Irma L. Olguin Jr.

The one year anniversary of my stint in the hospital came and went without event.

After my visit to Kaiser Redwood in January, I stopped taking all meds (in February), and have been “clean” for just over two months.  These months without prescriptions have made a dramatic difference in the way I feel — which is pretty much back to normal.  After much deliberation, taking everything into account, I made future plans to get a third opinion after aquiring new insurance.  I also made the decision to be in no great rush to get that insurance, and live like a healthy person in the mean time.

Much of this was based on the report by Dr. Rao.  I’ve copied the significant portions of his report (which I obtained through requisition at Kaiser Health Information Management):

“She is 28 Y old and very healthy.”

“I am certain that her syncopal event was in NO WAY related to this possible RIGHT ICA stenosis.”

“…even if it were to be significantly stenotic, I don’t think it’s sympotomatic, and it’s not treatable endovascularly given the tortuosity.”

“The patient can certainly continue to take aspirin (tolerating it well) but I don’t think it is manadorty.”

You’ll remember that this is the same doctor that told me to “go home, and try to pretend it never happened.”  While “pretending” isn’t something I can do, I figured (and was successful for almost two months) that I could continue living with the stroke-threat level lowered to blue.

That just changed.

Last week I received a letter from a Kaiser program called PHASE, which stands for “Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes Everyday”.  I was unaware that I belonged to this program, and had no cause to think Kaiser was taking the situation seriously given the stance of Dr. Rao, the expert.  Here is an excerpt from that letter:

“Dear Ms. Olguin

…I assist your provideer in mailing out reminders to come in for blood tests and sending information on how to reduce your risks for heart attack and stroke.  We work as a team to educate our patients who have a high-risk diagnosis.

…

…This is a courtesy letter to make you aware that you are due to complete the requested labs that your provider has ordered.”

High-risk diagnois?  So am I, or am I not a high-risk patient?!

Anyway, I went in for the labs on Friday (May 15, 2009).  Among the labs drawn was the Lipid Panel which is “a blood test that measures lipids—fats and fatty substances used as a source of energy by your body. Lipids include cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL).”  The results were available for my viewing (online) the next day.

Component Results

You see that the HDL component is slightly lower than the standard range.  HDL is sometimes called “good cholestoral” and is said to prevent cholestoral from building up in the arties.  An event that, in my case, could cost me my life. Too much cholesterol in the blood can build up along the inside of the artery walls, forming what is known as plaque. Large amounts of plaque increase your chances of having a heart attack or stroke.

On Wednesday, an RN from Kaiser called me and I returned that call a little while ago.  He told me that they are taking these results seriously.  That, given my stenoisis issue and incomplete Circle of Willis, my cholestoral is too high (eventhough the range is fully normal for a girl my age/size, etc), and that in consultation with my doctor, we need to change my health plan.

In addition to switching to a low fat diet, I am to restart the low-dose aspirin and, you guessed it, start on a new medicine to regulate cholestoral.  Now before you get excited about my cholestoral being too high, it isn’t.  It’s just too high for a person with a high-risk diagnosis. And in case you were able to forget that for two months, that’s me.

So here we sit where we sat just over one year ago. Back at square one.