Antigone wrote: 
The wife has a swallowing disorder that we thoroughly investigated.  Never got an actual name for it.  But we went deep.  Scoped her throat all the way down.  They even gave her a sensor thingy to swallow which reported to a device that she had to keep on her person for 5 days along with a food journal.  All inconclusive.

The ENT directing all this finally narrowed it down to a nerve / muscle problem in the esophagus and prescribed a very low dose of neurontin an off label use of the drug which for the most part has been very successful.

HTH 

Swallow syncope.

Anyone have any experience with it?

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
I had no problems.

 DaveInVA wrote: 
Yeah, we understand the process, just wondering about the reality of it.

 JrzyTmata wrote: 
I'm asking for P; she's the one getting it.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
I had one to track my lung cancer. They inject you with a tracer then you wait for it to circulate. The PET scanner actually does a quick low res CT scan first to provide an outline for where the PET finds the tracer. Depending on the tracer you may have to wait afterward to go to a special bathroom to eliminate the tracer as some of them are not allowed in the sewer system. I had no side effects that I can remember.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
you'll crave dog biscuits and/or catnip

I had to look it up. I've had various tests done with radioactive dyes. no problems with the dyes.

Anyone had a PET scan?

Side affects? etc.? 

 Red_Dragon wrote: 

Sometimes fluid retention can cause BP to be high.  But if he's on a low/no salt diet, this may not be an issue.  A simple diuretic helped my BP and was a good way to avoid more serious BP meds.

 oldviolin wrote: 
thanks

 DaveInVA wrote: 
okay, thanks!

 triskele wrote: 
Not sure, but I am sure that feeding the stress over your BP is additional stress. Even at what you say is your highest readings is just borderline. Blood pressure is indicative of many factors. Over the years I've heard you speak of your anxiety issues and I know you suffer with them. BP aside, the best thing is to continue to deal with those by deciding to work on the things in life you can exert some satisfactory self control, and the ones you can't let fall to the category of working themselves out and being ok with it. The condo was a prime example. Much of that was not in your control. It's not easy, but worthwhile things seldom are. Some things just don't matter in the long run, and never as much your health does. Mental, emotional, or physical. It's all locked together. I guess all this is somewhat intuitive, but sometimes we get off track with prioritizing the means and methods.
Either way, it is your life to live, and as freely as you can.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 triskele wrote: 
I am pretty much the same as far as bp. Mine started to creep up so the average was about 20% higher. Turns out my stress level had increased to the point where I had "forgotten" how to wind down and relax to the same levels as before. Once I started forcing myself to do relaxation techniques my np came back down to their previous levels.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

 triskele wrote: 
indubitably.

my question has to do with blood pressure.  my pressure reading generally tends to be in the low to normal range—-the lowest i can remember was 106/60, and the average for years was 128/70, but i've seen it as high as 138/80 in recent years.

i've been under stress again, not the condo this time, but the job.  i have a lot more stress coming up soon with transitioning to a new job, and in the midst of this current round of stress, i had my annual visit to the lady parts doctor today, and my pressure was 150/90.

I was not nervous about the doctor visit at all, so it wasn't white coat hypertension.



question:  i know that blood pressure fluctuates.  a lot.  but....can years of repeated bouts of intense stress raise it permanently?

edit: now that i've been home from the doctor for a while, and had the chance to eat, i took it with our at home device, and the bottom number has dropped to 82...

Thanks, everyone    I really appreciate having some new ideas to look into.  We're waiting for a few basic test results and will see where that goes.  But in the meantime, I'll start looking at some stress management techniques to share.  Anyone know of a real easy yoga breathing tutorial?  

 romeotuma wrote: 
That was a time travel.  Hadn't been there in awhile.  Might be time for me to go revist and reconnect.

Yes, do not change meds or doses without a doctors knowledge, ever ...

Edit: Just got back from seeing the wife at UH here in town.  She's in the Seidman Cancer Center, which they say is the only self contained cancer treatment center in the US.  A seperate function unit on the campus of Case Western Reserve University's teaching hospital, just a few blocks down the street from the Cleveland Clinic.  Its also used for pre-op and post op of non cancer patients.

Wow, just f*ing wow.  Its been open for 6 months.  Its single rooms as a rule that are huge and comfy.  You can actually sit on the furniture for hours and be comfortable.  But what is most remarkable is how they are tackling infection prevention.  The wife talked to housekeeping today and found out the detail they go through cleaning the rooms after changing patients.  Besides just doing the floor, bed and furniture, they even take down all the draw curtains and replace them with a sanitized laundered clean set for the next patient.  The bathrooms are european style with the whole area tiled with a floor drain and shower hose, no shower curtains or any extraneous things that harbour buggies and if need be can be cleaned up with a steam jenny.

And the last thing that impressed me was tonight I was there when the LP was in taking vitals and found out that each patient has their own BP cuff.  It stays with them and is not transfered from room to room patient to patient until it wears out.  When the patient checks out, they are pitched in hazardous waste.  We asked if we could take it with us and she said sure, we're just gonna toss it. 

Each room had its own computer for record entry, the doctors had a seperate computer on a cart that they rolled down the hall way but never took it in the room.  Each room was as isolated from the next as imaginably possible.  Each room had its own mini refrigerator for patient food and a safe for valuables.  The ventilation was very quiet, especially for a positve pressure environment and long stays.  Sleep deprevation is a real problem during long stays and a noisy ventilation system can be really irritating after just a few days.  All and all, I was thoroughly impressed and blown away. 

Even the infusion pumps were silent when pumping and the alarms had pleasant tones that could be turned down to a reasonble level.  The pumps during my transplant at the Clinic were the noisiest MF'ing flipping things.  I had up to five going at once and imagine yourself being trapped in a 12 X 8 glass room full of loudly irregular ticking cuckoo clocks for a month with a noisy ventilation system and a broken down bed that seemed to cycle every 15 minutes and being woken up every two to three hours.  Sheesh, the chemo was the easy part.

Anyway, if this is what the state of the art is going to be, its great to see it going in this direction.  I was in flipping steerage compared to this.  Even the Clinic's new bone marrow transplant unit on the top two floors is beat by a mile with this puppy and it opened just two years ago.

Its gonna be pretty inneresting to see what the bill is.