The b-b-b-bbbbeat of a heart

OK, we have heart news today--not about Mary, she is fine although she is still stretched with the abdominal bloat. And, she told me she is definitely feeling better so perhaps she has turned the corner between regenerated liver capacity and the demand being placed by her body. All we can do it wait.

I wrote a couple of days ago that one of our taxi team, Bill, went to the local hospital with a heart problem.

His Mom dropped me a note last night: "Saw Bill this evening. He was sitting up in bed and in good spirits. We took him a large decaf coffee because the hospital decaf was SO awful--I tasted it. He has no pain, no arrythmia and his enzymes are coming down.

The dr visited him early this evening and told Bill his heart attack was not a little thing but very serious. I don't think Bill realized HOW serious it was."
Hey, Bill's a guy! Seems rational to me that he didn't acknowledge the pain until it was very late. No Pain, No Gain! Well, Bill has gained a stent for his blocked heart vein.

Some of you may remember I had an episode about 5 weeks ago. I finally got in to see the specialist today. Did a stress test, she put me on a recording EKG monitor that will run for 24 hours, requested a blood work up in the next week or so and scheduled a follow up in 4 weeks. In other words, things are not perfect but there is no reason for panic. Oh, my symptoms? Irregular heartbeat. Consistent with my PVC diagnosis of 8 years ago which took caffeine out of my diet. The doc says that once everything is confirmed that I am fine, she will put me on an exercise and weight loss regimen. Frankly, I knew it was coming, its the right thing to do.

Finally, my heart specialist and I were chatting while I was on the treadmill--at the initial slow speeds, that is. I described Mary's diagnosis and her face went blank. I explained about the liver resection and the almost 6 full weeks of radiation and that she is on the road to recovery. The doc's response? "That is a miracle."

The technician running the computers and ultrasound looked quizzically at the doctor who responded with, "Cholangiocarcinoma is a deadly cancer. I have never heard of anyone living more than a month or so once they were diagnosed! His wife's situation is truly a miracle."