Monday, January 13, 2003
Wow! It has been an entire year since I have made an entry! Hopefully I'll be able to update the site more often this year, although I am very busy with school. Yes, that is right, I began attending Northwestern University at the end of September. I took 3 classes first quarter, but despite receiving good grades, three classes has proven to be too difficult on me physically. So, I am only taking two classes this quarter. That is part-time, but with my disabled status I am able to live on campus. My physical status hasn't changed as much as I was hoping it would the last time I entered something into this journal. But I am slightly better, AND I am at school (although I was hoping to be able to attend feeling much better)-so things aren't too bad. School is diffucult, however, and at times I get very frustrated that I can't participate in things that I would like to. I have seriously considered moving to an apartment and earning a degree through distance learning (not from Northwestern, but from some other school), but for the time being, I am staying at NU-I really do love it and a degree from here wouldn't hurt me a bit. So, I'm sticking with it for the time being-I've come too far to quit now. On to the medical side of things: I last saw Dr. Lerner in September before I started school. At that time, I decided to discontinue taking the antiviral medicine Valcyte because I felt that it had done all it was going to do and the long-term effects of the medicine aren't known (hopefully there are none, but it has to be easier on my body not to take anything that strong for any longer than neccessary). So, I am now only taking Atenolol 25 mg twice daily and Doxepin 150 mg (Atenolol for my heart and Doxepin to help me sleep-I discontinued Zoloft at the end of May). Unless something happens, I don't plan on seeing Dr. Lerner any more. He is a wonderful doctor and helped me a lot, but we feel that he's done all he can do for me and it's time to move on. During my Spring Break I'll be going up to the Mayo Clinic in MN to see a cardiologist, Dr. Bardsley. I doubt there will be any magic technique that makes me all better, but we really just want to make sure my heart condition has been diagnosed properly (not that we have any reason to believe otherwise) and just want to know more about it-if it will correct itself, if it is permanent damage, etc.
That is the news from here. I will post again after my trip to Mayo, if not before. |
