Many of ya’ll will remember Roy’s eye doctor issues last year. The doctors said Roy needed a good pair of eye glasses to see if they would help with the various lingering vision problems. Our new health insurance, People’s Health, covers eye glasses so we found a doctor in Amite, Dr. Wroten with Bond & Wroten, whom we visited to have our eyes checked. We both liked him and ordered bifocal glasses. Since having my cataracts removed a few years ago my vision has decreased a bit so glasses have made a difference for me. They have made a difference for Roy also which we are very happy about. Since it seems that one doctor visit for us always leads to another different doctor visit this one did also!
While Roy’s eyes were being examined he told Dr. Wroten about a spidery looking floater that’s been in his eye since the original surgery. Dr. Wroten recommended Roy see Dr. Robert Mason in Baton Rouge who specializes in vitreoretinal surgery with the Retina and Vitreous of Louisiana. Roy saw Dr. Mason who agreed the spidery looking floater needs to be removed and surgery was scheduled for March 14.
Before the surgery Roy had pre-op tests and visit with our primary care Dr. Hugo Valdes to get clearance for the surgery. Blood work done at Quest was fine but the EKG done at North Oaks as usual showed Roy has extra heart beats but this latest showed more extra heart beats. This is called premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). Because of the PVCs Dr. Valdes wouldn’t clear Roy for surgery until he was examined by a cardiologist. He recommended Dr. Georges Khoueiry with the Heart Center of Hammond.
We saw Dr. Khoueiry who ordered a nuclear stress test and an Echocardiogram. Those tests results were abnormal, possibly showing blockages. The eye surgery was postponed at that point and an angiogram was scheduled. If blockages were found Dr. Khoueiry would put in stents.
Roy had the angiogram this past Thursday at the Cardiovascular Specialty Care Center of Covington. Our son Chip, my sister Harriett and brother in law George were there with me. Roy came back with good news that no stents were needed. A slight blockage was found but not enough to need a stent. Yay! But there is still the premature ventricular contractions issue, so now we go back to Dr. Khoueiry on Friday, April 5th to look further into why Roy has these extra beats.
Just came back from Dr. Khoueiry’s office. He gave Roy clearance to have the eye surgery. He did not prescribe anything for the extra heart beats because they haven’t affected Roy’s heart. He did prescribe cholesterol medicine to help keep the slight blockage where it is and not get worse. Sometime this year Dr. Khoueiry wants Roy to have a halter monitor to further check his heart beats.
Back to Dr. Mason now for the eye surgery. For someone like Roy who detests going to the doctor you can imagine how he feels about now. He’s now seen 6 different eye doctors over the last two years. Hopefully when this is over, Dr. Mason will be the last!
Ya’ll have a blessed week!
BECAUSE HE LIVES 