30 January
2017
Afternoon. You had a new blood test at Dr. B's office otherwise, things
are okay except you have put on eleven pounds. You promised to work on it.
Carol asked you to ask about your blackout while driving the other day and Dr.
B. said that most likely it was it was not a sugar issue. She then suggested you see Dr. Merling;
she suggested blackout is a heart issue.
You have an appointment this afternoon at 5:15. - Amorella
1313 hours. This should work
out because if I have to have a test of some kind perhaps it can be scheduled
for tomorrow. I have never had a blackout before that I can remember. I did
schedule both an April and a June visit with Dr. B. since she is retiring in
June. I will miss her.
You saw Dr. M. and were at the office from about five to nearly seven.
Most of the time you were being given an EKG.
** **
Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG[a])
is the process of recording the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time using electrodes placed on the skin. These electrodes
detect the tiny electrical changes on the skin that arise from the heart's
muscle electrophysiological pattern
of depolarizing and repolarizing during
each heartbeat. It is a very commonly performed cardiology test.
In a conventional 12-lead ECG, ten electrodes are placed on the
patient's limbs and on the surface of the chest. The overall magnitude of the
heart's electrical potential is
then measured from twelve different angles ("leads") and is recorded
over a period of time (usually ten seconds). In this way, the overall magnitude
and direction of the heart's electrical depolarization is captured at each
moment throughout the cardiac cycle. The graph of voltage versus time produced
by this noninvasive medical procedure is referred to as an electrocardiogram.
Selected
and edited from Wikipedia
** **
You took off your shirt and tee and laid on the examining table while
nurse A placed the electrodes. She turned it on. After a few minutes she
switched it off and checked to make sure the electrodes were still in place.
They were but she was picking up a lot of electrical interference. You took off
your Apple watch, but in the same following procedure there was still interference.
She had you take your keys and iPhone from your pants' pockets and tried again.
Interference. She gave up after checking the electrodes once again and said she
would have nurse B do the procedure. A few minutes later nurse B came in and
unhooked the wires and started over by replacing them about your chest. Nurse B
followed the same procedures and the machine still reported interference. Nurse
B got Dr. M who came in and did the procedure once again. Electrical interference.
Nurse B then tried one last time while Dr. M observed. Still interference. He
suggested aliens as a joke, then she said he flat-lined four times but he was
still talking so it has to be the machine. You laughed and said to get Mulder
[and Scully) in here. Everyone laughed but Dr. M was curious about why the
interference. Shortly thereafter you were sent home with an appointment for a
CT scan at the hospital in the morning. Once home you went to bed just before
the Presidential Address. - Amorella
31 January
2018
Mid-morning. You had a CT scan early this morning at Bethesda
North Hospital, the first of three tests ordered by Dr. M to investigate your
blackout while driving last Saturday afternoon about two o'clock. - Amorella
Before lunch you and Carol worked on
cleaning out the basement (a seemingly never-ending chore). Lunch at Cracker
Barrel. Carol fed the cats their wet food when you received a call from the
doctor's office saying that you CT scan showed "no acute changes"
which you assume was good and thanked her. Post. - Amorella
1458 hours. I have another
hospital test Friday afternoon at two and a third test Monday morning at nine. That
should cover the testing for dropping complete consciousness for four to six
seconds last Saturday. Friday's thirty minute Doppler ultrasound test is across the street from
Bethesda North.
You are
waiting in the car for Carol before running some errands. Tomorrow morning you
are planning on leaving for Kim and Paul's about ten o'clock. - Amorella
The beginning of dusk. You want to write a quick review about Wolff's Fire
and Fury for your Facebook page and earlier today the whole review flashed
in front of your head and disappeared before you could put it down via the
keys. - Amorella
1704 hours. I couldn't believe
it so 'short and sweet' with the focus on human nature as observed within the
book. In any case I'll have to come up with something . . . perhaps later.
You just finished your piece for Facebook. Here it is. Post; Amorella
** **
Wolff's Fire and Fury is an excellent book for
reading about people who are in power or near the heat of power. Egos react to
the heat or its lack. Some boil. Some are extinguished. The author observes the
egos and then writes about the people. Human observation is human first. I
found the book worthwhile and interesting reading because it is about fellow
human beings in or near the heat. The world is such a stage. 
** **
2058 hours. It works for
me.
Earlier
you checked this on your medical chart to see:
"Study Result - Impression - Unchanged minimal
white matter microangiopathic disease."
** **
Microangiopathy (or microvascular disease,
or small vessel disease) is an angiopathy (i.e. disease of blood vessels)
affecting small blood vessels in the body. It can be contrasted to
macroangiopathy, or large vessel disease.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
** **
White matter disease is the wearing away of tissue in the largest and deepest
part of your brain due to aging.
This tissue contains millions of nerve fibers, or axons, that connect other
parts of the brain and spinal
cord and signal your nerves to talk to one another. A fatty material called
myelin protects the fibers and
gives white matter its color.
This type of brain tissue helps you think fast, walk
straight, and keeps you from falling. When it becomes diseased, the myelin
breaks down. The signals that help you do these things can’t get through. Your
body stops working like it should, much like a kink in a garden hose makes the
water that comes out go awry.
White matter disease happens in older or
elderly people.
Selected and edited from WebMD
** **
2323 hours. I did not know
this. I have never heard of white matter disease before. Old age, that's what we
always called it, pretty much the same thing. Anyway, the study results state: "Unchanged minimal"
as far as the disease is concerned, thus I am now conscious of the matter
but am not really concerned.
Post.
- Amorella
