Day 5 at UCLA Hospital

Another day here, only thing happening today is that I am getting a MRI on my hips and lower back to check out my arthritis.  Because I have a pacemaker it is much harder to get he MRI, and the pacemaker has to compatible to the MRI, luckily my pacemaker can do it. 

Since it is Friday, Rufina, Maria, and John came in to say hello.  They were here to chat with the Social Worker who helps with the after care from the transplant procedure.  This is important because I can't do anything after the transplant for 3 to 6 months.  I need to have a 24/7 person here until I am able to take my medicine, make my meals and help washing the clothes.

Rufina's work is help out tremendously and let her work from home for the first 3 1/2 months.  We will see how I am after that.  Hopefully everything works out fine.

The weather here today is very foggy and cloudy, and the UCLA football team will be at the Rose Bowl playing, I will probably watch them on TV.  :)

Bye Everyone

Day 3 and 4 at the UCLA Hospital

I am a little late updating from Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I met with the Neurologist to go over my stroke from 1/2012 and the Seizures I had the following months of that year. I have not had a Seizure since 2012 and he checked my legs and arms on how they are moving and my speech. 

Then the Dietician came in and we talked about what to eat after the Transplant. At about 5pm the lungs doctors came in and I had to take breathing tests to see how my lungs are functioning. They came out good and no issues there. And finally the Rheumatoid doctor came in and told me that I DO NOT have Rheumatoid Arthritis, but it is Osteoarthritis. This means that the cartilage in my hips are breaks down. Will have a MRI on my back and hips to look at the Osteoarthritis. 

On Thursday, it is a follow up with the doctors that did the tests on Wednesday. Everything looks good. Had a quick chat with a Psychologist to make sure I am suicide person (lol) and that I am doing ok. After that not much going on. I managed to get a good night sleep, and hopefully I will find out more on Friday.

Bye for now. 

Glenn

Day 2 at UCLA Hospital

Ok, this what they did to me on Tuesday 9/12. First was a CT scan of my brain and chest. They are looking for any abnormal items. Next thing was X-ray of my hips, hands, and feet. They are checking for arthritis in my joints. I know I have arthritis in my hips, but hands and feet are fine. 

The next items was an echocardiogram of my veins in my neck and legs. After the transplant they will biopsy of my heart looking rejections of the new heart. They want to make sure I don’t have a blockage in my veins. Good news my veins are wide open and no blockage. 

The weird thing they did, was that 2 dentists came in and did X-rays of all my teeth.  I guess that it was they are checking anything that can cause rejection to the new heart. No cavities and everything looked good with my teeth. 

I did talked to the GI doctors and they are not doing a Colonoscopy, because I have not had a flare up Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in over 3 years and they don’t want to put extra stress on my body with the transplant coming up. 

So being in the hospital is hard getting sleep. They wake me up every 3 to 4 hours to take my blood pressure or draw some blood. Last night I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep. Hopefully tonight I will get more. 

That is it for now. Tomorrow I will update what they did today. 

Bye everyone. 

1st day at UCLA hospital

 9/11 is the day I begin evaluating my heart for a heart transplant at UCLA hospital. I have been seeing my cardiologist in Corona, Dr Tuqan,  for the last 11 years. I have congestive heart failure and as time goes by it has gotten worse. 

Basically my heart does not pump enough blood coming out, going to the body. For normal people, of the blood that goes into your heart, about 65% comes out going to the body. When I first saw Dr Tuqan back in 2012 mine was about 45%.

Over the years it went down. In 2016 it was at 29%, and now it is at 16%. To help with this issue, the first thing the cardiologist do is put you on medicine. I am on Beta Blockers. They decreases the hearts need for blood and oxygen and therefore reduces the work the heart has to do. It also helps the heart more regularly. 

Last year they started giving me Entresto.  Entresto work by relaxing blood vessels so that blood can flow more easily, which makes it easier for the heart to pump the blood to your body.  Right now I losing breath just walking. If I don’t take Entresto I will lose my breath just laying down. If I take the medicine it makes it easier on my heart. 

Last year Dr Tuqan realized that my congestive heart failure was getting too bad and he had to refer me to a Congestive Heart Failure specialist. He knows Dr Cruz from UCLA who specializes in CHF and heart transplants and sent me to him. Over the last year I have been doing tests and trying using medication to help CHF. 

I did physical therapy for CHF, MRI on the heart, a stress test on my heart, and finally a Right Heart Catheterization. With the medication not improving my CHF he suggested that I go get an evaluation for a heart transplant. This is what I am doing now. Many blood tests, colonoscopy, and checking to see how my body is. They will have a team together on Friday to see I am able to get on the list for the heart transplant.

Will see how it goes!