030 Matters of the Heart

Alright, last time I told you about going to the hospital for Jimmy's big testing day, and I told you that the nurse practitioner was sending Jimmy to see a cardiologist.

Today, I am going to tell you about the cardiologist.

Jimmy's cardiologist appointment was with Dr. McGraw (unfortunately not Tim). Dr. McGraw was very nice and thorough. Through screening Jimmy and asking him a series of diagnostic questions he determined that Jimmy was low risk for the surgery (great news!). However, he still wanted him to have an echocardiography (sonogram of the heart) done to measure the size of the heart and the thickness of the heart walls.

That meant lots of waiting for us because they won't do the test without insurance pre-approval. Thankfully this pre-approval was just a matter of 45 minutes to an hour of waiting in the waiting room of Dr. McGraw's office. During this time I talked Jimmy into filming a vlog (which you have already seen) and I got a chance to read some more Mark of Athena. So pretty good trade off.

When they did call us in for the test, Jimmy started making lots of jokes about whether or not they were going to find out this heart was pregnant. :) What can I say? I knew what I was getting into when I married him. Anyway the nurse thought it was pretty funny so I wasn't too embarrassed.

After several pics from several angles the nurse called Dr. McGraw in so that he could look everything over. He tweaked some of the settings, took a couple more pics, and declared Jimmy ready okay for surgery.

It was a real relief to know that everything is ok and that we will be able to proceed with the surgery as scheduled.

In less than a week Jimmy will be having his WLS and nothing will ever be the same again! It's both exciting and scary. Thank you all for all of your prayers, encouragements, and thoughts!

Grace and Peace,

028 TESTING. TESTING. TESTING 1-2

Good morning, everyone! I hope that you have enjoyed hearing about Jimmy's liquid diet. Rest assured you will be receiving more details about that as time goes on BUT today I am going to jump back to the chronological storyline we were following.

So let's see…

Insurance requirements…Monthly appts…Exercise…Dieting…Dr. Appt. Blitz… Now I remember, we were getting ready to talk about Testing Day!

Ok, so it's not really called Testing Day but that's what I decided to nickname it since Jimmy had to undergo a bunch of tests :) In all reality this was the day that if Jimmy could pass all his tests then he would be able to schedule his surgery date.

TEST #1:
Our day started bright and early at Heartland Medical Center. First stop was to the lab. Let me tell you Jimmy is not jazzed about anything related to drawing blood or giving blood. Then you match that reluctance up with an early morning appointment and I was sure that disaster would ensue.

Thankfully I was wrong! The lab technician was awesome! She got Jimmy on the first try which kept him in a good mood too. Not only that but I was also relieved when we later found out Jimmy's cholesterol and blood sugars looked good. One set of tests down and passed.

TEST #2:
Next we had to go the cardiology section of the hospital for an EKG. The technician hooked everything up, took his readings, and sent him on his way. When we talked to the Nurse Practitioner we found out that the anesthesiologist would want further testing because his results were not clear. She also said that this was normal for a person JImmy's size.

TEST #3:
The final test was with Cindy Roberts the Nurse Practitioner. She wanted to check that Jimmy knew what was expected from him as far as diet and exercise. She also checked to make sure he knew his vitamins and medications for post-op. She also re-assured us that we would be able to schedule the surgery date but that we would still have to go see a cardiologist for further heart testing.

PASSED!!!

Jimmy and I took the first available surgery date. Bright and early on Friday, November 16, 2012.