Hi chick
There are times when I want to throttle the whole medical profession.
Doc 1 says you have heart failure. Your BP is still very high. Have X-ray . Abnormalities on X-ray. Have blood tests, ECG, echocardiogram. Blood test show low level infection, that's OK, it's cos I have a form of inflammatory arthritis ( not rheumatoid, thankfully) and it's been like that for years. ECG shows abnormalities, but I wasn't told what. If only this was 20 years ago, OH could have told me.
The wait for echocardiogram - 6-8 weeks. Hang on, this is my heart you're talking about!!!
Then I go for another BP and it's still high. Nurse wants GP to see me. As there are no emergencies, if I wait I can see one today. OK. See doc 2. Oh no, you're stressed. Yes I know I'm stressed, I been a carer for god knows how many years and he's having/ had delusions twice in the last year plus two ops in a hospital an hours drive away. He's being very nasty verbally. He's hit me. He's ( at the moment) a pain in the neck. Of course I'm b....y stressed!!!
Only the echo will tell what, if anything, is wrong with my heart. But! I've been out on yet more BP reducing tablets, and have to have yet more blood tests in case kidneys are affected by them.
While I had my dander up, OHs psychiatrist phoned. Good. I need to speak to you. You said he was going to double antidepressant dose and nothing's happened. I changed my mind, he said. Oh, you didn't tell anyone (ie, me). I've decided to stop his donepezil instead, his heart rate is still low. I tell him OHs heart rate is the same as it was over 30 years ago, probably all his life (it's 49). How about his delusions? I said. Well I will give him something like Quetiapine ....stop. No more. He is not having Quetiapine, he had 6 small TIAS in 7 weeks when he was on them before. After some argy bargy, I got my way! He has doubled the antidepressant, which was originally diagnosed to increase his appetite, and everything else is as it was. (I didn't tell him I'd already got a prescription for increased dose from gp).
Why change three things at one time? Treatment of dementia patients is not an exact science, so how do you know what has worked, if anything.
Might try and gee up echo, but I have found out it's the standard wait at the moment.
Then today, had AgeUK round to do PIP form, as my DLA is nearly run out. It took over two hours! I was mentally battered and feeling bad, we'd been discussion worst case scenarios! Saw her off and a stranger arrived. Come to see your husband as he is unable to get to the surgery. Well, he can't, but I always take him!! Apparently he was the third person this morning that had spouses who did the driving! ( no appt made). So she took his BP and went on her way. Well I suppose it saved me a journey!
Then went to Minsmere for well earned coffee and the nicest cake I could find!
S