White Car...]
I love the NP, Peggy I am going to now, she is no nonsense, yet has a sense of humor. She poked my belly and said "what's going on there?"
At my October meeting, she said my heart function seems to have improved another few percentage points, and according to my echo, my heart is no longer enlarged. Careful readers may remember it was about triple normal size 7 years ago.
Going over my treatment recovery, I can see a lot of things I have not done best. My exercise has lapsed, my diet is less strict, but I have been religious with my pills. I also have dealt with stress much differently in the past. These latter two are what I am giving credit to for my remarkable recovery.
Ke7in
Kronick aka Kevin 3.1[...driving by in the White Car...]
May 22, 2010
'Sex Talk' Eases Fear of Sex After Heart Attack
'Sex Talk' Eases Fear of Sex After Heart Attack
This was a real issue for me.
---
and so it goes
###
March 22, 2010
Paying for healthcare.
the following startedout as a simple reply/comment to a facebook status message about healthcare reform.:
-------
As a student of economics, it drives me crazy when people think they are not paying for stuff, anything. It may not be with cash money, but it usually is in the form of higher prices somewhere unexpected.
The people that are presently forced to utilize the health-care system they cannot afford, and ultimately declare bankruptcy, "Pay" for their care with the problems and perhaps self induced shame that comes with that. Everyone else pays in the form of higher prices the providers must charge to cover their "losses". Higher insurance premiums or co-pays are also charged, to those covered as a result. People with "free" insurance through work are paying for it in the form of lost wages. Nothing is free. Even if a benefactor gives away services to someone out of the goodness of his heart, that very act is the "cost" of the good feelings he earns as a result.
If they start giving out free flu shots in one window and $20 flu shots in another. Some people will choose the $20 window, because they value their time more than the people willing to wait in line. Some call it silly, but its just a difference in value systems. The Concorde flew across the Atlantic in a fraction of the time of a 747, but people paid extra for the privilege.... See More
In school, in a health finance class, a statement was made that "everyone wants universal health-care, but no one wants to pay for it". My point is we already are. Like the example I already gave but In other ways too; by the poor health or death of people too proud or stubborn to take advantage of the current system which already expects and adjusts for a certain amount of unpaid bills.
I apologize for the readers of this that say "Huh?" you just about got a lecture in economics 201. My medication kicked in, as I started this. LOL
--
Kevin Fillips
February 10, 2010
Perspective
As I wait for my first appointment in the heart failure clinic, I am reminded how fortunate I am to be at this stage of recovery slash maintenance.
Today I agreed to take part in a sodium study. I'm jokingly going to call it cash for pee. I'm going to get money so they can analyze my urine for sodium content. It will pay $50-200 depending on what group I'm put in.
The. Visit went without a hitch.
---
Kevin,
sent by my Droid
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)