TEE Time

Today Joe had a TEE -- transesophageal echocardiogram -- to make double especially sure that his ticker is whole and without a hole. We were already pretty sure of this fact, because he passed the echocardiogram with bubble contrast with flying colors, and he didn't even study! (Sorry.)

I really wanted to watch, but alas! I could not. Instead I cooled my heels in the surgery waiting room, where I played several games of Scrabble on my phone and leafed through a very old copy of New Yorker magazine. (Actually, I was recovering from the $150 co-pay, which almost caused my own heart to stop.)

He was doped up nicely and doesn't remember the doctor snaking the medical equivalent of soap-on-a-rope down his gullet. When I got to see him after the procedure he was sitting up in a comfy chair, conscious and a little hoarse.

At any rate, the TEE showed that his heart is healthy -- no shunts, no holes, no nothing that isn't supposed to be there. This means that his heart didn't cause the weird TIA-like episodes he had, which is good! In fact, the cardiologist pretty much said "So that's that -- bye!" Since we got home he's been napping, drinking cold non-alcoholic beverages, napping, and eating soup. I suspect napping is soon to follow.

(Okay, not really. He did say that if Joe was feeling fine in a couple weeks, he could cancel his next followup appointment.)

So anyway, that kind of leaves his brain, although we know that it wasn't stroke or a bleed, because none of that showed up on the CT scan. The neurologist had him do a sleep study, which he actually slept through (!!), and wants him to get an EEG. The leading contender for the culprit now is sporadic hemiplegic migraine.

Yeah, another two adjective, one noun condition. First we had transient ischemic attack, then atrial septal defect, now sporadic hemiplegic migraine.

I tell ya, this getting old business ain't for sissies!