Gold Star (Tue, 29 Jun 2010, 5pm)

I feel like the proud parent whose little kid just got a gold star on her exam. We just got home from the Cardiac Clinic, where Dr. Kubac did the post-op exam, and everything looked really good. Mom asked him if there were any restrictions on her activities and he said, "None whatsoever." He told her that she can do whatever she feels like doing. She asked him if she can drive, and he said YES, there is no reason not to. She can resume all her normal activities. (But I told her that she is forbidden to get upon the roof to sweep the pine needles!!)

About the seroma, Kubac said that it will eventually go down on its own, but he has seen them take up to several months to subside. He doesn't want to aspirate it, because piercing the skin with a needle can introduce infection, which you REALLY don't want when the wires from the pacemaker go directly into the heart. So needless to say, no aspirating the goose egg. But he told her that she doesn't need to baby it or anything, she can use the arm to do whatever she would normally do and eventually the seroma will go down.

He discussed the idea of cutting back even more on the Toprol, and he told her that the fewer meds she takes, the better. So he gave her some instruction about the Toprol--basically reducing her dosage even farther, and if her heart doesn't race, then eventually she may be able to go off it completely. He also talked to her about reducing her dosage of...dang, I forgot the name of the drug...some diuretic, something like metolazole.

I took mom to lunch in beautiful downtown Klamath Falls. Her quilter pals had told her about three sandwich shops on Main Street, but we weren't able to find any of them. Two of them were supposed to be "in the block before the courthouse," so we parked in that block. (FREE parking on Main Street, and not only that but there were LOTS of parking spaces open!!!!! Now that is amazing to someone from Seattle!) We didn't see any sandwich shops in the block, but we found a Mexican restaurant and decided to try it. Mom had tacos. Now that she is getting back to normal maybe she can put on a few pounds...

Tomorrow she has an appointment with her hairdresser to get her hair done. Feels kind of like a celebration of getting back into normal life again after two and a half months.