Rock Bottom

Finally getting a break from life to sit and write a blog.

I have been so extremely overwhelmed that I haven't had the energy to keep up with this.

I put my roller derby on a hold until my medications are leveled out.
I'm losing my blood pressure quite often.
My sense of concentrartion has decline dramatically...
...and it's affecting my job
My meds are making my body physically depressed, in turn making me mentally depressed.
I'm tired all of the time.
My pregnant twin sister and my brother in law are moving in to help ME out (I feel guilty)
I'm getting another dog in order to keep my other one busy since I'm having a hard time playing with him by myself.

I've just spiraled down so quickly that I can't even keep my head on straight

The Sick Days

I'm not talking about the days where you start off with half the spoons as normal. I'm talking about the days where you have a cold, the flu, allergies that make you wish you you had the flu.

Nobody likes being sick, but the harder part, especially for you cardiac patients, is being sick and not being able to take anything for it and you just suffer with it til it's gone.

Sudafed, nyquil, sambucol, cold-EEZE...etc, etc.

...most of these contain ingredients that raise your blood pressure and heart rate. So using these usually means you'll be worse off.

So cheers to plain chicken soup, Gatorade, saltine crackers, and Netflix!

It's All Good in the 'Hood!

Today has just been....awesome!

I actually feel productive for once. I have at least 10 more spoons left, which I need to give credit to my cardiologist because I think he and I found a med that works for me and I feel much more energetic. ANYWAYS:

I took Chevy to the dog park. Got my face painted for one of my nieces projects. I have done 3 loads of laundry, folded AND put away! (that's a huge feat btw) I finished editing my player profile pictures for this season. I redid my twin's baby shower invites because she had to change the shower date, I cleaned the bathroom....

...and leading to actual subject today:
I had a dentist appointment and scheduled 2 more for next week
     I know that sounds extreme, but for those of you that may NOT know, just as "your eyes are the windows to your soul"...

..."your mouth is the window to your heart"

Cardiac patients should really make sure their oral care is meticulous. I'm a nurse, and honestly, most nurses are the worst patients, including myself. I hadn't been to the dentist in maybe 5+ years, I kept having insurance changes so it was hard to keep one, so I pretty much gave up. The college where I live happens to offer a dental hygiene/dental program. As disappointed in my dental hygiene as I am, my teeth and mouth are bad enough to get free dental care because I qualified to be a patient for the students taking their board exam for their practicing licenses. I finally decided I needed to get my mouth taken care of, and the reasons being:

1) the plaque that grows on your teeth is the same exact thing as the plaque that can grow in your circulatory system, which can increase your risk of stroke/heart attack.

2) An unhealthy mouth can tell you that maybe your heart is unhealthy, too. Keeping an unhealthy mouth will lead to heart diseases.

3) Being on heart medications will most likely cause your mouth to be unhealthy (which is why I decided to get multiple dental appointments)...I bet 90% of you on a cardiac medication suffer from constant dry mouth...which leads to gengival hyperplasia and decay, leaving your heart more prone to disease (the vicious cycle)

Like I said, my teeth are so bad that it will take multiple appointments to get my gums irrigated, my teeth completely cleaned, and get a couple of fillings refilled.


TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH PEOPLE! just because they are white after using whitener does not mean they are healthy.

Also** for dry mouth- use sugar free hard candies, biotene, and NON-ALCOHOLIC mouth rinse (i.e. listerine zero)

My mouth. My gums are red and puffy (gengival hyperplasia) most likely from chronically being on a heart medication, not flossing like I'm supposed so, and always having a dry mouth because of my heart medications. My gums are currently trying to pull away from my teeth because of the plaque that has been caught under there, (you can tell on my lower jaw front teeth the most).

Gotta Love Experiments!

As most people with chronic disorders/diseases already know, medications are trial and error, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, OOO WE FOUND SOMETHING THAT WORKS! And then your kidney function or liver function declines and fails or something like that....then you've gotta start the hunt for a new medication regimen again.

Well, looks like I may have found the med that works for me (so far, knocking on wood)
So now the next step of the experiment is too see what you can and can't tolerate. Foods, workouts, etc.

So tuesday I put my skates back on for roller derby and attempted the sprints! I needed twice the amount of recovery time than planned for, but nothing cardiac rehab and diet can't fix.

I also tried the evil.....
                                           ......caffeine

And low and behold, it made me sick! my heart started going crazy almost immediately.
Ok, so caffeine is STILL a no-go. But that's ok, at least I know now instead of figuring it out at work.

I also gave a "long day" a test as well. This included one load of laundry, a mile jog with my pup, doing a mini photo shoot for one of my roller derby teammates, cleaning the room and living room, and going to the store to buy a survival kit for the flu (boyfriend came home from work throwing up and with a fever)

With the medication regimen I'm on now,  I can say I have about 8 spoons left, where normally by now I'd only have a couple left. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back to my "Measuring Spoons" entry)

So now I can get dinner made, feed the dog, get my other half set up in bed so he can rest, and finish drying some clothes so I have a set of scrubs for tomorrow. Looks like I will do OK for a long enough period of time that we can instead plan a heart surgery around my schedule and my boss can work on getting me set up in an office ready to go so I can work immediately thereafter and not have to worry about anyone but myself for once (this is an almost IMPOSSIBLE thing for nurses to do)

So hopefully this pans out as I plan!
Gotta get started on looking for more experiments :)

CPR

Hey everyone

Today, my topic is a one subject matter that I believe everyone should know. Being a nurse, I know it is difficult for some to understand the concepts sometimes, so I will be attempting to teach you BASIC life saving skills. The most important to know is CPR.

I will be starting a new medication soon for my PVC's, and its pertinent for one of my household members to know how to react incase I have an adverse effect, one of them being cardiac arrest.

It may sound scary...because it is. But the best thing you can do is prepare someone for the fact of the matter versus them not knowing what to do and panicking.

The first and most important rule is to NOT PANIC. this plays a vital role in how emergency services are able to respond to a call. As a nurse, this is easy for me. I've dealt with emergencies with skeleton crews, and it makes it a whole lot easier if you work promptly and collectedly versus trying to rush and not know what next steps to take because you're TOO focused on the patient. The best thing for the patient is to hand them off to someone with more skills and/or better equipment.

I will be teaching you now on CPR basic for good samaritans, and these steps may help you one day! You can check your local area for CPR courses through American Heart Association so you can be licensed, as licenses will ensure you know the most up-to-date procedures. CPR has changed multiple times, but today I'm only worried about teaching you how to respond to emergencies as a good samaritan.

First thing- Assess the situation. Example: If a normally active person (like myself) is lying on the floor in the kitchen, of course that's going to raise a red flag. Here's what I told my boyfriend:

First thing you want to do is make sure you take in a deep breath, hold it for a couple of seconds and relax, then release slowly. Call 911 immediately after. while the phone is ringing or they have you on hold, put them on speaker phone, put the phone down near you, get down and check for a pulse. If there is no pulse and the person is unconscious, immediately start CPR. (As a civilian you DO NOT have to provide mouth to mouth, but it is especially recommended if patient has drowned). Most likely by the time you have started, 911 will be asking questions.

                                 stop what you are doing so they can hear you clearly

Give them an address, sex and age of patient (estimations are fine). If they are not breathing, tell 911 "They are not breathing, I can't find a pulse, I will keep you on the phone while I give CPR" so they know you have not hung up and you can update them as needed.

911 dispatch are certified in CPR and can give you instructions over the phone

> If 911 is unable to respond to you quickly and you do not know CPR, face the palms of your hands down. overlap one over the other and lace your fingers.
> Search or estimate where the patients nipples are and put the heel of your hand in between them in the center of the chest.
> you want to push down hard and fast. Rule of thumb is to attempt to compress the chest about 2 inches every second.
> Do 30 compressions, then take a quick 5 second break. Again, mouth to mouth is not absolutely necessary unless they are drowning.
> If someone has stopped to help, take turns doing chest compressions, as this gets tiring very fast.
> If patient wakes up, stop CPR immediately and notify 911 they are awake.
> If they are awake, use the most calming, low toned voice possible so you do not stimulate patient too much, and tell them "Relaaax, stay where you are, you fainted and we are getting you help. We'll be right here until the ambulance arrives."

The best thing you can do is to stay calm and collected. And so not to send the patient into a panic, tell them what has happened, do not ever sugar coat anything because lack of oxygen will make the patient confused and they may not understand "you had a doozy" versus "you fainted"., they may not even understand "you fainted" until they start getting oxygen to the brain. If you have a blanket with you, put that over your patient once they're awake.

JUST BE AWARE- CPR is for life saving measures, there is always a risk of injuring a patient, even if you are certified and are a nurse that may do this quite often. Most common injuries are broken ribs or a broken xyphoid (the bottom end of the sternum) If you hear a crack, dont let that freak you out, just keep going, injuries will heal later on and medical staff will treat that at the hospital. Just try to keep your patient alive.

I will be doing some teaching for my boyfriend and my twin. I'd prefer them to be ready for a scenario than to not be sure they know what they are doing.

Always Another Diagnosis

I haven't blogged in several days, I've been so busy that I'm too tired to even think about a subject to write about.

So today I would just like to update you all. I had my follow up cardio appointment today. I have a new diagnosis of PVC's, mostly in the bigeminy pattern. Which those of you with heart conditions, any ventricular contractions that aren't triggered by a normal rhythm, are not a good thing.

Ill start on meds today, but with the med there's a risk of cardiac arrest, so I will have a baby sitter all week with me LOL

Sooner or later we will have my dog certified to be an aid dog. My boyfriend somewhat joked about having a life alert system placed in the home. But in all seriousness, he'll be getting CPR lesson from me tomorrow.

Living With a Positive Attitude

Don't get me wrong, you will always find some days harder than others. You may find yourself in depressed slumps. Actually yesterday I was in a bit of a sour mood, and my boyfriend (thinking he was being helpful) says "You're fine. You're perfectly healthy" For those of you with chronic illnesses, you know phrases like this will send your significant other to the dog house. I will say I am pretty anxious for my cardio appointments tomorrow. Luckily today was a busy day at work and kept my mind off of what is scheduled for tomorrow.

I'm not normally an anxious person, I generally perform better under pressure (I grew up playing multiple sports), but tomorrow I'll be consulting with my cardiologist about pacemakers/defibrillators/meds, whatever we deem necessary for my care. We'll be reviewing my heart monitor from last week and my echo that I'm also doing tomorrow.

So how can I stay positive about this? No matter what, I will be making life style changes tomorrow., so you have ALWAYS gotta match a positive with a negative aspect:

Well, honestly, I look at it as such. A life style change. We're most likely preventing an end of life situation, as I often get arrhythmias that can cause cardiac arrest, so that can't be a bad thing. There's a chance I will have to end my roller derby career, which sucks, but I'm young enough to find/learn/perfect new hobbies. Always learning something new is never a bad thing.

And the best part of it is that my boyfriend will be there holding my hand and giving his input at my doctors appointment, so the decision doesn't land on myself, he's willing to share a lot of this stress with me.

Many of you will find that people with chronic illnesses tend to have a brighter aspect on life. If you ever meet a small child suffering from something as scary as cancer, you'll find that they find happiness in the small things, and are often wise beyond their years. This is because you HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO STAY POSITIVE. Even if you don't feel well, it takes more energy out of you to be in a bad mood. Those around you can feel that negative energy and it makes it harder for them to help when you absolutely need it.

Plus, having a positive in general will always help in the long run. I wear a smile even when I'm frustrated and wanna strangle someone at work. I still carry myself gracefully until I can get home and work out the stress. Because of this, my boss is attempting to fit me in where I can run around less and have to do a bit less hands on work with patients so I can make sure I am resting enough and not killing myself over keeping someone else alive. As nurses, we tend to forget to take care of ourselves because we're too busy taking care of others. But if we do find a place to set up an office for me at work, I can still help with my patients and not have to be as stressed about it. I can come and go as I please as long as I make my 40hour work week. So doctors appointments wont be hard to work around.

Really, positivity is the only chance you have at surviving a chronic illness. It's so exhausting being angry or mad or in denial all the time.

I'd prefer to die with a chronic illness on my shoulder than to die from the chronic illness itself. It's choosing to control something that others think controls you, and you do this by wearing a smile on your face and taking it one day at a time.

Once again, you are NOT invincible

I try to keep up with sports, I love baeball, my favorite team being the Braves. I watch football, consider me a die hard Patriots fan, have been since I can remember. I also try to watch hockey, I always watched hockey with my pops when I was a kid, and also got made fun of for being a San Jose fan, cuz the rest of my family liked the Devils and Red Wings.

Today when I was attempting to catch up with my hockey, I found out that one of the Penguins' defencemen, Kris Letang, had suffered a stroke.

This poor kid is only 26 and was suffering with nausea and dizziness for about a week according to the reports I read.

He had an undetected hole in his heart that may have lead to the stroke.

I pray that he has a full recovery and that this doesn't end his career.

I had to give up a full ride softball scholarship after high school in order to have my second ablation done.

I ended my marathon career on an incomplete marathon (19.7 miles to be exact)

I may have to finish my competative derby career and go non-contact and only ref because of my heart.

I would be devastated if he had to end his career. Not because I know him personally, Not because he's famous, but because I know how it feels to give up on something you absolutely dedicate your life to because of a heart complication.

Prayers for #58

So here's my question...what IS AVNRT???

I made this post first so I can have an outlet for any frustrations with this disorder. So now that all of that is out. What is AVNRT?

Basically it is an electrical conduction disorder in the heart. So there is nothing PHYSICALLY wrong with it, which makes it difficult to detect unless you go in for an EP study or by some grace of God it actually shows up on an EKG, which is actually rare even during an episode.

In normal electrical condution, a heart beat begins in the SA node, travels down to the AV node through a small pathway, down the bundle of HIS, then down throughout the ventricles, which then pushes blood to the body.

With AVNRT, the AV node has 2 pathways instead of one, and one pathway conducts electricity faster than the other, making it send an extra heart beat (dysrhythmias)

Once you heart loses control of the normal heart beat, then it becomes an arrhythmia (no rhythm)


The heart, just like the liver, is a very SMART organ and can attempt to heal itself, many times being successful. When it is NOT successful, your heart keeps trying to counteract the abnormal beat and can lead to tachycardia (a heart rate above 100 beats per minute, above 100 is too fast). Tachycardia puts strain on the heart thus affecting the whole body since the blood flow to the rest of the body has now become compromised.

In AVNRT, if one should be in a tachycardic episode for a prolonged amount of time, this can lead to PVCs (Premature Ventricular Contractions). Your ventricles are NOT supposed to make contractions on their own will, but will do so as a last ditch effort to restore a proper heart rhythm. These PVCs include bigeminies, trigimnies, and ventricular tachycardia (V-tach's)

 Normal Heart Rhythm

 AVNRT (looks similar to normal, which is what makes this difficult to diagnose off of an EKG)

 Bigeminy (note the couples holding hands, Trigeminy will have 3)

V-tach (note that these look like a 5 year old drawing mountains)

Any of these abnormal heart rhythms can send you into cardiac arrest and often feel like a heart attack. (cardiac arrest and heart attacks are 2 different things by the way)

Personally, I have a history of falling into V-tach episodes. The one that was caught on a monitor that started my entire journey was about 2 hours long, with an average resting heart rate (I was sleeping/resting) of 238 bpm. This is what got me airlifted to Albuquerque, New Mexico and got the ball rolling on a 3 year journey to find a diagnosis.

.....whew that was alot of work trying to find smaller terms for all of these so you all can understand!

Your heart is an amazing organ and works hard so you don't have to. Please take care of it as much as possible. Eat right, exercise daily, and de-stress as often as possible in a healthy coping manner.

 

The Bucket List

Alrighty! Well I had a great day, I actually felt decent. I slept well and had a smile on my face all day, so I figured today would be a great day to write a fun post.

Some people might think it morbid of me to think that bucket lists are funny, But I think they're actually a great way to live life to the fullest and to remember that its the little things that count.

I'm always adding things on and finding some new ideas. So this is what I have so far. Some things were added at the moment it happened LOL! so I hope you all enjoy and maybe get some ideas of your own :)

MY BUCKET LIST 

Meet Dr. MLK's physician

Go skydiving

Ride a horse

 Get married

Have a family

Travel to Missouri

Gambling in Vegas (Nevada, not Las Vegas, New Mexico)

Buy my own motorcycle

Ride a bull

Build a Baja bug with my boyfriend

Get my BSN (Bachelor's in the Science of Nursing)

Be a flight nurse

Visit family in Mexico

get a tattoo of my first recorded V-tach EKG that started me on this journey

Learn to sew

Learn to bake

Learn to speak Spanish more fluently

Get a tattoo of my favorite spoons, including the mini gold ladle my aunt bought as a gift

Save a life

Learn to roller skate

Learn to play roller derby

Help someone pass pain free and with dignity

Be less shy, and be myself

Stop worrying about making my parents happy, they'll be happy if I'm happy

Find the love of my life

Go to Senior Prom

Run a marathon

Accept a softball scholarship

Learn to two-step

Be a bridesmaid

Reach my goal weight of 130 pounds (I've gained weight since working out has become harder)

Learn to swim

Go to a Deftones Concert

Some of these sound dumb or unbelievable, but what can I say! My bucket list is tailored to me because I wrote it :) and as for my fellow spoonies, I WILL GET THAT SPOON TATTOO!! Just gotta find the right artist for the job. Much love!

 

 

Measuring Spoons

I recently discovered the spoon theory and I am still attempting to figure out what exactly I need.

The Spoon Theory is a metaphor that many people with different types of chronic illnesses utilize in order to describe to a healthy person what our day consists of and how we have to constantly think about when we plan out our days.

The reason I bring this up today is because my boyfriend is struggling to understand why I have enough energy to hang out with my twin, but not have energy to finish the laundry, etc.

So the way I start, I start myself off with 20 spoons a day. You can't add spoons. Spoons are measurements of energy. With each spoon you lose, you lose a level of energy

This is what my day consisted of:

Spoons         Activity
20................getting out of bed
                    getting dressed (I only wear scrubs to work so it's easy) -1 spoon
19................searching for my name tag and looking every where for my  nursing shoes. -1 spoon
18................driving to work in 30 degree weather without a working car heater. -1 spoon
17................morning medication pass -1 spoon
18...............oh man, I didn't realize I had student nurses today. They easily take up -5 spoons
13...............Lunch med pass. Charting on my shift -1 spoon
12...............Meeting with my boss about my current health issues -2 spoons
10...............paying rent -1 spoon  
9................. going to the grocery store or dinner supplies -1 spoon
8.................(this is 6pm barely btw) writing this blog and just thinking about what I still needs
                    to be done today.  -1 spoon 

What still needs to be done today:
                  1 spoon to take a shower
                  1 spoon to finish the load of laundry I didn't finish  folding yesterday
                  1 spoon to eat dinner because I'm so exhausted I'll need to utilize a spoon  
                  1 spot clean the living room and clean dishes after dinner
                  1 to get ready for bed  
 
    So at the end of the night, I'll have 3 spoons left. -1 spoon if I have a hard time falling asleep....

If I run out of spoons, I will have literally made myself sick to the point I could end up in the ER. It has happened before, and it's not a good feeling. The worst part about only having the 3 spoons left is that I'm a nurse and emergencies happen at work all the time! Today luckily nothing exciting happened. But last week when I had someone dying on me, I used 15 spoons to keep the man alive and stable enough to get the the ER across the street....it happened at 7am...I had 5 spoons left for the rest of my day. I was so exhausted I couldn't even cry if I wanted to (and I really wanted to) by the time I got home.

So for anyone with any sort of chronic illness, I would suggest putting this theory into play and see how your life can improve by planning tasks (spoons) ahead of time. And if someone wants to step in your shoes, this is a great way to express what it is like to HAVE to plan activities around your amount of energy you have.

That Moment You Realize...You're NOT Invincible

Today should actually be a happy day for me. My twin is expecting a baby boy, we found out yesterday, and today we designed the baby shower invitations. I should be excited that I'm getting another nephew and I'll be an aunty again...

But reality has hit me pretty hard today.

I'm not married, but I do have a terrific boyfriend that has given me the world and somehow puts up with me and all my medical issues.

But when is it MY turn to start a family? My oldest sister has 2 kids, my other older sister has stepped into the step-mother role and the kids adore her! And now, my twin is pregnant.

When is it my turn to have kids? Possibly after I have maybe another ablation? Will I end up needing a defibrillator/pacemaker because we cant keep my heart under control? If I do need a defibrillator/pacemaker, what are the consenquences of having one of those while I'm pregnant? Will I have to wear a heart monitor throughout my whole entire pregnancy when I do decide to have kids? Will I have to quit my job as a nurse while I'm pregnant and have my partner pick up the slack not only on household chores, but to put bread on the table as well? How much of this nonsense can not only I tolerate, but how much of this can my boyfriend tolerate also? Will I end up burning him out? How will I take care of my kid when they're crying at 3 in the morning and I dont have the energy/strength to get up and feed?

....is it possible to pass AVNRT to my kid if I do decide to start a family???

This normally isn't something a 22 year old should be thinking about. I should be thinking about having fun and traveling and  just living life being young....

How It All Started

So this right now isn't at all close to where this journey starts. But since it's a new blog, we'll start from day 1 and I'll do my best to make a long story short.

Day one actually is literally day 1, our birthday! Yes, "our". I have a twin sister too lol. My mom carried 2 full term twins (which is rare these days). We were both over 7 pounds. My sister WAS supposed to come out first, but then I decided to breach and stick my foot in the canal causing my mom to need a C-section. You can imagine that in the position I placed my twin and I, I caused plenty of stress on all 3 of us. So when they noticed my heart beat was irregular, it was an expected finding. They sent me home with a heart monitor, nothing came of it. Life went on.

I remember in t-ball I passed out one time at practice, doc says dehydration, makes sense.

After riding our dirt bikes (motorcycles) one day in the summer, I passed out (luckily landing mostly on my bed). Doc says DEHYDRATION

In middle school, the PE teacher was teaching us to take our pulses after our lap. So we all do it, and naturally I yell out what I got: "210!!" thinking it was a good thing. Teacher just assumed I counted wrong, I kinda just said "oops"

So fast forward to Junior year in high school. My twin shared Sports Medicine class with me, and we did mostly standing so the benches were clear for any athletes coming in with injuries.
My twin gives me the most eerie look. She races to the bathroom, comes back and says "Wow that was weird, I just threw up but I don't feel sick."  So I blow it off. about 30 seconds later I get this crushing feeling, I'm looking around and there's this orange tint to everything I'm seeing. I feel light headed and felt this throbbing knot in my chest, the same feeling you get when you smash your thumb with a hammer. There's a 5 foot wall dividing the center of the class that the benches are posted on. So I decide to climb a bench on the opposite side so I can watch a demonstration while I'm laying down. Like I said, this is a 5 foot wall. I had to climb up to the 5 foot bench. so I hop on the 3 foot one, stick my arms out to the tall one so I can prop myself up. I propped up, and never made it to sit on the bench. I'm told I passed out trying to tell my teacher "I don't feel good." I didn't finish the sentence. Instead I woke up surrounded by my sister and my teacher, and he had all of my classmates across the room and out of the way. I hear him on the phone with 911: "I cant count her heart rate and I'm not getting a blood pressure but she's awake and breathing." He asks what hurts, so being completely wiped out exhausted, I bring my hands together over my chest and make them look like a heart. I don't remember much of that day, I'm sure I hit my head, and that was a far way to fall.

The following week I was placed with a Holter monitor and given a referral to UNM Children's hospital to see a specialist (3 hours from my hometown), so I decide it's in my best interest and schedule an appointment. The visiting cardiologist from Stanford decides to put me on an event recorder instead, and I could call in my recordings via landline. I was able to set record up to 5 recordings before the memory card got full. A week later, after softball practice we ran our mile to end the practice. between my twin and my older sister, all of us also being marathon runners, we race to see who can win first. I came back and felt slightly more short of breath than normal. So I decide to make a recording. I get in the car to go home and sit on the recording and waste a recording. I sit down to take my cleats off on the garage, and waste another recording. So I decide to call in my recordings in case I needed em the next day and had no room to record. The tech says "I'm going to ask you to hold on while I get the doctor on the phone to talk to you." I can't believe how naive I was, but I just said "Ok!" like it was no big deal. Doc asks my name, date of birth. I reply. Then his next questions struck me off guard. "Are you nauseous? Can you see ok? Are you short of breathe or have pain in your chest?" "uuhhh...no, I'm actually just getting ready to eat dinner." So he yells quickly, "NO, dont eat, put one of your parents on the phone now."

He then gave my dad instructions to go to ER and that he had called to make sure a bed was available and reserved for me for when I got there. So we pack up quickly and go. we get there and I'm hooked up to a heart monitor/ECG immediately, and nothing much was said. I decide to go to sleep since I had school the next day.

1am comes along and I'm being woken up by a nurse in an air-med uniform. She says "Wake up! we've gotta get you to the plane." So of course I'm like, ok cool I get to get on a plane! I'm driven by ambulance to our local airport. Im then put on a med-evac plane. and head out to UNM. the next day I have an EP study done with no results. So we stay up there for about 2 weeks then come back home.

Years down I'm being helped by medications, and they start killing my kidneys being on them long term. So we decide that we need to do another EP study and try to reach a diagnosis to get me off of meds. We decide the next step is to send me to Stanford Univ. for treatment. So we do. Then we learned that I had AVNRT only 30 minutes into the procedure (There was a clock I could see in the cath lab, I refused to go under, so I was under conscious sedation). We celebrated, I was given a cryoablation (they froze the tissue instead of cauterizing it). And that was that....

 Freeze frame of fluoroscopy of my catheterization. They were awesome and printed it

 for me because I told them my mom is a scrap booker.

...3 years later, here I am, typing this telling you that the ablation only lasted this long, and ended up not being a long term cure for my disorder. So now ill be fighting to advocate for myself the medical care I need in conjunction with my cardiologist.

 I have one appointment down, and plenty more to come...

First NEW Cardiac appointment

Recently I have regressed. So I figured I needed to resume my cardiac care.

I had my first appointment yesterday, I was fitted with my FAAAVORTIE Holter monitor (totally being sarcastic lol)

For anyone who has ever worn one of these, you know how uncomfortable they can be

I did have a whole lot of palpitations/arrhythmias at bedtime lasting for several hours. Hopefully they were enough to get us started in making decisions for our next steps of action.

I am scheduled for an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) on 2/13 and will provide that update as well as my Holter monitor update once I get results.

Hello!

I hope anyone with heart issues reads this and starts to follow. I dont know where to start besides saying right now I am having a hard time coping with this chronic illness and figured that if I can at least reach one person with this same disorder and I am able to help them by posting about my "adventures", then I would feel that much better about this. I will be venting on this, providing any advise I possibly can from experience. I am a licensed nurse as well, so hopefully I can answer more in depth questions regarding medical opportunities.

My name is Andi, I'm 22 years old, and I live with AVNRT.