Overdue Update
I'm feeling good these days, but I've had a seriously troublesome complication from my heart surgery that pretty much wiped out my productivity for the past six weeks. I have Dressler's syndrome and had to have surgery to have a catheter installed to drain the fluid buildup around my left lung. It took a trip in an ambulance and two additional hospital admissions before we got on the catheter idea, and it has been a big help. I'd hoped to only need it for a few weeks, but when my cardiologist tried to step down the amount of Prednisone I was taking, I had a setback, so I'm guessing it will be at least another month. In the grand scheme of things it's not a huge deal, but it's a pretty good example of why avoiding heart surgery in the first place is an excellent plan. I've only had one metabolic panel done since I started trying to eliminate the oil in earnest. On 10/18, my totally cholesterol was 90! My goal is 150, so that number is truly remarkable.