Sort of An Update

Wow, is it gorgeous today! I am feeling tons better today, so we've been spending some time outside working in the yard and the weather is amazing! I just wanted to post a small update with news about what's been going on with my health. I still wasn't feeling too good after finishing the z-pack I got for my sore throat. SO back to the doctor I went! I was persistent in wanting them to do another throat culture and not the rapid one they did which had been negative for strep before. So they did that and checked my white count again and did a mono spot test as well. Mono came back negative to my suprise! I figured maybe that's what it was due to the extreme fatigue and awful sore throat. More good news was that my white cells were down from near 20,000 to around 13,000. I think normal range is 4,000-10,000. Don't quote me though!!! But it's good to see that number coming down.

So they sent me home with a tougher antibiotic that I have been taking three times a day and some prednisone for my throat being so swollen still. The meds are helping a lot, but I'm still nasty tired. The nurse called back Friday as well to let me know that my throat culture came back positive for beta hemolytic strep. Evidently it's another nasty kind of strep that doesn't show up in the rapid strep test. But I'm lucky they did catch it and give me something else because I guess it can be pretty serious if it were to spread to my heart or lungs (Jim Henson died of this strep when it spread to his lungs) which it doesn't appear to have done as far as anyone seems to know. I say that without complete certainty because I am still not getting too many answers from anyone!! My only instructions were to finish the meds and take it easy so that's what I'm doing.

I have no idea if that had anything to do with the heart episode or not, but I am seeing an electrophysiologist (cardiologist that specializes in heart rhythym) on Wednesday to find out if there is some type of underlying problem or damage that would have lead to the heart rate issue or not. Either way, there is some urgency there to find out so that it doesn't happen again. There is a lot of focus surrounding sudden cardiac arrest right now due to the untimely death of Michael Jackson this past week. Cardiac arrest is different than a heart attack in that the causes of each are different. Heart attacks happen to people when the coronary artery is blocked and the muscle dies. Cardiac arrest is when the ventricles that pump the blood go into a useless fluttering and the heart stops beating. It's usually related to some sort of underlying disease, arrhythmias, illness or sometimes medication that causes weakness or damage to the heart muscle. When the fluttering or fibrillation happens and it isn't corrected right away, the person loses heart function quickly. Sudden cardiac arrest is the most common cause of death in the US - between 200,000 and 300,000 people die every year. Quite a sobering statistic. And while I wasn't superfan of Michael Jackson, I find his death incredibly sad. I, like many other people, loved his early stuff before he got so odd. Hopefully the medical people can figure out exactly what happened to him so that his family can get some answers.

Well, that's about it for now. Wish me luck on Wednesday!!! This doctor comes highly recommended, so hopefully he's good. Lord knows I'm not a good patient!! ;)