Dodged The Bullet For Now

Tony has been seeing a cardiologist for about 3 years now. He's taking medication to regulate his heart rhythm and has regular echo cardiograms. His most recent one showed a bigger change in his aortic valve than the one from a year ago.

We met a new doctor this week who explained that it's not severe but heading that way and he is estimating that in 1-4 years he will need a valve replacement. They more than likely will use the TAVR method--trans catheter aortic valve replacement. We watched a YouTube video at home and it's so fascinating how they thread a catheter into the groin, all the way up to the heart, and plop the new valve right in place without removing the bad one.

They usually wait for symptoms to appear first before doing surgery so for now he will continue to have his echo's every 6 months and just play the waiting game. He also has left branch bundle block meaning he has a better chance of needing a pacemaker down the road too. Oh, and he also has to do a sleep study for sleep apnea, so it sounds like his dance card is going to be full for awhile.

OK, here's another funny for you regarding my scavenging adventures. This will probably only amuse women of a certain age. One day I was driving to my Mom's like I have done thousands of times, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a large piece of dead tree in an empty lot. I only noticed it because it was covered in frost and stood out more.

A few days later I took my cohort Tony, and pulled in the lot as far as I could go. I wanted to check it for size first before making him get out. It was big but manageable so I drug it to the car so he could help me get it in the back. It was about 5 feet long so we stood it on end while he went to put down the back seat for a better fit. I was standing along side of it and a big gust of wind blew it over on me where it whacked me in the head and hip. It sure didn't knock any sense into me; plus I wet my pants! It hurt but I was laughing so hard which didn't help the matter much. We got it in the car but I still had to go to a nearby store to pick something up.

I asked Tony if he could see my wet pants and he said not with my longer coat so I went into the store trying not to waddle. I got home with my prize and put on some dry clothes. Totally worth it! I can't wait to use it next spring along with all of my other tree pieces.

Wishing you all a fabulous holiday season!