It's a doctor themed time in life....

So many doctors to see, so little time.

Dan's pretty much doing the home treatment thing on his toe (which is looking much better!). The doctor wasn't able to suck much stuff out of it because it had solidified too much. Ew. But we are trying to massage his toe every day to get stuff broken up. Again, ew, but it seems to be working.

With that going on, it looks like Dan is done with the doctor for a little bit (they only thing they could do about the ganglion now is to surgically remove it - again, ew).

But I think the Zimmermann family should really do more to support the medical community. So I am doing my part to make sure the area doctors can all drive their Porches and what not. No Toyotas for these guys!

Was it just last week that I went to the doctor? No, it must have been week before. Anyway, he sent me to have an echocardiogram and a pulmonary function test. Both came back fine, but since I was having so much trouble breathing, he put me on two different inhalers - and a sleeping pill but that's so I could sleep, not for the breathing. Anyway, the combo of those things have meant that I've actually slept the entire night through for several nights. Ah - bliss! It has been so long since I've been able to do that.

Anyway, the GP doc sent me to a cardiologist to check out the electrical workings of my heart since the echo was good (so structurally I'm a-okay). Went to that guy yesterday. He was nice - his pants were too short and he was wearing white footies with beat up clogs, but he didn't seem at all like the other cardiologist I had been to back when all this started. I think that guy just wanted to get me out of his office. Anyway, the guy from yesterday said it definitely sounds like I have "inappropriate sinus tachycardia". It doesn't sound like it should be a real problem - more like a rude allergy issue. But apparently it is and from the searching I did on it today, I can just tell you I am shocked at how closely everything I have read about it matches me.

I wonder if my heart is pastel colored?

BUT - it's not for sure that's what is going on, so don't start holding your breath yet. I go back to the same office but to a different cardiologist on next Thursday. This guy specializes in the electro-whatever aspect of the heart so he should be able to figure out why it is going if IST is what is going on.

I hope that's what it is. It's a non-deadly, fairly unserious heart thing. And it would finally give me, give all of us, answers. Treatment for IST is either medicine (which my searching gave me a few things to ask about instead of beta blockers, which doctors keep trying to put me on and it just doesn't work well with me) or surgery or to ignore it. Well, the ignoring it thing hasn't worked for the past year and a half so I think we'll try the medicine route first. Especially since the surgery, while simple, apparently has something wild like an 80% recurrence rate. IF it is IST. If if if if if.

Of course, I'm kinda worried about what they might have to do to confirm (or disprove) that I have IST. Pretty much they put a catheter in either your neck or groin (or BOTH!) and run a camera-thing around to check out if your heart nerves are going a little wonky. Ugh. The thought of that just makes me twitch with ickiness.

Anyway, that's the medical update here. 4 doctors/hospital visits in as many weeks. WOO HOO! I bet my insurance loves me!

Dan's Ganglion

Okay - I just think this is pretty gross so I had to share it with the rest of the world.

Dan's Ganglion:

Here's hoping he can get it drained soon. By the way, it is smaller (but a little more purple) in this picture than it was when he first went to the doctor about it. I've been massaging it down some to try to get some of the fluid to drain out. Ew. That's love right there.

Granola Bitty

I just think this is the cutest picture. It cracks me up when I look at it.

Bitty decided to camp out in the empty CostCo-sized granola bar tonight. It prompted Dan to say that we now can no longer throw that box away.

Isn't she so cute? How can you look at her and not want to eat her up like, well, like a granola bar?

Gang Trouble

Dan went to the doctor this morning to see about his big toe. There's a big bump on the joint and it has been hurting him a lot lately. Turns out he has a ganglion cyst.

Uhm, eew. But it is better than what I thought he said at first, which was a gangrenous cyst. That would not be cool.

Happy Birthday!

I forgot to post this last night. Yesterday was Ashes's and Princess's birthday! I forgot until about 8pm last night when I was talking to my dad about their August 15 birthday and he reminded me that it was the 15th. Aww! Happy 15th birthday, kitties! So after I hung up with my dad, I sang to them.

I've got a cute picture of the two of them taken right before they left the home they were born in which I am going to post hopefully tonight.

So happy 15th birthday to the Big Girl and the Big Pissy!

Thankfully neither has asked to get their learner's permit.

Update Time!

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since I've posted anything on here. I need to be better about that. But not too much has been going on. I've been working on a kitty scrapbook. I have 4 pages done and they are way cute, even if I do say so myself. I guess the scrapbooking has kept me pretty busy. I'm having fun with it.

I decided to post today not only because it had been a while since I posted (though i didn't realize it had been 2 weeks!) but also because Dan and my parents finally beat me into submission and got me to go to the doctor. Yep, I finally went back to the doctor again, first time since about January. Things had been okay for a while but have gotten worse the past few months, so I decided to step on the doctor merry-go-round.

I'm actually kind of hopeful this time, mostly because the doctor is running a ton of test. Lots of blood tests, including testing for autoimmune disease; Lyme disease; hormone levels; and thyroid, liver and kidney functions just to name a few. He's also having me go in for a echocardiogram and a pre/post bronchodilator pulmonary function test. I have the bronchodilator thing on Thursday and they are working on scheduling the ECG. Anyway, I can't help but feel that with all those tests, he should be able to find something. Here's hoping!

Busted

When I posted last, I didn't have anything to really post about. Sadly, now I do have an actual topic to blog about now.

My camera died.

Well, not died exactly. It still runs. It will even still take pictures. The problem is, the pictures now look like this:

Believe it or not, that is actually a picture of Gidget on the plant stand. No - really. It is.

Poor camera. We don't know what happened to it. I guess we must have knocked something loose after the last time we used it. Okay, okay. I must have knocked something loose after the last time I used it. Chances are very good that this is my fault.

So now I would like everyone to bow their heads (but keep your eyes open so you can keep reading, otherwise you won't know when I am done) and take a moment to remember this great little camera. It was there when we needed - purchased in Japan after our other digital camera decided to "swim with the fishes" (literally) took marvelous pictures in Hawaii (among other places), and was able to capture a little bit of the essence of cute that is our kitties.

So thank you, little camera. You will be missed.

(Though I won't tell the camera that it won't be missed all that much as Dan and I picked up a Casio Exilim camera at CostCo today that is half the size, has twice the resolution and a huge display screen.)

Goodbye little PowerShot! Thank you for your service!