Hi everyone - Regine here reporting for Ward. It's going to be a rather unusual report because of .........well here's what's been going on.
About 3 or 4 weeks ago Ward was having extreme runny nose and and a lot of SOB. He kept thinking it would get better so sort of went with it. Then we went to San Francisco for a few days (about 3 hours away), and we were arguing on the way over something and of course the stress made him worse and we ended up in urgent care. The doctor there said for him not to wait so long next time to come in and I agree because the difficulty with breathing he was having was definitely putting a strain on his heart. The doctor gave him a cortisone shot (stem cells or not he couldn't go on like he was), and a prescription for prednisone. Within 4 hours he was on his way to recovery. That was one week ago. Since then he has been better than he has been in a long time - going up to get the paper without oxygen which is a bit of a walk and doing things like shopping and other activities that he hasn't been able to do for awhile - We both know that predisone can be both magic and poison and that he could be back where he was when he goes off of it which he is slowly doing. However, if he did actually have serious inflamation and the predisone cleared it up maybe he won't fall all the way back. But we won't know this for a few weeks. We do both believe that without the treatment he would have ended up in the hospital again. In the meantime his oxy stats have stayed in the high 90's even when he couldn't breathe and right now they don't go below 92 without oxygen until it's been off for at least 2 or 3 hours and then maybe it drops to 88. So while the report is good or even excellent, we know better than to count on anything. Another report in a month or so would give a more accurate picture. In the meantime Ward is enjoying his freedom and I am not having to do the dishes as it's his job when he can do it which he can. One other thing is that he's taking a lot of auyervedic herbs (prescribed by a specialist in the field of Indian medicine), which we hope are providing additional support along with the supplements. That's all for now. We're always glad to hear how people are doing.
About 3 or 4 weeks ago Ward was having extreme runny nose and and a lot of SOB. He kept thinking it would get better so sort of went with it. Then we went to San Francisco for a few days (about 3 hours away), and we were arguing on the way over something and of course the stress made him worse and we ended up in urgent care. The doctor there said for him not to wait so long next time to come in and I agree because the difficulty with breathing he was having was definitely putting a strain on his heart. The doctor gave him a cortisone shot (stem cells or not he couldn't go on like he was), and a prescription for prednisone. Within 4 hours he was on his way to recovery. That was one week ago. Since then he has been better than he has been in a long time - going up to get the paper without oxygen which is a bit of a walk and doing things like shopping and other activities that he hasn't been able to do for awhile - We both know that predisone can be both magic and poison and that he could be back where he was when he goes off of it which he is slowly doing. However, if he did actually have serious inflamation and the predisone cleared it up maybe he won't fall all the way back. But we won't know this for a few weeks. We do both believe that without the treatment he would have ended up in the hospital again. In the meantime his oxy stats have stayed in the high 90's even when he couldn't breathe and right now they don't go below 92 without oxygen until it's been off for at least 2 or 3 hours and then maybe it drops to 88. So while the report is good or even excellent, we know better than to count on anything. Another report in a month or so would give a more accurate picture. In the meantime Ward is enjoying his freedom and I am not having to do the dishes as it's his job when he can do it which he can. One other thing is that he's taking a lot of auyervedic herbs (prescribed by a specialist in the field of Indian medicine), which we hope are providing additional support along with the supplements. That's all for now. We're always glad to hear how people are doing.