An Update

We've had some new developments on the health front this week. On the good side, the pain crises seem to be largely reduced. Since Mark isn't on any narcotics now, when the pain does hit, it slams him pretty hard, but thankfully he only needed to go into the ER once this week. However, the nurse practitioner on duty that night happened to be the one who thinks that this is all "anxiety" and "drug seeking." Now, Mark will be the first to tell you that he has a wee bit of anxiety lately (to put it lightly). But he also has a pretty serious heart condition! He was having pain radiating down his arms and a heartrate of 130, and the nurse dismissed it.

The next day we found out the not-so-good news: Mark is having atrial arrhythmias. He's also having ventricular arrhythmias, but basically that's not a big deal. But atrial arrhythmias are a whole different ball game. They could raise his risk for stroke, depending on what kind he's having, which we don't know yet. We have an appointment at OHSU on Wednesday to decide what our next step should be.

The other concerning thing is a bunch of sores on both legs that are not healing. While we don't know for sure, it could well be due to his impaired circulation. That, too, we will address on Wednesday.

The third thing is perhaps the simplest of all, but may be the trickiest to solve, at this point. Mark's tooth broke. Any dental work carries the risk of endocarditis for him. A couple of years ago, the specialist at Good Sam told him, "You could live 10, or maybe even 15 more years--as long as you don't get endocarditis." It's not something he wants to mess with! Well, even though he doesn't seem to have an abscess or anything, he's got on antibiotics within hours. Our problem? Medicare doesn't cover dental work, and getting this tooth pulled is not going to be cheap. I'm not quite sure how we're going to deal with that one. Anybody know any dentists who specialize in high risk, uninsured patients?

Other than that, life goes well in our neck of the woods. Kate is her usual socialite self. Alex is his usual non-socialite self! :) (He and I have had some of the most interesting discussion lately. Leave it that kid to ask all the hard questions! He's the only kid I know who asks people to be quiet so that he can hear the news on the radio or who would rather sit and watch a documentary on Biblical history than play outside.) And Brendan ... well, now that the sun is out, so is he! He runs and runs with the neighbor kids, wears himself out thoroughly just being a kid.