Dyke-cotomy

Things are still going well for me on the sweet girlfriend front. We get along amazingly well. She likes to do so many of the goofy things I do. This weekend we bought kayaks! Found a great deal at Academy on these cute little yellow kayaks for $150 apiece! We took them out at Emma Long park on Sunday and had a fantastic time.

She also likes one of my biggest goofball things: Big Lots. I still can't believe my good fortune but I will stop questioning whether I deserve it.

In decidedly less-happy news my brother is in the hospital and has been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. It was quite a shock since I didn't know he had been having any issues. Apparently he had been feeling his heart was not working well for quite some time but had been keeping it from anyone beyond his wife and oldest son. My mom and dad had no idea until he started feeling so ill he saw a doctor and was immediately admitted into the hospital. Luckily he is improving (after several scary days of not) and may get out soon. Surprisingly, his doctors think a large amount of his heart damage is coming from sleep apnea. I knew this was a dangerous disorder but I really didn't know it could contribute to CHF. He can't go to a sleep clinic for a formal diagnosis until after he is released from the hospital but hopefully that will happen rather quickly when he is.

I wrote to a doctor friend of mine for more info on the correlation between CHF and sleep apnea and she sent me some very surprising info and an article from the Mayo Clinic about how it happens. Apparently the pauses in breathing cause extra stress on the heart and it all goes to hell in a handbasket from there. I'm hoping for a quick diagnosis and a spaceman mask for him right away and maybe that will be an effective therapy. The one thing about which I'm still unclear is how much of the condition can be reversed after the proper therapy, (c-pap, meds, losing weight, etc.) Scary this could still indicate a shortened life span but I don't know the answer to that yet.

Think good thoughts, be well yourselves and I'll keep you posted.