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Well TK's been on the diltiazem for 2 months, now, after
being diagnosed with HCM. At that time, his heart murmur
was rated a 3 - 4. He needed some bloodwork, today, to
check the white count which was low normal a little over a
month ago and we decided, all things considered, to opt
for a full physical instead of just going in and having a
tech draw the blood.
When the vet listened to his heart, she was taking an abnormally
long time and then said "I'm going to get the electronic
stethoscope" and darted out of the room. My wife and
I just looked at each other thinking "Uh-oh, this may not
be good." The vet came back in with the new stethoscope
and listened, again, for an abnormally long time.
Then the result....."I can't hear any murmur on the left side.
There's a little noise on the right side, but I would barely
rate it a 1".
We both let out a sigh of relief.
The vet stressed the fact that you can only tell so much
by listening and TK's current condition MAY NOT be as
good as it might seem. But she did say that it's a pretty
safe guess to say that his condition has not significantly
deteriorated.
So, it seems like the medication is helping. If nothing else,
the diltiazem seems to be relaxing the heart muscle and
getting it to pump more normally.
And I thought I was noticing that he had a bit more energy,
lately.
We get the blood test results, tomorrow. Hopefully, the white
count will have moved more into the normal range.
But, right now, I would describe my feelings as "Cautiously
Thrilled".

My thanks to everyone who has offered their good wishes
in the past.
And a special Thank You to Phil P, , who went well out of his way
to help this ol' bonehead get a much better understanding of
Tk's situation.