Morley Update 2012 #13

veryone - This will be your update for last week and likely this week combined. I don't know what all you have heard so will start with - as you know I have been feeling pretty poor the last few weeks. Tired, dizzy, irregular heart beat etc. I thought my meniere's was acting up but knew there were other things going on besides. I suspected my potassium was low. My good ear (one ear is deaf due to my meniere's disease) had also been feeling a bit plugged so I was a little worried that my meniere's might be crossing over to it which while not common can happen. This is very scary because Meniere's always brings hearing loss and I only have one ear left! I went in on Monday to have a bunch of blood work done for my rheumatologist and asked them to also please check my potassium. When I woke up that morning I had almost no hearing at all and so we also called our General Doctor to see if maybe I had an infection. He could not see me until Tuesday night. I lay around and slept a lot most of the day Monday and Tuesday just not feeling myself. When we got to the doctor he checked my ear and said it looked okay. I told him about the heart beat and he listened and said yes it was very irregular. He then discovered that I had no pulse or blood pressure in my left arm. At that point a pain which I had been having in my left side when I breathed grew worse and he felt I really needed to go to the hospital. The hospital is only 5 minutes away and when I got there a cardiologist took me right in and did an EKG. He said I had arterial flutter and he suspected a clot in my arm or higher in my aorta causing the no pulse and pressure. He admitted me right away and they started running tests. My arota and upper vessels looked good but an ultra sound showed that I had a clot at about my elbow but that my body had already created new places for the blood to flow which is why my hand did not seem to be having any problems. An MRI also revealed a clot in the back of my brain which they felt was perhaps causing the visual disturbances I had been having. This clot and the one in my arm are not dangerous because they are not in veins where blood flows back to the heart or lungs. That means they will just sit there until they are dissolved. They also discovered that my potassium was indeed quite low which could have accounted for the tiredness, double vision that came and went and the irregular heart beat. They started me on blood thinners (warfarin) and on IV potassium. The ear doctor came to check on my hearing problems and found I had something going on in the middle ear. He said "This is not good. We will hope this is an infection and we will put you on antibiotics. If it is not infection it could mean your meniere's is moving to that ear." Please pray that it is an infection - I think it is because it does not feel like my meiere's ear. I have no noise or pressure it just feels plugged. I continued and still continue to suffer with this pain in my side and shoulder. They have determined that is is Phrenic nerve which controls the diaphragm but they don't know why it is bothering me. They ruled out problems with my spleen or other things it could be so right now we are just treating the pain and seeing if it settles down. They believe I will need to be on the Warfarin for the foreseeable future which will mean some lifestyle changes. One I can no longer be careless about getting my blood work done on a regular basis. In fact it will be every few days for a while until they get it regulated. My doctor said "And this time when you go home you will NOT disappear!" since last time I never kept my last appointment etc. The part I really don't like is I have to limit the amount of food I eat with vitamin K in them - this includes all the healthy, dark, good for you vegetables and several fruits of which I am fond as well as chamomile tea, and green tea, I also have to limit the use of some seasonings that I use a lot of. I can do it all but it will take some time to figure out. They don't want me to skip these foods entirely but I need to eat less of them and eat the same amount of them consistently every day which with our lifestyle will be a bit of a challenge. They have also put me on a low dose of a medicine that controls the heart and they took me off the diuretic I was on and put me on a different one that is not supposed to lower my potassium. Anyway - I am doing fine and we will get this all figured out. I just am not happy to be adding a whole new set of medications to my regime. I had another violent spinning episode Friday night after coming home from the hospital. Probably the worst yet. I could barely walk with Kent holding on to me with both hands. I don't know what I would have done if he hadn't been here. I didn't have any spinning while in the hospital but I was in bed all the time. We don't know if the spinning is related to my meniere's or could be caused by the brain clot. Right now we are in a wait and see pattern with regular and frequent check ups. My heart has been pretty regular but I will wear a halter for 24 hours again in a couple of weeks. I will see the ear doctor again in a few days as well as go in for blood work. Of course all this means extra work and time for Kent - running me to the doctor and picking up the slack at home. I will not be going back to work any time very soon - we need to get all of these things figured out and settled down. Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes. If you have questions please write. I love you all
Serving Him Together,
Kent and Myrna Morley
Tripoleos 76
Elliniko 16777
Athens Greece
011 30 210 96 38 625
backhoeboy1@juno.com
http://kent-uniquelymorley.blogspot.com
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