Well, Monday I am having the back surgery, so wish me luck. The doctor went over everything with me, and I was impressed....it seems he listened to me even though I thought his mind was elsewhere....he gave me a detailed outline of his plan of action in the OR....he will do a bilateral laminotomy and foramenotomy on L3 and L4 and a laminectomy on L5/S1. ( without a fusion...he said I didn't need one...hmmm) I always swore I would never have back surgery, but I am confident that it has progressed by leaps and bounds from the old days....so here it goes. Not only has conservative therapy failed, but my condition is getting worse after 3 months....3 disks are still badly herniated, and my entire right leg is now numb and tingling, as well as half my left leg and foot. I feel like I have rubber legs. Time to change things. Oh, BTW, I had to get a back brace to wear for 4-6 weeks (yeah, in this heat)....cost $1500. No lie......thankfully Humana will pay 80%.

Wow this is scary to me. I live in Alabamy. Rykes!

Abstract
Three native-born patients from the Mississippi Delta presented with leprosy over a 13-month period. None had a history of foreign travel, contact with each other, or known leprosy patients. Two patients' lesions lacked anesthesia, and all had a history of armadillo exposure. These cases add to the association of armadillo exposure and the subsequent development of leprosy.

You may have to be a member of Medscape for this link to work....

Not so good news here. I knew my Dad had cancer in the liver and lungs. The oncologist was very nice and asked my Dad first what he knew about his condition. Then the doc added what was missing. It seems there's cancer all through the lower spine, pelvis and femurs. That was a nasty surprise. Chemo is out because of his heart not to mention that the cancer is changing and doesn't seem to be just one type any more. It would be hard to target the cancer with the right chemo cocktail. The next step is to do a PET scan on Thursday to see if there's a specific area in the spine that is most localized. If so, they can do some radiation there. It won't cure anything but it may help the pain he's having. If it's as diffused as the rest of the cancer, then the only option is straight to hospice care. Either way, with or without radiation, hospice is going to be started at some point.

I know my Mom was pretty nasty when we were there. She wants my Dad to just go into a hospice facility now. When the doctor said that they could start hospice once a week at their house and increase as needed, I thought she'd explode. The doc said to my Dad that with the family support he has, there's no need to go into full time hospice care right now. I (silently) agree with him but it sure made my Mom mad. She was fussing and fuming all the way home.

And while we were waiting there was a young woman with her husband that came in. It looked like she had gone through brain surgery from the scars on her head. But her hair was growing out now and looked spiky. My Mom was grumbling about how weird she looked. I said she may have had chemo and her hair is just coming back in. My Mom still went on about how weird it was in the back and why did she wear it like that? Then the doctor came out and was talking to the woman. He even gave her bristles a little pat and they laughed together. That really annoyed my Mom and she said he better not be patting her. I again said the woman is probably just thankful to have some hair to pat. She didn't get it.

Not much fun to be around her. My Dad tried to hold her hand as they walked out to the car and she was just irritated and pulled away. Argh!

I hope everything went OK at the doctors yesterday. Sue

NEW YORK, June 20 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they are setting up clinical trials for therapeutic gene injections that could take the place of a heart transplant.

Patients enrolled in the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center gene therapy clinical trial -- the Calcium Up-Regulation by Percutaneous Administration of Gene Therapy in Cardiac Disease -- will receive a specially engineered gene that stimulates production of an enzyme necessary for the heart to pump more efficiently because of severe heart failure.

"This new therapy seeks to replenish the levels of this enzyme by introducing the gene for SERCA2a, which is depressed in these patients," principal investigator Dr. Donna Mancini said in a statement.

"If proven effective, this approach could be an alternative to heart transplant for patients without any other options."

Gene therapy is a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development by inserting genes into a patient's cells and tissues. In most gene therapy studies, a "normal" gene is inserted into the genome to replace an "abnormal" disease-causing gene.

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(I've been gone for several days, but hope to catch up with some posts over the course of the next week. Hope you have all been in good spirits! :)

My pacemaker showed an atrial rate of 620, with a vent response of 310....and my pacemaker paced me out of this....what rate would that take? I think these reports are wacko,sometimes....maybe I was in a fib.

Doesn't chemo occasionally trigger cardiomyopathy in some folks and will it reverse itself after the treatments are over?

A simple question: I understand how a-fib works generally and if taking your pulse, the rate will vary. So, does someone in a-fib have rates ranging from normal (70) to tachy (150) for example? Or does it usually stay in the tachy range, over 100 bpm? And can a person have short times of a-fib, say less than a minute? I don't know how erratic the rate is, just that the ratio seems to keep changing.

are you still takin' it easy?

Transmyocardial laser revascularization.....has anyone ever heard of this? During the procedure a series of small transmural endomyocardial channels are created with lasers to improve myocardial blood supply. Typically, 20-40 channels are created, about 1mm wide. Candidates for this have small vessel disease. I imagine it could help restenosis angina as well. Jack, has your doctor ever mentioned this to you?