Upload this....!
Thanks for checking in and sorry for the lack of posts, but I haven't been feeling well. It's been an ongoing thing, with flu like symptoms that had been coming on just occasionally but now are a daily occurance. My crack medical staff has been doing yeoman work to try and figure this out with tests, more tests, antibiotics and other means. Part of the problem seems to be low blood pressure so we are cutting my blood pressure med's to see if that picks me up. So far the verdict's out on that.
Of concern, of course, is the heart operation last Christmas, though since I can walk three miles a day at a good pace and actually feel better, we are hopeful that there is no cardiac link to this illness. However, just to make sure I am now fitted with an amazing cardiac monitor which is the subject of this short post.
Modern medicine is amazing and has taken great strides with the digital revolution. My monitor is about the size of a pager or pack of playing cards. It is hooked to me with two wires which plug into leads pasted to my chest which are easily changeable by me when they wear out. The monitor is constantly on but is on an hourly override cycle which provides a continuous EKG. When I feel particularly ill I punch the "record" button and the device puts the previous 15 minutes thru the current time on the hard drive for storage until I can uplink it.
After the data is stored on the device I simply call an 800 number in Dallas that is permanently manned and tell them my name and that I'm ready to send data. I then put the monitor speaker up the the phone, hit the "send" button and the data is transferred to the centers EKG machine for reading by an on staff cardiac nurse. If there is an emergency type problem they call back and if not they fax the EKG data to my cardilogist in Midland for interpretation. So far, I haven't received any emergency phone calls. This is good.
We're hoping that when the blood pressure medication is completely out of my system I'll feel better. I sure hope so.
Thanks for checking in and sorry for the lack of posts, but I haven't been feeling well. It's been an ongoing thing, with flu like symptoms that had been coming on just occasionally but now are a daily occurance. My crack medical staff has been doing yeoman work to try and figure this out with tests, more tests, antibiotics and other means. Part of the problem seems to be low blood pressure so we are cutting my blood pressure med's to see if that picks me up. So far the verdict's out on that.
Of concern, of course, is the heart operation last Christmas, though since I can walk three miles a day at a good pace and actually feel better, we are hopeful that there is no cardiac link to this illness. However, just to make sure I am now fitted with an amazing cardiac monitor which is the subject of this short post.
Modern medicine is amazing and has taken great strides with the digital revolution. My monitor is about the size of a pager or pack of playing cards. It is hooked to me with two wires which plug into leads pasted to my chest which are easily changeable by me when they wear out. The monitor is constantly on but is on an hourly override cycle which provides a continuous EKG. When I feel particularly ill I punch the "record" button and the device puts the previous 15 minutes thru the current time on the hard drive for storage until I can uplink it.
After the data is stored on the device I simply call an 800 number in Dallas that is permanently manned and tell them my name and that I'm ready to send data. I then put the monitor speaker up the the phone, hit the "send" button and the data is transferred to the centers EKG machine for reading by an on staff cardiac nurse. If there is an emergency type problem they call back and if not they fax the EKG data to my cardilogist in Midland for interpretation. So far, I haven't received any emergency phone calls. This is good.
We're hoping that when the blood pressure medication is completely out of my system I'll feel better. I sure hope so.
