Friday 04/05/2024
The only scheduled thing today was to show up at Stanford Hospital, the Cardiac clinic way up on the third floor, to review my new CT scan with Dr. Amelia Watkins, the surgeon who stented up my dissected aorta back in 2020. I got there early for my 10am appointment but since Dr. Watkins was still in surgery, I was seen by her nurse practitioner. The conference was short: everything looks fine. My aorta shows up beautifully on the CT, a garden hose lined with a basketwork of wire stents, and it is just fine, no change. And no other anomalies to be seen. My renal cysts are still there but no bigger than before.
The NP mentioned that the reason they keep doing annual callbacks is that the stents have a possible side-effect, they can “crack” or break down. This was news to me. Well, they are in there now. But I guess I will continue to get a thoracic CT every year forever. Which is fine with me; it’s kind of reassuring to have somebody look at my innards every once in a while.
For being such a big brave boy who goes to a medical appointment all by himself, I treated myself to a coffee and a delicious pastry. And didn’t do much the rest of the day. Little guitar practice, some reading.
Codgerville 