1st doc review after MRI's all status quo - aorta holding with moderate dilation

Met with Dr. Jackie, Ian's cardiologist, yesterday. Hi ECHO looked similar to the last one, which was Dec 2014, and now she has an MRI & ECHO as a baseline. He's also wearing a halter monitor to get that read to add to the baseline. Hopefully we can keep it on him for a week. We'll see. It's already fallen off twice and when I put it back on he ripped it off. Final straw was to talk to him about it more and secure it with a ton of medical tape and bandaids. Hopefully he'll leave it alone cause this time it ain't coming off easy.

She was happy to find the dilation is just at the ascending not the transverse or descending portions. The area is is dilated is also not leaking... good news. I asked her how I would know if it was and she said I would just know. He'd be more lethargic and winded. Hope we don't need to work that out.

I was also dropping the MRI's off to UCLA today for our Neurosurgeon there to look at before we meet with him next Tuesday. And thought I'd pop over to say hi to our previous cardiologist, Dr. Satou. He always said to check in with him occasionally as he likes to know what's up with his prior patients. He shared some info with me that was interesting. Just another formula to use when considering wether to react to the dilation. He said they were probably already considering this but maybe not using the language with me.

His suggestion is to look at the Z Score which is the body mass compared to the dilation. He offered to take a look at the scans to share his opinion, which I said I'd love. So will work on getting him the copies of the ECHOs as well. Doesn't hurt to have more people look at these things. Everyone has a different take but for some reason the cardiologists seem to be more open to sharing opinions and looks than the neurosurgeons. Although I will try to have them all look at his scans as well. Just to make sure one isn't missing something.

We have 8 doc apts within a 5 week period. It's that time of year where we check in with everyone. Wish I would have done it at the end of last year though. Have new insurance now with larger co-pay and out of pocket.