Breathless in the burbs

Hi everyone:

Today, our patient seems to again be in pretty good shape; she looks pretty healthy, don't you think? She had some mild nausea when she awakened, but that cleared up when she took her Zofran (you'll recall this was the drug one doctor felt would be ineffective this far removed from the treatment).

Patty's dyspnea (breathlessness) continues to be a problem, and a bit of a mystery. For some reason, this is one of the symptoms that always scares me. Also troubling when they appear are swelling of hands and feet, dizziness and arrythmias. The latter were a much greater issue before Patty's beta blocker dose was increased; if she misses a dose on any day, Patty knows that it's been missed, because she starts to feel irregular heart beats. No wonder this therapy has been shown to increase longevity after heart attacks, and thank God Patty is now tolerant enough of the drug to be able to take a dose that makes a difference.

We're kid-free this weekend (he says, observing cartwheels in his mind.) The kids are often a joy to be around, but it's nice to command your friend's undivided attention for just a couple of hours. It's amazing how much of your life you can get back in order if you can find time for a dialogue. Tonight, our plan is to go out on some sort of "date", although we haven't yet ironed out any of the details. Dinner? A flick? A comedy club? Tomorrow, if history bears out, Patty will likely be utterly spent -- so we'll have to shoot for some decent memories from tonight.

Another beautiful day out there -- the kind of day in which Jermaine Dye should break out of his hitting slump, and Patty should get some encouraging new PRA numbers. Unfortunately, J.D. doesn't seem to be ready to be imposing yet, and Patty's sample seems to have been lost in the mail. This is frustrating, because it means Patty has endured another treatment with no real sense of getting closer to her goal. It's not as though we're very optimistic from one time to the next, but we still want to know where Patty stands.

More later if there's more to share...

Love,
Brian