12 thoughts on “Phil visits the Cardiologist today…”
Hope that goes well. I suppose when it comes to that, going “well” is a relative thing. Fingers crossed for ya, Phil.
Hope you’re going to be just fine. Doctors suck.
I basically told the guy that I want to be done with the fucking around here.
They know what the problem is and where it’s at. Fix It and let’s be done.
Cat scan coming. I can see an Angiogram coming and I supposedly now have an appointment with Vascular Surgeons after I pushed the issue.
Gotta quit smoking again, I made it a whole month cold turkey, am trying to wean off now instead.
so far 3 cigarettes yesterday and 3 today.
Instead of a pack yesterday and a pack today.
I’m working on it.
“Quitting smoking’s easy, I’ve done it a million times”
Mark Twain.
Keep at it, man, you’ll be much happier a few months from now.
I agree with Mr. Twain. Chewed for 15 years, quit cold turkey for 5. Chewed for 5 years more, quit cold turkey for 5 more. Chewed for 5 years more and quit when Copenhagen hit $5 a can, more than half of which was tax. That was 12 years ago and I’ll never chew again because I’m not going to give my tax money to a state that then gives it away to illegals. Screw ’em.
You can do it, Phil. You’ve got to quit cold turkey and in three weeks the urges will become an increasingly fading memory. You can do it. I hope you do.
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve “quit” over the years.
The last time, I used nicotine lozenges which worked spectacularly well. I was totally off nicotine after 10 weeks. I did however revert, in a moment of weakness, the day before my one year anniversary.
I used the 4 mg ones for about two weeks, then started breaking them in half, then quarters until I was off them.
However, the two cravings I could never conquer was after the evening meal and a bit later in the evening around 9PM. They did diminish over time, but never went completely away. For those, I used the rubber band snap over the wrist pulse/adjacent nerve. That little stingy distracts the craving somehow or maybe it’s just the psychological suggestion that it works. Whatever.
YMMV. Good luck with all of these medical issues.
Power to you brother.
Saw my wife’s EKG when I saw her chart after she had been admitted but before the bypasses – I would have drug her to the ER if I had seen ’em before then!!
The P-wave sucked!!
One specialty that tends to have bigger egos than heart docs are neurosurgeons. Many of them actually think they can walk on water, raise the dead and perform other miracles. I swear they must take a class in med school called Ego 101.
Neurologists might fall into that same category. After my wife came down with MS her first neurologist was a complete psych case. She was a lesbian and proud of it. At our first office visit together she looked at me suspiciously and said “You’re her husband, I assume?”. My thought was “What the Hell kind of question was that?”.
I knew right then this ‘woman’ had less than zero personality or people skills. My wife thought so too, so she soon found a new doctor 40 miles away.
Later we learned through the local paper that this ‘woman’ and her ‘wife’ had a history of problems with a neighbor of theirs. The story made the paper because the sheriff’s department had made several dozen visits to the happy couple’s home and finally after getting sick of these two told them they would no longer be coming by, and proceeded to let them know that any future problems that might develop would be on them, not their neighbor, who had been trying to work things out.
Short story long, that was the last we heard of the good doctor and her wife. After getting nothing but negative reviews on-line she is no longer practicing medicine here and I’m not even sure that she and the Missus still live around here. Good riddance.
Dr’s ego’s, especially cardiologists, have been a pet peeve of mine for decades.
Recently I was explaining to a doc the procedure I use for storing a med I use infrequently. I told him I store it in the freezer. He said “this and all medications should be stored at room temperature”. I responded with “when I studied chemistry and physics in HIGH SCHOOL(caps for emphasis because I said it with a slightly raised voice and through gritted teeth) we learned that lowering the temperature of an item slows down chemical reactions in the item AND slows degradation of that item. He responded with “Oh yes, they do store the Covid vaccine at significantly reduced temperature”. I responded with ” yeh, sort of like freezing food you’re not planning to use in the next few days or storing insulin in the refrigerator to preserve it until it gets used.” His eyes almost bugged out of his head.
Hi Phil,
I hope you are felling better. I went through something similar last year. I was having what I thought were worse than normal acid reflux attacks and the doc put me in the hospital for 10 days. I wound up needs to get 3 stents in my arteries.
What I really wanted to mention to you, and any other vets here, is to check out the VA if you have not already. I’ve been using VA almost exclusively for my healthcare for about 15 years now and could not be happier with the services in general and especially with my my heart treatment.
I’m not service disabled or retired so have to pay for all services and prescriptions. The cardiac treatment, hospitalization and 4 operations, 3 in a civilian heart center, cost me $273.00.
I hear lots of horror stories about the VA and have no experience other than the San Juan PR VA hospital and clinics and the Ceiba PR satellite clinic. I would rate them AAA+ in all respects.
If you have been scared of the VA, I strongly recommend that you check your local branch. If it is as good as mine you will be happy and healthy.
Hope that goes well. I suppose when it comes to that, going “well” is a relative thing. Fingers crossed for ya, Phil.
Hope you’re going to be just fine. Doctors suck.
I basically told the guy that I want to be done with the fucking around here.
They know what the problem is and where it’s at. Fix It and let’s be done.
Cat scan coming. I can see an Angiogram coming and I supposedly now have an appointment with Vascular Surgeons after I pushed the issue.
Gotta quit smoking again, I made it a whole month cold turkey, am trying to wean off now instead.
so far 3 cigarettes yesterday and 3 today.
Instead of a pack yesterday and a pack today.
I’m working on it.
“Quitting smoking’s easy, I’ve done it a million times”
Mark Twain.
Keep at it, man, you’ll be much happier a few months from now.
I agree with Mr. Twain. Chewed for 15 years, quit cold turkey for 5. Chewed for 5 years more, quit cold turkey for 5 more. Chewed for 5 years more and quit when Copenhagen hit $5 a can, more than half of which was tax. That was 12 years ago and I’ll never chew again because I’m not going to give my tax money to a state that then gives it away to illegals. Screw ’em.
You can do it, Phil. You’ve got to quit cold turkey and in three weeks the urges will become an increasingly fading memory. You can do it. I hope you do.
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve “quit” over the years.
The last time, I used nicotine lozenges which worked spectacularly well. I was totally off nicotine after 10 weeks. I did however revert, in a moment of weakness, the day before my one year anniversary.
I used the 4 mg ones for about two weeks, then started breaking them in half, then quarters until I was off them.
However, the two cravings I could never conquer was after the evening meal and a bit later in the evening around 9PM. They did diminish over time, but never went completely away. For those, I used the rubber band snap over the wrist pulse/adjacent nerve. That little stingy distracts the craving somehow or maybe it’s just the psychological suggestion that it works. Whatever.
YMMV. Good luck with all of these medical issues.
Power to you brother.
Saw my wife’s EKG when I saw her chart after she had been admitted but before the bypasses – I would have drug her to the ER if I had seen ’em before then!!
The P-wave sucked!!
One specialty that tends to have bigger egos than heart docs are neurosurgeons. Many of them actually think they can walk on water, raise the dead and perform other miracles. I swear they must take a class in med school called Ego 101.
Neurologists might fall into that same category. After my wife came down with MS her first neurologist was a complete psych case. She was a lesbian and proud of it. At our first office visit together she looked at me suspiciously and said “You’re her husband, I assume?”. My thought was “What the Hell kind of question was that?”.
I knew right then this ‘woman’ had less than zero personality or people skills. My wife thought so too, so she soon found a new doctor 40 miles away.
Later we learned through the local paper that this ‘woman’ and her ‘wife’ had a history of problems with a neighbor of theirs. The story made the paper because the sheriff’s department had made several dozen visits to the happy couple’s home and finally after getting sick of these two told them they would no longer be coming by, and proceeded to let them know that any future problems that might develop would be on them, not their neighbor, who had been trying to work things out.
Short story long, that was the last we heard of the good doctor and her wife. After getting nothing but negative reviews on-line she is no longer practicing medicine here and I’m not even sure that she and the Missus still live around here. Good riddance.
Dr’s ego’s, especially cardiologists, have been a pet peeve of mine for decades.
Recently I was explaining to a doc the procedure I use for storing a med I use infrequently. I told him I store it in the freezer. He said “this and all medications should be stored at room temperature”. I responded with “when I studied chemistry and physics in HIGH SCHOOL(caps for emphasis because I said it with a slightly raised voice and through gritted teeth) we learned that lowering the temperature of an item slows down chemical reactions in the item AND slows degradation of that item. He responded with “Oh yes, they do store the Covid vaccine at significantly reduced temperature”. I responded with ” yeh, sort of like freezing food you’re not planning to use in the next few days or storing insulin in the refrigerator to preserve it until it gets used.” His eyes almost bugged out of his head.
Hi Phil,
I hope you are felling better. I went through something similar last year. I was having what I thought were worse than normal acid reflux attacks and the doc put me in the hospital for 10 days. I wound up needs to get 3 stents in my arteries.
What I really wanted to mention to you, and any other vets here, is to check out the VA if you have not already. I’ve been using VA almost exclusively for my healthcare for about 15 years now and could not be happier with the services in general and especially with my my heart treatment.
I’m not service disabled or retired so have to pay for all services and prescriptions. The cardiac treatment, hospitalization and 4 operations, 3 in a civilian heart center, cost me $273.00.
I hear lots of horror stories about the VA and have no experience other than the San Juan PR VA hospital and clinics and the Ceiba PR satellite clinic. I would rate them AAA+ in all respects.
If you have been scared of the VA, I strongly recommend that you check your local branch. If it is as good as mine you will be happy and healthy.