Well, it was a success yesterday. Getty took me in and we hung out for a bit and then the nurse, Sharon started the paperwork. I sent Getty home and told him to come back after 4ish. There was no sense in having him hang out at the hospital when it was such a nice, sunny day. Warm enough to go outside with just a tee-shirt.
Sharon was the nurse who took care of me when I was going in for the numerous tests in June and July. We recognized each other. She is very nice and an excellent nurse that makes you feel at ease.
Dr Zilz came in to do the TEE. He is a very quick wit and we had fun exchanging barbs. Soon we all were laughing which made the nurse doing the EKG; shake her head at us since she couldn’t get a good reading. That was because I was laughing so hard. She finally did get a reading and it showed that I was still in arrhythmia. Dr. Zilz was impeccably dressed. We teased him about is wife picking out his attire and told him that he married well. He took our ribbing quite well. He sure makes you (the patient) feel at ease and totally relaxing which is very important.
.First, they had to give me more blood thinning medicine as my reading was too low. Then Dr. Zilz took great pleasure in spraying the back of my mouth with the most god-awful spray that numbed my throat. Not once but twice. I gagged appropriately too.
Finally, my throat got numb and then I was out for the count. They had to check for blood clots first and then do a baseline reading of my heart. They wanted to make sure that I did not have a blood clot before they did the cardio-version. Had Dr. Zilz been more on the ball, he could have decorated me up for Halloween since I was defenseless. But then again, he might think that revenge would be worse and decided against it.
So, no blood clot which was good. Then he did the TEE and found that my ratio was 1.6. He had no idea that I had that ratio as I am sure he was expecting to see no ratio. He confirmed the number that Dr. Condon for my ratio. At least I am holding steady. Too bad, that I still have leakage. ;-(
Anyways, after Dr. Zilz did the TEE, and then they do the Cardio-version. They hooked up these two large patches on my chest. One was on the front of my chest and the other on the back. Then they zap me. It stops the heart and then your heart re-sets itself. By re-setting itself, your heart will go to the normal state since the *zap* interrupted the bad state. Most of the time this works but if it doesn’t then they do another procedure. That procedure is when they stick a tube up your groin area and *zap* actual parts of the heart. I don’t know that much info on that procedure since it was not going to be done me.
OK, so my heart reset itself and went into normal state. Keep your fingers crossed that it will stay in normal state. Dr. Condon will be monitoring me for a while to make sure it stays in the normal state. Once he is happy, then I will be off the meds for my heart. I think in a month or so. He will also monitor my ratio to make sure it doesn’t get bigger. If my arrhythmia does return, then they will do the tube up the groin procedure. I’ll have to go back to him for a bunch of follow up visits. But for now, I am not going to worry about it since I am thinking positive.
This is what I am thinking: my ratio stays the same or decrease, my heart stays in the normal state and I live a long and happy life.
Getty picked me up and we got home around 7ish. I was feeling pretty bad so headed off to bed. I told Getty to wake me up in 30 minutes, which really means try to wake me up but I won’t get up. He did try but apparently I rolled over and went back to sleep. Mom and Nelson called to check for status and he updated them. I did get up about 10ish and futzed about then went back to bed rather quickly.
Today my front part of my chest hurt and I didn’t feel like doing much. Getty and I cleaned the house. Since I am able to sleep in our bed and not the couch, we cleaned the living room. Now it looks like a living room than a room that I had been sleeping in for a couple of months.
I ended having to take a ½ Vicodin since my chest was hurting. Of course, Getty had to tell me as he was probably tired of hearing me whine. It worked and soon I was feeling human again.
Tomorrow I will feel much more human. My mom is coming over and will cook me some of her delicious sukiyaki. Speaking of delicious, we had some rib steaks for dinner tonight. I marinated it in teriyaki sauce and Getty grilled it. It is from our steer that we raised. His name was Sir-loin (named by Getty).
Today as well as yesterday, the sheep got a break from being worked. However since I was feeling sorry for myself, I felt sorry for the sheep and gave them extra alfalfa. They gobbled that up quickly!! Tess and Nan got to play ball and were happy too.
Tomorrow all the dogs will get worked. I guess I better start early before my mom gets here. Then it is eat and rest with my mom!! I love that!!
Oh yea, I have to ear tag about seven sheep with the Scrapies ear tag. The Scrapies inspector comes on Monday and I have to have everyone tagged that is going to stay. I picked seven nice ewe lambs to keep and they get the tags. The lambs that do not get the tags are the locker lambs. We have been in the Scrapies program for a year now. I only buy outside sheep that are in the same program. My flock has been a closed flock aside from the ram that I bought to bring new genetics into the flock.
I have about 30 breeding Clun Forest ewes and three ram. I also have 6 hair sheep and one ram. I reduced my flock down quite a bit this year. With hay prices skyrocketing, I had to make some difficult choices. I had spent quite a few years in making a nice hair and wool sheep flock. It was a hard decision to sell sheep and the ones that I sold were top of the line.
From the Clun Forest sheep, I sold the ewes that I had several sisters. Meaning that I had on set of sheep that had 5 full sisters, another set with 4 full sisters and so forth. So I reduced the sisters by half and sold the ewes to good homes.
Of my hair sheep, my decision was based on color and one main ewe. I had a favorite ewe called “Big, Ugly” she had a big spotted nose and was ugly. But she was solid and square and was one of my best moms. I kept the lambs from her and a couple of ewes that I got from Sara Jo. They are nice and square. So my hair sheep are very well built and weigh over 125 lbs or so.
“Big, Ugly” lambs are not ugly. Their noses are not as roman nose as hers and their spots are cute. Sad to say, “Big, Ugly” died last year. I have two generations of "Big, Ugly" here. They carry on the same great mothering and excellent genetics. I need to name them but it will be better than “Big, Ugly”
I am open to suggestions.
Sharon was the nurse who took care of me when I was going in for the numerous tests in June and July. We recognized each other. She is very nice and an excellent nurse that makes you feel at ease.
Dr Zilz came in to do the TEE. He is a very quick wit and we had fun exchanging barbs. Soon we all were laughing which made the nurse doing the EKG; shake her head at us since she couldn’t get a good reading. That was because I was laughing so hard. She finally did get a reading and it showed that I was still in arrhythmia. Dr. Zilz was impeccably dressed. We teased him about is wife picking out his attire and told him that he married well. He took our ribbing quite well. He sure makes you (the patient) feel at ease and totally relaxing which is very important.
.First, they had to give me more blood thinning medicine as my reading was too low. Then Dr. Zilz took great pleasure in spraying the back of my mouth with the most god-awful spray that numbed my throat. Not once but twice. I gagged appropriately too.
Finally, my throat got numb and then I was out for the count. They had to check for blood clots first and then do a baseline reading of my heart. They wanted to make sure that I did not have a blood clot before they did the cardio-version. Had Dr. Zilz been more on the ball, he could have decorated me up for Halloween since I was defenseless. But then again, he might think that revenge would be worse and decided against it.
So, no blood clot which was good. Then he did the TEE and found that my ratio was 1.6. He had no idea that I had that ratio as I am sure he was expecting to see no ratio. He confirmed the number that Dr. Condon for my ratio. At least I am holding steady. Too bad, that I still have leakage. ;-(
Anyways, after Dr. Zilz did the TEE, and then they do the Cardio-version. They hooked up these two large patches on my chest. One was on the front of my chest and the other on the back. Then they zap me. It stops the heart and then your heart re-sets itself. By re-setting itself, your heart will go to the normal state since the *zap* interrupted the bad state. Most of the time this works but if it doesn’t then they do another procedure. That procedure is when they stick a tube up your groin area and *zap* actual parts of the heart. I don’t know that much info on that procedure since it was not going to be done me.
OK, so my heart reset itself and went into normal state. Keep your fingers crossed that it will stay in normal state. Dr. Condon will be monitoring me for a while to make sure it stays in the normal state. Once he is happy, then I will be off the meds for my heart. I think in a month or so. He will also monitor my ratio to make sure it doesn’t get bigger. If my arrhythmia does return, then they will do the tube up the groin procedure. I’ll have to go back to him for a bunch of follow up visits. But for now, I am not going to worry about it since I am thinking positive.
This is what I am thinking: my ratio stays the same or decrease, my heart stays in the normal state and I live a long and happy life.
Getty picked me up and we got home around 7ish. I was feeling pretty bad so headed off to bed. I told Getty to wake me up in 30 minutes, which really means try to wake me up but I won’t get up. He did try but apparently I rolled over and went back to sleep. Mom and Nelson called to check for status and he updated them. I did get up about 10ish and futzed about then went back to bed rather quickly.
Today my front part of my chest hurt and I didn’t feel like doing much. Getty and I cleaned the house. Since I am able to sleep in our bed and not the couch, we cleaned the living room. Now it looks like a living room than a room that I had been sleeping in for a couple of months.
I ended having to take a ½ Vicodin since my chest was hurting. Of course, Getty had to tell me as he was probably tired of hearing me whine. It worked and soon I was feeling human again.
Tomorrow I will feel much more human. My mom is coming over and will cook me some of her delicious sukiyaki. Speaking of delicious, we had some rib steaks for dinner tonight. I marinated it in teriyaki sauce and Getty grilled it. It is from our steer that we raised. His name was Sir-loin (named by Getty).
Today as well as yesterday, the sheep got a break from being worked. However since I was feeling sorry for myself, I felt sorry for the sheep and gave them extra alfalfa. They gobbled that up quickly!! Tess and Nan got to play ball and were happy too.
Tomorrow all the dogs will get worked. I guess I better start early before my mom gets here. Then it is eat and rest with my mom!! I love that!!
Oh yea, I have to ear tag about seven sheep with the Scrapies ear tag. The Scrapies inspector comes on Monday and I have to have everyone tagged that is going to stay. I picked seven nice ewe lambs to keep and they get the tags. The lambs that do not get the tags are the locker lambs. We have been in the Scrapies program for a year now. I only buy outside sheep that are in the same program. My flock has been a closed flock aside from the ram that I bought to bring new genetics into the flock.
I have about 30 breeding Clun Forest ewes and three ram. I also have 6 hair sheep and one ram. I reduced my flock down quite a bit this year. With hay prices skyrocketing, I had to make some difficult choices. I had spent quite a few years in making a nice hair and wool sheep flock. It was a hard decision to sell sheep and the ones that I sold were top of the line.
From the Clun Forest sheep, I sold the ewes that I had several sisters. Meaning that I had on set of sheep that had 5 full sisters, another set with 4 full sisters and so forth. So I reduced the sisters by half and sold the ewes to good homes.
Of my hair sheep, my decision was based on color and one main ewe. I had a favorite ewe called “Big, Ugly” she had a big spotted nose and was ugly. But she was solid and square and was one of my best moms. I kept the lambs from her and a couple of ewes that I got from Sara Jo. They are nice and square. So my hair sheep are very well built and weigh over 125 lbs or so.
“Big, Ugly” lambs are not ugly. Their noses are not as roman nose as hers and their spots are cute. Sad to say, “Big, Ugly” died last year. I have two generations of "Big, Ugly" here. They carry on the same great mothering and excellent genetics. I need to name them but it will be better than “Big, Ugly”
I am open to suggestions.
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