MWNews 13

I went to the doctor this past week. I guess this isn't really about Maeghan or William, but then again, they can't write. I actually went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago but this week, I went to the cardiologist. Its a new one who has an office near us.

As you probably know, or maybe not, I have had trouble getting a cardiologist. It seems if you do not have private insurance, then they do not want to see you. They generally send you to some clinic somewhere and then promptly forget you exist. That appears to be what has happened to me as all my records were sent to the downtown Sydney hospital and no one has heard from then since.

This new cardiologist blamed me for that as he seemed to think it was my responsibility to keep up with these things. I have records for everything except my last visit to the hospital. All those records are the ones that seem to have disappeared. They are now chasing them down but they do not hold out much hope of ever finding them again.

Anyway, I went to the cardiologist. He said I wasn't too bad for a normal person but for someone with heart disease, I need to be taking better care of myself. My blood pressure was only a little high, 140/90 but it is normally fine so that is not a problem. My cholesterol is 4.4, which has no meaning to me but that is apparently marginally high, it is less than Juanita's, but he said I should have a cholesterol of 0. He quadrupled my cholesterol medication but he said I was on a insignificant dose anyway so I should be on higher one. He also wanted to know why I wasn't being prescribed aspirin but I told him I buy it over the counter so you don't need a prescription. Over here, they seem to think aspirin is a drug and not something everyone should be taking.

They have also put me on some experimental drug that the GP gave me from his stock of sample drugs. The cardiologist proscribed it to me but neither one told me what it was for. They also put me on something called ikorol or something like that. I could walk into the other room and find out exactly what it is but I can't be bothered. This drug is sort of a new thing in that it is supposed to replace anginine tablets or sprays or however method you would get the nitro stuff. They wanted me to go back on the nitro patch but I told them I got terrible headaches when I had that so they put me on this one. It gives me a little headache, but it doesn't last very long. I have to take it twice a day though, so I have a headache twice a day.

He sent a request to the hospital to have me have another angiogram. It should me in the next month but that is really hopeful since the hospitals around here are backed up for years with people waiting on different procedures. By the way, I think I told you that the two hospitals closest to us are related the worst and the fifth worst hospitals in the state. Its always a good thing to know you are in such good hands. I am supposed to go into the fifth worst hospital as he said they have the new drug avoiding stints so if they have to put another one in, they can use those. I am not sure what a drug avoiding stint is, but it is apparently better for you as it does not form a buildup over time like the stint I already have in me does.

After the angiogram, they will decide what to do next. If I need another stint, they will try to do that in the next four or five years, as soon as they have an opening. Actually, he said they would do it the next couple of months but again, you never know with the hospitals. They might decide to not put one in anyway as they seem to think they can treat it with drugs and diet. Of course, I didn't tell him I was on the Adkins diet as heart doctors see that as a bad thing, but I think since my cholesterol was not very high, the Adkins diet doesn't have that much affect on it anyway. I plan on getting off of it as soon as I lose about 50 pounds, which should take about 6 to 8 months if I stick to it. I haven't checked my weight lately but I think I have lost some weight. I was at 129 kilos the last time I weighed, which was just before I started. That's about 289 pounds. So if I can get down below 250, then I will go to the no food diet or whatever the doctor is recommending.

Guess I have talked about myself enough in Maeghan's log. She would have said more but she is busy eating a sausage roll, another one of those Aussie taste treats. We went to the park today, with the other kids. Somehow, we had to keep all of them for the weekend so Angela could clean her house. She didn't clean it and we kept the kids for no apparent reason but we had fun at the park and then at the Entrance. The Entrance is a town that is on an opening between the ocean and a big lake. So, you have the ocean on one side and this big shallow lake on the other side of the town and a bridge over the water where they connect. It is a popular place and we go there a lot during the summer. They pelican feeding time there everyday at 3:30. I have only seen it once but the kids and everyone else have seen it a couple of times. There is this big concrete area that leads down to the water. It is kind of a little amphitheater area where you can sit and watch all these hundreds of pelicans come up on shore and be fed a lot of fish by the parks department. It is sort of entertaining but mostly a little frightening as pelicans are very large birds and when you get that many of them together, they can get ugly very quickly. The handlers seem to do ok, so there are not too many problems, but I would hate to have all those birds get frightened at once and decide to take off at the same time. That would be really scary.

But today, we didn't stay for the pelicans. We went to one park, the lighthouse park but we didn't go see the lighthouse, and had fun on the swings and slides and then had lunch at the little cafe that is there. We then went into the Entrance and let the kids play on the gym sets they have there. We also let them ride the little train that runs around the area. That is the first time we let them do that. It is not really a train but a tractor made to look like a train and the conductor sings songs and tells jokes to the kids while it runs along the sidewalk. Of course, whenever we go to the Entrance, Maeghan knows she gets to ride the horses. They have a really old merry-go-round there, it has been there since 1930 but was moved there from France sometime in the 1800's, and it only costs $1.50 to ride. So every time we go, Maeghan says she is going to ride the horsey and we end up letting her ride the merry-go-round before we leave.

That was our big day today. If I had remembered, I would have brought some sausages and we would have had a barbecue but I didn't think of it until after we were on our way. The kids enjoyed their chips (french-fries) anyway, so they had fun. Tomorrow, I have to work all day, again. Maybe it will stop soon, but I doubt it.

We will talk to you later.

By the way, this picture is not on the Entrance merry-go-round, it is from the Sydney Royal Easter Show.