The 2009 Mayo Report

Loren should be starting home from Rochester about now, so that leaves me 2 hours to clean up the house, do laundry and make it look like several projects were completed.

It also means there's only one hour left until Leave It To Beaver comes on so I'd better jot down this blogpost!

Loren talked all the test results over with the doctor and here is the report I got on the phone, last night:

1) The angiogram results were super. Very clean arteries. Unfortunately, the doctor performing the procedure had a hard time finding the right place, and struck a nerve several times. Loren is one of those guys who doesn't take the sedation so he felt everything and it made for a "shaky" experience, all around. But the arteries are absolutely clean.

2) His cholesterol is down a bit from last time, but not quite where they want it, yet. Loren convinced the doctor he could do more things with diet and lifestyle, so they're not going to insist on reissuing the statin, at this time. The statin Loren was on earlier made him feel quite bad, with muscle aches and fatigue and just not being able to make progress.

3) His Echocardiogram also showed improvement, number-wise. Up to 69% Ejection Fraction, though those numbers can shift around from test to test.

5) Kidney Function--fine

6) Dermatology--no skin cancer

7) Bone density is a little lower than normal, but that might just be "Loren's normal." He had complained of some recent hip pain, so they did an x-ray and thought they might have seen a line denoting a fracture. They then ran an MRI and did indeed confirm a very minor hip fracture. I'm not sure of the exact bone name, but I think it's the ball part (in the old days I would have looked up the proper name, but I'm just too tired).

They're going to restart Loren on Fosomax and part of Monday's trip back to Rochester will include an orthopedic consult to see about pain management. As I may have said once or twice....there is always SOME-thing, with that guy...

8) Biopsy--they aren't doing them, anymore! No more chunks of heart taken out via the neck and then placed under a microscope. They have a blood test that works well for people who are stable. And Loren's been so stable for so long that there is little to no chance of rejection, at this point. Good news, no?

I think that about does it. Again, he goes up on Monday for the hip-thing and also to check with an Ears/Nose and Throat specialist to see if they can figure out his nagging throat irritation.

All in all, a pretty good report.
 

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