I had my followup appointment with my sleep disorder doctor yesterday from my sleep study. I didn't realize until yesterday that he was investigating my Pulmonary Hypertension I was diagnosed with a few months ago. He is also a pulmonologist. He had gotten the info from my catheterization from my cardiologist. It ruled out causes but didn't determine a cause. One of the possible causes is sleep apnea. When I had my sleep study it showed I needed the pressure of my CPAP machine adjusted. Yesterday I had a test of lung function and capacity and it was good, ruled out as a PH cause. Now I need to get a chest xray. If it is good he said that rules out everything and leaves the sleep apnea as the cause.

Maybe I should quit complaining about the length of time I sit from appointment time until I actual see him!

I had my followup appointment from my heart cath with my cardiologist today. He went in to more detail than the cardiologist that performed it went in to that day. The cath was done because my stress test indicated there might be reduced blood flow in part of my heart. It's good news, no blockages and not only that but he said everything was clean as a whistle. At my request they had done both sides of my heart and there again, good news. My Pulmonary Hypertension had been classified as moderate based on an echo cardiogram. In the heart cath they can get the true pressure reading and it is not quite as bad as the echo indicated so it has been reclassified from moderate down to mild to moderate. They also checked to see if there were any holes between the heart chambers, which could have been a possible cause of my Pulmonary Hypertension. There were none, so he suspects my sleep apnea has been the cause of my PH. I have mild enlargement of my heart, consistant with my size. Also, I have aortic valve stenosis which had been classified as moderate from the echo cardiogram. The cath also downgraded that to mild to moderate. Based on the new information from the cath, my return checks for my PH have been changed from six months to yearly. The chest discomfort that caused my cardiologist to ask for the stress test in the first place is gone. My general practitioner and I were both suspecting it was caused by asthma. She put me on daily use of an asthmanex inhaler and that has completely taken care of that discomfort.

After my appointment I went shopping at Michael's. I wanted to find something to make an earring holder out of. While I was there I got lots of things to work on with my granddaughter Hannah when I go down to Alabama to watch her while her mom is in the hospital having baby brother Riley.

This evening was a Tweet-up for local people who tweet on Twitter. We met downtown at Tyeger's Pizza. The food was great and so was the company and conversation. We had 12 people there, including the two children. Next Tweet-up will be Wednesday evening at Billy Ann's. I'm looking forward to it.

If anyone is interested in Tyeger's Pizza, here is their URL: http://www.tyegerspizza.com.

Midnight. The magic hour after which fasting seems to be required, no matter what the test is, no matter what TIME the test is. So I just had a turkey breast sandwich and some strawberries. Night owl that I am my third meal of the day is usually around 1-2 AM so I bumped it up to 11:45 PM. Midnight seems to be the time of day I want a cup of coffee or tea and I haven't been able to have coffee, tea, or pop since early morning. I'm dying for a cup of coffee, but I settled for two mugs of sugar free instant spiced cider. So now I'm all set, just waiting for morning and my appointment for a Cardiolite Stress Test.

It seems like things never work out quite the way I plan. When I was in the hospital in November/December one of the hospitalist thought he heard a woosh in my neck and was concerned I might have a blockage there, so once I was out of the hospital and things settling down he thought it should be checked. When I saw my GP in early February I told her so she had a carotid doppler set up. I have a heart murmur and that hadn't been checked on since 2001 so she sat up an echo cardiogram for the same day to check on that, not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

The doppler came out fine, the tech said she didn't know what that doctor thought he heard but my carotid arteries were so good she said I could be a carotid doppler model. So I thought I was free and clear.

It took a whole month to get the results of the echo back and boy was it a shocker! It came back that I have Pulmonary Hypertension. PH is different and unrelated to the hypertension most people have. PH is high blood pressure in the lungs and carotid artery. What little info I could find on PH did not sound good. The cardiologist I was sent to said he classifies my PH as moderate. It's unknown how it will progress, we'll have more of a handle on it at a six month recheck, but he's not anticipating that it will cause me many problems. If the pressure gets higher I'll probably have to go on medicine for it but as it is now I don't have to do anything.

So then comes the next kicker. I'd started sometimes getting what I can only explain as between an ache and a burn in my chest, especially when I'd walk. I figured it was the PH but the cardio says not. He's concerned that I could have a heart blockage so that's why I'm having the stress test. It's gotten worse in the last couple of weeks and I think I know now what it is. Asthma. I can go months, even years without asthma problems, but it appears I could be headed for another bad spring and summer with it. I'm glad I got a new inhaler while I was in the hospital.

I haven't worried too much over the stress test since I think it's asthma and not my heart that is causing what I'm feeling. So stay tuned for more news. It's in God's hands and things will come out the way he wants things to come out. No matter what the result, he is with me. I just wish he could put a cup of coffee in my hands right about now!