Health

I had my consultation about my IVC filter today. Now I only have two more nutritionist appointments and everything can be submitted to insurance.

Some facts about my IVC filter:

• It will be installed in the neck or in my leg, depending on how things “are” at the time (dunno what that means). But it will…..uh……move through my…..arteries? and wind up around the bellybutton area. This is to prevent blood clots from going to my lungs.
• If installed in my neck, they cut my juggular.
• Surgery for installation is about 2-3 hours, which I think includes recovery time. I’ll be out for the day.
• It is installed 1-4 days before surgery.
• It is temporary so long as I don’t have a clot, and so long as they can get it out in time. They have to remove it within 30 days of installation or my innards will grow around it and it will become permanent (ohmygod). And if I have a clot, it means I am at risk, and they will not remove it then either.
• I have to call and set up an appointment as soon as I have a surgery date.

Am I crazy for doing this?

I just called my surgeon’s office to let them know I was done my appointments, to find out my results for my appointments 2 weeks ago, and to find out what was left.

Results:
My ultrasound and x-ray (I guess) said I have a fatty liver, which is common among overweight people. She said this will likely go away after the weight is lost.

Todo:
My pathology report from my upper endoscopy needs to be submitted. I just got off the phone with my GI doctor and they are faxing it over right now. Check.

I have 2 more nutrition visits, August and September that are required for surgery. I probably would have been done in August rather than September if my nutritionist didn’t fuck up my nutrition appointment in May. Still, it’s within the latter half of the time-frame I wanted so that’s still OKAY.

I have to submit my diet history letter. This was submitted on Monday so they will probably receive it today. Check.

I have to set up an appointment with the people who will be installing the IVC filter in my NECK (ohmygod) to prevent blood clots from going to my brain before surgery. This is just a consultation appointment, the actual filter isn’t placed until 4 days before surgery. I scheduled this today for next month. Check.

So, once my Sept appointment with my nutritionist is done, everything will be submitted to my insurance company. This might take 2-3 weeks for approval. So I’m likely looking at an October surgery. I’m hoping for one anyway, but I hope it is at a time frame that doesn’t interfere with a wedding on the third weekend of October.

I had three appointments this morning, all pretty much at the same facility. The chest x-ray was pretty straight-forward. Stand in front of a thing, click, turn to the side, click. Done.

The abdominal ultrasound was much like you’d expect from a sonogram of a pregnant woman. They move the little thingy over your stomach and sides, check your various organs, take snapshots of them and send em off to the doctor.

The Duplex of Lower Extremities is the same thing, but on your legs. This is to check for blood clots, any specific venous issues, circulation etc. This was probably the most uncomfortable of the three, simply because they had to start in the nether regions. The goey gel they used for this particular one was also hot, I assume to encourage blood flow during the appointment.

I won’t know the results for any of these for at least a week or two. But I’ll post em when I hear anything.

This is the last of my medical appointments until surgery approval. I still have nutrition appointments (I have one tomorrow, actually). And when/if I am approved for surgery I will have some pre-op stuff such as bloodwork, urinalysis, and a screen implanted in my neck to prevent bloodclots from going to my brain. But those will all likely be done right before surgery, or on the day of.

Whew. What a crazy 6 months. Of course I still have to call my lung doctor and ask if he still wants me to do another sleep study. I really hope not…

$2k later (HSA be blessed), and I just need approval from insurance.

Yesterday morning I had an appointment with the sleep lab/neurologist. I want to preface by saying that my doctor looked and talked exactly like Dracula.

He had very detailed results on my sleep study, which apparently my lung doctor (also a sleep study doctor) was supposed to give me a copy of and go over with me, but never did.

He agreed with the lung doctor that I have a very mild case of Sleep Apnea, but he said whether I want to go through another sleep study is optional, not required, and that my sleep study passes the credentials for surgery (WOO!). Again, this is not what my lung doctor was telling me earlier this month, which is frustrating.

The main difference being my sleep doctor went through very specific details and totals, while my lung doctor didn’t tell me jack. So whose advice am I gonna follow? Obviously.

But I’m still wondering if the pulmonary doctor is going to require that I get the sleep study anyway in order to give me my pulmonary clearance, which would suck. I don’t know how the two territories overlap in that way, hopefully it won’t be an issue.

Some specific stats from my sleep study:

• My sleep efficiency was 64%, which is low but they don’t start worrying until it is 50% or less.
• My overall apnea during sleep was 3 times an hour. They don’t start worrying until it’s over 5 times an hour.
• My lowest Oxygen Saturation was 91% but my average was 95%. They don’t start worrying about this until it gets below 90%.
• I slept for a total of 278 minutes throughout the night, or 4.6 hours. Not surprising, I slept horrible that night.
• I mostly stayed in stage 1 and 2 sleep, I rarely got to stage 3 sleep at all.
• I started out on my back apparently, but stayed on the side the rest of the night after about 11pm
• Apparently I -did- snore some, and I’ve always been told I don’t snore unless I’m on my back. I guess the sweetheart will have to let me know.

There was some other stats too that I don’t remember what they were, but this is a decent summary. Plus I have a fancy paper with charts and stuff on it.