arontius | A trip to the Doctor.

.....It was an interesting afternoon. I had an appointment scheduled with a Cardiological Consultant in Federal Way. They've been monitoring my heart during the rapid weight loss. Over the past six months, my doctors have been decreasing the amount of blood pressure medication that I take every day. I started out at 150 mg of Atenolol a day plus 25 mg Hydrochlorothiazide (water pill). Last month, Dr. Minteer decreased the Atenolol from 50 mg a day down to 25 mg a day. Today, Dr. Zhou wanted to stop the Atenolol and Water Pills completely. My blood pressure has been pretty consistent at 105 over 75.

.....However, Dr. Zhou and Dr. Minteer have both noticed that as my Atenolol has been decreased there has been an increase in a strange behavior in the heart. It keeps 'skipping beats'. Atenolol is usually prescribed in cases like that, but they are not sure that they want to see the blood pressure go any lower and they don't want to see liver functions affected. So they are not quite sure what to do. On one hand I'm told that it is nothing to be concerned but at the same time Dr. Zhou ordered a full blood work up and a tread mill test. So I'm a tad bit unsettled. We'll see what happens.

.....Arontius.