Change of plans
Susan and I only had another week remaining at our current location, the intention being to go on to Tombstone for at least another month. That’s now being revised, however. The odd palpitations I mentioned about three weeks ago returned, and held on even longer this time; still not the same symptoms I experienced in my prior cardiac events, but enough to unsettle me.
I called the VA system in my ‘home’ state to get a referral to be checked out, and they advised me to go to the nearest ER. I did so; the initial EKG showed no irregularities, but the blood test revealed somewhat elevated troponin levels (cardiac enzymes indicating likely myocardial damage). It was less than three times the preferred normal level, but hundredths of what would have shown after a severe cardiac event. So there was that.
Even so, I was promptly transported by ambulance to the hospital in Las Cruces, NM, where they did their own EKG and monitored me for 16 hours (including periodic blood draws to establish that troponin levels continued to drop, which they did). Susan spent the night in my room (and slept much less than I did). There was another occurrence of the palpitation symptoms, and we had an EKG run while that was happening, but without any determination of what might be causing it.
Good news: there was no immediate severe threat. Bad news: they couldn’t figure out what was going on. I was discharged with a recommendation that I confer with my regular cardiologist.
It would take us two hard days’ driving to get back ‘home’ (or four regular RV driving days), and put us back into the colder weather we came here to escape. On the other hand, there’s a solid VA hospital in Tucson, and we can get there in a single day. That’s the plan, then, though we’ll be wanting to coordinate with my original VA (and the cardiologist they referred me to back in June).
So, we’ll just have to see how things go.