Saturday, April 07, 2007

Well, the doctor doesn't know what's with my hand, but gave me all kinds of tests (the non-high tech kind--"make a fist," "raise your arm," etc.) and she thinks it's nothing to worry about. As for the bloodwork, my cholesterol is still up and she's sending me for a newly-developed test called a Coronary CT Angiography. She said the doctor associated with it (he may have invented it), Dr. Dowe, addresses medical groups all over the globe. When I made the appointment (for next Thursday), I found I'll be a research participant, so this won't be charged to my health insurance. My ever-vigilant suspicion gauge went into alert mode with that, but I was assured I won't be a guinea pig. However, because I'm "research," Dr. Dowe himself has to be there--otherwise, a technician does it. I'll take a pill to slow down my heart rate first (geez!), then be injected with something or other (oh, good grief!) so my heart arteries will light up or show up or something. This will tell if I have plaque and if so, my doctor will prescribe medication; if not, I go on my merry way. (Talked to Betty and she never heard of the procedure--Pat, what about you?)
Good friend Dennis came over and changed our heater filter, fixed the phone in the garage, and did some other chores Pat can no longer do. What a gem! His Leslie and I will shortly attend a planning meeting for Eyes Wide Open, a project to display boots representing the number of people killed in the Iraqi war. There's also a "tax day" peace vigil in Northfield on April 15 and a vigil in Toms River on the 21st.
I looked at the web site for the Boston Marathon and got Alison and Mike's registration numbers. It's on April 16 and 22,500 are running. When Alison called last night, she said she had put us on to get periodic e-mail messages listing where they are in the race.
Jack B. stopped in to tell us about his visit to my brother Larry's in Miami. As Larry said, they had a low-key, but good time. Talked to California brother, Frank, too, so all the Byrne sibs (including Jack B.--he's an honorary sib) were covered except Jim and I'll get to him soon.
Hey, Pat, guess what? I joined the Mencken Society!

1 comment:

iloveac said...

Kewl...you are a Mencken listee now. I'm not a member, but that Doctor friend in Pensacola is always sending stuff related to Mencken.

Never heard of Dr Dowe's Test. I have had similar testing....put dye in vein and CT pics taken every few minutes or so. They didn't slow my heart for the one I had called a Thallium scan....they had me do the treadmill first then the dye then the pics. I wonder how Dr Dowe's differs from the thallium scan other than the rate of heart contractions. Try to remember to ask him..."hey Doc...how is this test different from the Thallium scan"?

Thursday

Well, it started off nicely, but things got murky later. R.E. agent Kim emailed me the Certificate of  Occupancy, which means the house pass...