u/sadpathes

Hi all, I posted here several months ago before my TEE as I was sitting on the edge of moderate to severe. Following my TEE, my cardiologist does not think I need surgery right now, but wanted me to meet with the surgeon to establish care, as I am a grade 3/4 regurgitation. I am meeting Dr. Nifong at ECU, who I understand is one of the pioneers of robotic surgery for mitral valve prolapse specifically.

I have an echo scheduled immediately before my appointment with him, so we’ll have the most up to date scans available, along with my prior 2 echos, MRI, and TEE from the last year and a half.

I have EDS and am awaiting genetic testing to determine if it is hEDS or another subtype, such as the cardiac-valvular type or vascular. I also have POTS, diagnosed through a tilt table test, so I have a hard time determining if symptoms are from that or the MVP.

If you could go back to your first meeting with your surgeon, what are some things that you would ask them?

Any tips for symptom organization for someone with ADHD who hates most symptom tracking apps?

I think part of my problem is that I have no idea what illness (hEDS, POTS, MCAS, MVP, possibly something undiagnosed, etc) is causing a symptom and I have no idea how to organize them in a way that can help my doctors determine next steps in continuing care.

For example, I’ve had pain on my left side in one spot for YEARS. I’ve had an ultrasound and CT scan and found nothing. So it is just deferred pain from my ribs maybe? A compression issue that wasn’t caught on those scans? If it is a compression issue, wouldn’t I have more symptoms? Am I having those symptoms and attributing them to something else? Etc, Etc.

Any tips on organizing symptoms that don’t seem to have one singular cause and best way to work with my doctor to determine next steps?

Hi everyone, I posted here a few months ago seeking advice for an interview I had coming up. It was for an accounts payable clerk position and while I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree, they are both in English and I have no business/finance/accounting experience. My only professional experience at the time was in property management.

Well, I got the job! One of the questions during the interview process was if I would be interested in furthering my education, which I said yes to as I love school and learning to be honest. My company has tuition reimbursement benefits. I can’t take advantage of those until I’ve been there a year, but I want to start thinking of what I want to do.

The university that I got my bachelors and master’s degrees from offers a master’s degree in accounting with a bridge program for students without a bachelor’s in accounting. It’s online as well, so shouldn’t interfere with work.

Any thoughts on what path is best? Or what certifications I should pursue instead of another degree? I don’t particularly care to be in positions with immense responsibility, but a little more money would be nice. I’m still not sure if a CPA would be beneficial to me as well, since I don’t mind staying in the accounts payable area/don’t see myself going back to a public facing job any time soon.