A Busy Month Ahead

A busy month ahead. The month of May will be a “busy” month. This month I have several appointments in the hospital again. Last year I had almost every month that I had one or two appointments. But this year it looked like it would be much less. But this coming month, I have 4 appointments.

All for different things.

My Pacemaker/ICD Checkup

At the end of April, it was time again for my pacemaker/ICD checkup. It was already one year after the last check. Normally this is a “simple” thing.

I will just come in, sit in the chair, and place a special device on my shoulder so they can connect to the pacemaker wireless. Then they will start reading the logs of the pacemaker. In there they can see if there was anything wrong or if it had detected something.

At first, everything looked okay. But when they went through the data, they saw that one day, my heartbeat went up to 140. Just for 1 or 2 seconds. They said that this was nothing to worry about because it was very short and they did not see it anymore.

They also checked the state of the battery. This was still good for a minimum of 7-8 months. This is the level from where you will get more frequent checks. Just to keep an eye on the battery. My next check will be in 6 months. Instead of one year. When the battery gets lower, then maybe the next check will be in 2 or 3 months. In the meantime, they already will start planning and thinking about the replacement pacemaker. For me, this would then be a different brand and model than I have now. This is because of some problems with this current model. It has problems detecting some kind of pulses, which they were not able to solve last year.

They also let me hear the sound the pacemaker will make, when it thinks that the battery level is getting too low. When I hear that, then I need to contact them and inform them about it.

My Cardiologist

A few days after the pacemaker check. I had a telephone appointment with my cardiologist to discuss the results of the checkup. According to her, everything looked okay. She only was asked if maybe they could change a setting in the pacemaker. My minimum heartbeat is set to 80 and they maybe wanted to lower it to 70 or 60. According to her, this would be okay. I asked her if this would improve my condition because I am still very tired quickly. But according to her, this would have no effect on my condition. So, I am in a doubt if I will let them change it or not.

Also for her, she said that we will have the next appointment over 6 months.

My Lung Specialist

After my last appointment with her, she already mentioned that everything looked okay for her and that she will turn over everything to my internist. This was because of my coughing. But because this was now over, she just wanted to have a final check of my lungs, to make sure that everything was okay.

She had scheduled an appointment for a lung X-ray and a half hour after that, I will have a personal meeting with her to talk about that X-ray.

That is already two appointments in one day. I am not worried about that, because things feel okay for me. But we just wait and see what the X-ray will say.

My Internist

In our last meeting, he suggested to do one more blood check. This was of the testosterone that was too low. He wanted one more check. This time I had to let them check the blood and make an appointment for very early in the morning. He said, the earlier, the better. So I made an appointment for 7:40 AM

Then on May 13, I have an appointment for a new PET CT Scan. For this, I need to be there at the beginning of the afternoon and it will take almost the rest of the afternoon to do the scan.

You need to be early, so they can prepare you. After that, a short wait, and then they will inject the radioactive material that is needed for the scan. After that, you need to wait for at least 1 hour. In that hour, they want you to relax as much as possible. Last time, I had to sit in a chair in a special room, all by myself.

After one hour, they will do the scan. The scan normally will take around 20-30 minutes. When this is okay, then you can go. For the rest of the day, they advise you, not to come near small children because of the radioactive material that is in your blood. You also need to make sure that you pee enough, to get it out of your system.

In the scan, they will scan the area around the stomach, kidney, and heart. My cardio specialist will keep an eye on the scan near the heart, just to make sure that this is okay.

The internist will check the part around the stomach and kidney.

The appointment for the internist is at the end of the month.

Blood Results

In my file of the hospital, I am already able to see the blood check results. According to what I could see, the testosterone was still high. No idea what the internist will do for that, but he just wanted one more check. Last time he mentioned that he would see and check with me about what we would do further.

There were some more results, but I have no idea what they all mean. I will not worry about that and just leave this over to the experts. I could search the internet and see what it all means, but why worry in advance? Maybe I will worry for nothing. If it is really bad, they will call me anyway.

Closing

For the PET CT Scan, there are a lot of guidelines you need to follow. It is a whole list of things that you are not allowed to eat or drink. That will be a difficult day, but it is needed to get a good result.

For the pacemaker, I am not worried. I know that if the battery is really getting low, it will make a sound and I know what to do at that time. For now, I will just wait for my next checkup in 6 months. I will just wait and see when the replacement will need to take place. Maybe this year? We will see.

For my lungs, I am also not too worried. To me, everything feels okay. But again, I need to wait for the X-ray and the lung specialist for the final result.

For the rest, as I already shortly mentioned, I am still tired quick. There is not much that can be done about that. I just need to keep that in mind and plan things accordingly. Not walk too long, don’t carry too heavy things, and rest enough during the day. It is something I need to live with and accept it. It is not easy but there is nothing I can do about it. Accept to accept it.

And I will close with what I also say, “Please take care and be safe. God Bless.”