About 10 am, I was taken back to the Cardio Cath lab.
Which was about 30 degrees. Below zero.
They stuck me in all awkward places with little pads and wires and gave me some lovely medicine where I dozed off to Coldplay. I woke up once when my heart was pounding out of my chest. Evidently, my earlier guessing of my heart rate maxing at 190-200 was wrong, as they easily triggered it to 220-240BPM. They gave some more drugs and a couple hours later, I was put back up in my room, almost fully awake, and feeling much better.
My leg, where they inserted the catheter, isn’t sore (granted, I’m on some pain killers) and I’m on bed rest for another 3 hours or in order to let that artery heal.
So the diagnosis was pretty correct. WHAT A RELIEF!
He assumed I had an extra pathway on my AV Node (the main node that receives electricity in your heart) and sure enough, there it was. However it was SO close to the AV Node they couldn’t burn it fully…he froze some of if, which I guess is safer. Sometimes when they burn the extra pathway so close to the AV Node they accidentally burn it completely, which would require me to have a pacemaker.
MMM, no thanks!
After they fixed that pathway, they retested my heart and lo and behold – ANOTHER pathway that shouldn’t have been there! TWO extra pathways? No wonder my heart would shoot up into such a high rate so quickly!
This one was in a very safe place (considering) so they ablated that one right away. They tried to get my heart into another arrhythmia and at that point, it didn’t!
For the few months, he expects my heart to still flutter a bit as my brain relearns my heart, which is totally safe. At least it shouldn’t be hitting 200+ BPM after a couple minutes of exertion.
He wants me to start exercising slow but over the next month, I should be able to run, bike, whatever! I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to kayak in the Orcas Islands when I’m up there in a few weeks.
Thank you SO MUCH for the unbelievable amount of prayers and support over the last week. I have never felt so prayed for in my life!
Hopefully tomorrow I will be discharged and on my way to a much more active life!
Much love,
Anne
(PS – please show grace if there are any typos. I am on some loopy meds as I write this!) :)
Comments
50 responses to “Update on my Surgery”
Anne, thanks for the update. I can’t imagine 200+ BPM. I’m almost passing out when I hit 180 briefly during intense exercise.
Thanks – let us know how we can pray for your recovery!
So glad to hear everything went well and you’re on the road to recovery. Enjoy the loopy meds while they last though!
Anne! Awesome. I really really hope that you can run/bike/kayak hard soon!
Are you going to the San Juan Islands? Where Orcas Island is? Between Seattle and Vancouver? Or is the Orcas Islands somewhere completely different?
Either way, my ears perked up cuz Orcas Island was our honeymoon place! Gorgeous.
@lisa – yes! the ones in san juan!
thank you all so much
did anyone ever really doubt that you would make it through this without issue??? i mean come on! :)
glad to hear you are doing well!!
So glad it’s all behind you and every day will be a better day and you are blowing and going and able to do all you want. :)
Blessings~
YAY God!!! And the doctors and all (you know, those “physicains”). Still praying you through your recovery. Hey, can you do some slow exercising for me? I can’t seem to find a convenient time…
Anne – There’s nothing wrong with a pacemaker (I’m 27 and have had one since I was 9 months old). I know you were just kidding in your post, but Pacemakers can be great tools (saved my life). Glad you are starting to feel better.
So glad to hear that everything was successful! Go God!
I savored that you wrote about the specific medical process in this post. Don’t know why, but it always intrigues me. Probably why I like the show ‘House, M.D.’
I’ll continue to pray for your recovery. I am amazed at what can be done through modern medicine….and prayer.
Thanks for the update. Will keep you guys in prayer over the weekend!
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!!!!
Anne:
So thankful that you elected to have the surgery and that they caught both of your “extra” pathways! :-) I will continue to pray expedient healing for you and a renewal of your heart as well. You are loved…
Yay GOD!
Yay running, biking… and HIKING…
So thankful! Thanks for the update!
Dang you type very well (and storytell very well) while high! Great news! All glory to Jesus!
Anne,
YEA!! So happy for you that it’s over and they found and fixed every little thing that was makin’ your heart act goofy! Did your Mom finally get a flight in time to be with you?
Sounds like you’re already on the road back to excellent health. Just think of the adventures that await you. Wow!
As always, more prayers being sent for you to get your sea-legs under you quickly, with NO complications so you can run your fastest and jump your highest.
Blessings,
amy
Glad it all went well.
It’s cool reading your journey. I just recently started reading your stuff.
I’ve got WPW and its cool to hear how this has gone for you.
Now I know what to expect in a few years. They won’t do surgery on me for a while.
Thanks for your transparency!
Keep getting better.
Matthew
Whew! So glad it went well. We’ll be praying for your continued recovery.
Praise God! Looking forward to hearing about your new journey with writing.
Whew! What a morning you’ve had!
That is so amazing you actually wrote a post after your surgery!
Praise God for watching over you, with encouragement with everyone’s prayers.
Glad it went well!
So glad to hear things went well! Praying for a speedy recovery!!
Verrrry relieved to get this news. So, your heart had a faulty tachometer? Whew…feeling 220-240 bpm had to be crazy! Terrified me to see a 205 on my heart monitor once…lonnng ago…during a track workout. I’m sure you’ll be back in the saddle soon. Blessings!
So glad that everything went well and that you get to head up to Orcas Island! I’m jealous as that is my home (okay, not Orcas…but the Seattle area). Pray you recover fully and that you have a great time when you head to the Great Northwest! Blessings!
Praying for a quick recovery Anne! Thanks for keeping us updated…
So glad you are out and awake enough to blog. . .lol! Praying for a very fast recovery for ya!
God’s right there! We’re praying…
Thank you, Jesus….the Great Physician!
So, so glad it all went so well! Thanking God with everyone else!
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
We’re still praying.
so glad to hear that things went well. guess the week-of-surgery prayers worked!
Strangely, this is EXACTLY what my final diagnosis was, too. Sometimes, I’ll feel my heart turn over like a car engine does before it revs way up – like it did before my surgery, but then it just never revs. It’s been over a year, and though they didn’t deaden it all the way, for the same reasons, I haven’t had any trouble.
Glad you’re feeling better. Still rest.
Praying you’ll be home and healed very soon. So thankful your surgery went well!
Blessings today and always,
Kaye
Matthew 21:22
Get well soon
Glad to hear it went so well!
wow, i’ve learnt a lot about the heart – so glad to hear how things everything went. i think there’s that walk up salisbury craggs in edinburgh on you to-do list too.
Glad you’re doing well! Yeah kayaking!
Glad all went well!! Praying for quick recovery…
That is great news. Modern medicine is amazing… and God is good. May you have more energy to enjoy those times when you can get out and be more active.
I think I got a little nauseous reading that. ;)
Glad to hear you’re doing well…praise God! Can’t wait to til you come to Baton Rouge, but if I were you, I wouldn’t bring the kayak. Bayous can be a little creepy :[
So glad you came through just fine. I’ll continue to pray for your speedy recovery.
Thanks for the update.
–Terrace Crawford
http://www.terracecrawford.com
http://www.twitter.com/terracecrawford
I hope you are healing well and feeling better!
I am so glad to read that the surgery worked for you. My 14 yr. old daughter was diagnosed with SVT about 6 weeks ago. She was doing well on Atenolol , but had an episode at camp Sunday afternoon that lasted for 30 minutes. She has had a racing heart since she was young and it has gotten worse as she has gotten older.
Her heart races to over 215 beats per minute.
How did you know that it was time for the surgery? Was the SVT interfering with daily routines? Sorry if I’m being nosey. I am just trying to get get educated about this problem.
God Bless!
Glad for the report, Anne. Take care.
To some I would say thank you for staying faithful to Jesus and the truth of God’s word, thank you for encouraging us through the outstanding teaching of God’s word, thanks for taking the time to minster to me and my family and thanks for standing strong despite major opposition..
To others I would say… What happened to your first love, JESUS?
And still to others I would say your a wolf in sheep’s clothing and should not be in a shepherding position.
the last comment belongs in the what would u say to the pastoral world…obviously :) whoops…
glad all went well w/ ur surgery :)
wow praying for full recovery and even better than b4!!!
Hello, my name is Cecilia, I recently found out that i have to get the same procedure you had. I was reading up on stories similar to yours, and I’m really worried about the cost that a procedure like this can be. Do you know an estimate of how much this cost? Please let me know. -Thanks.
It all depends on your insurance. I had pretty good insurance and think the cost was around $500 for copays and deductible. The actual cost of the surgery without insurance was over $40,000.
That is good insurance, $40,000 is a lot of money. Thanks for the information.