You know you're in trouble when...

You know you are in trouble when the nurse offers you all a can of soda. Dr. Pepper? Sure, we have that. Sprite? OK. Ralph's cardiologist appointment was originally scheduled for 9 a.m. yesterday but something came up and they asked us to come at 3 p.m. I hate afternoon appointments. They just seem to take forever when the clinic gets backed up and Ralph gets cranky if he misses his afternoon nap.

You also know you are in trouble when the echo tech asks you to wait in the echo room, just in case the doctor wants to take some more pictures. I tried to give Ralph an early nap, but nothing doing. The echo seemed to take forever and when Ralph finished his bottle he just couldn't handle any more handling. I know, by now, some of the things that the doctors are looking for on the echo and I didn't like what I saw. It couldn't be right.

Well, the doctor did want more pictures but Ralph was melting down by now. He took some quick measurements. I was right, his pulmonary pressures were high. Very high. Two times higher than two months ago. How did this happen? I was so certain that the heart repair would help bring the pressures down! Pulmonary Hypertension is so silent, so evil. How could I know?

The rest of the visit was very rushed and I didn't get my questions answered. And, this is weird, the doctor asked me when I want to come back! I think I must have just looked at him like I didn't understand, 'cause I didn't. Then he said, "One or two months?" One! By then it was after 5 p.m. and I was late to pick up James at the airport. Ugggggh.

So here we are. The doc wants to be aggressive. We have upped his medications and upped his oxygen to 1 liter. The good news is that his heart is much smaller that it has been in a long time, I didn't want to forget that. We just still have a long way to go with the lungs.