The Affordable Care Act

[merrylander]

Since I started it here I will fill you all in on Brian's progress. We spoke to him yesterday evening and he is back home from the Heart Institute. This institute occupies a whole floor of the Ottawa General hospital and accepts patients from all across the country. He has his own 'team' following his progress and he is to see them again in six weeks. He has had a whole battery of tests and procedures. X-ray, MRI, Electrocardiogram, and the big one, a five hour procedure where they insert catheters in the femoral artery and check out/test the heart. They gave him valium for that one but the patient must be concious for this procedure, hence the happy pills. Found a couple of things they corrected during this procedure.

During the CT Scan they saw (or thought they saw) the possibility of arterial problems on the left ventrical hence the angio. Well the angio was clear so now that his pulse rate is back at 60 they sent him home. During his time on the H floor they had a wireless heart monitor on him 24/7. The idea being that the patient can move about and also will not get 'alarmed' watching a heart monitor scope.

All in all seems pretty advanced for a soci@lized healthcare system. So although his heart is swollen some from the beating a/fib has given it they may well have fornd what was causing the a/fib and he now only needs to let the heart heal from the beating it has taken. Many thanks for your good wishes.