Update as of 1/15/2025

I think a brief review of the bidding would be in order. The medical issues I am dealing with are:
1. Circulation issues with lower legs being addressed.
2. Sleep apnea identified late last year which I agreed (under protest) to seek treatment for.
3. MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) or Early Alzheimer’s
Below I will address the status of each of these.

Lower leg circulation.
We have been slowly examining the circulation issues from the bottom up. We started with Venous Mapping of my legs. That was a group of ultrasonic examinations of the veins in my legs looking for leaks, valve issues, or other things. They didn’t find any of the obvious issues.

The next step was a cat scan of my abdomen, looking for any circulation issues that would cause the problems observed in my lower limbs. That also did not show any abnormalities.

The last thing to look at was an Echocardiogram of my heart. That involved using ultrasound to reflect off my beating heart and measuring various heart valves and chambers to evaluate blood flow. This last was done yesterday afternoon and I haven’t seen the results yet. I didn’t notice anything wildly out of character from one I had several years ago. If the heart isn’t the issue I don’t know where that leaves me.

My next appointment is next month, on February 25th do I will add it to the list of discussion points.

Sleep Apnea
Sleep Apnea has evolved into a non-issue. After discussing with the Otolaryngologist last November, the decision was made to try the CPAP machine and if it was as uncomfortable as the one I tried several years ago, then we would seek trying out the Inspire surgical implant.

Well, I got the new and improved CPAP machine and tried it out and have had zero issues. I don’t know if the CPAP machines are better or if I have improved, but from day one I have been sleeping just fine. I am up to 23 days of usage with the score of 99-100% on the iPhone app.

I think my sleep quality is improving, looking over my Sleep Number bed results in general I see fewer restless periods during the night. The next follow up appointment is on the 19th of next month. I will talk it over with the doctor, but right now I think I will stick with the CPAP machine.

MCI/Early Alzheimer’s
This has literally been a whirlwind of activity. I had an appointment with Neurology on January 6th. I don’t think I had the doctor’s report the last time I posted.

Note: One correction, I remembered the address, not the Street names; other than that, it’s correct.

Since then, I have blood work, an Electroencephalogram (EEG), an MRI, and a Lumbar Puncture/Spinal Tap. I was able to examine the MRI, but other than determining I did not have MS (Lindsay’s MRIs had prominent scars in the MRI that documented the progress in the disease) I didn’t see anything obvious. The spinal tap was a big nothing. Lindsay had one in the mid 1970’s, and it was fairly traumatic. This one was easy, good local anesthetic, a local X-ray to guide the needle in, extracted the spinal fluid, and put a band-aid on the site. They then wheeled me into a recovery room I vegetated for two hours and then walked out. (Mike and I had lunch at Johnny J’s, since we were downtown anyway.)

I expect that I will have a follow up appointment with Dr Santiago to discuss the results over the next couple of weeks.

Amplifying info to follow.