About October, I had a bad episode. Thankfully, it was the first that Aaron was home for. I was driving with him to pick up something for his work. My new cardiologist in San Rafael had told me I didn't need to worry about getting to the hospital within an hour, that there was no risk for a stroke. (Heartbreaking news, since I had just lived 4-5 years thinking I can't be outside an hour of a hospital... but I think I already blogged about that)... Anyway... I told Aaron to just keep driving, that it would go away and I'd be fine. I was a bit scared though, because this episode came on very strong and made me really uncomfortable and light headed. It had the strongest effect an episode has yet.
So, we continued to drive to pick up Aaron's trailer... until it was 1.5 hours into an episode of my heart beating over 250 beats a minute. I started to get nervous that it wasn't going away on it's own like the Cardiologist had said. I started to get jaw pain, and just felt really uncomfortable, so we decided to call the Kaiser advice nurse. She instantly passed me to an ER Dr who asked me to please get right in to the hospital. Ack. I didn't love that news.
What I hadn't ever been told (Amazingly, in my opinion) is that jaw pain is a sign of heart distress. What!?! I have a heart condition and I have never been told that fun fact. Anyway, moving on. lol
When Aaron and I get into the ER... I was in good spirits although not feeling well. The ER staff were joking with me and guessing my heart rate (based on my behavior etc, they hadn't hooked me up yet)... I told them it was 250+, they guessed like 140... Aaron and I both got a good laugh over how quickly their faces changed and how things became "STAT" when they did get my hooked up and saw that I was correct...250+bpm. :)
Thankfully, just before they were about to administer Adenosine (sp?)...which I have had before, and it stops my heart for a second so it can start back up again correctly (which is scary)... My heart rate finally did go back to normal on it's own... at about 2 hours/2.5hrs into the episode.
Soooo, the latest is... I have a procedure coming up called a "Catheter Ablation." They will go into my heart with a catheter to find the malfunctioning area of my heart and cauterize it. After that procedure (which is set for 2/13/15.... a great Valentines date! lol)... I should be episode free for the rest of my life! There's chances it wont work, there's chances SVT could come back... but we're just believing the procedure will go smoothly and I will no longer have any effects of SVT. :)
No more ER EKG images for my 2015 blog book! ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment