... I just so happen to have a post-op appointment tomorrow.
I was laying on the couch this evening and experienced an episode very similar to what I've felt in the past. Fingers crossed it's NOT that extra electrical pathway in my heart acting up that my doctors THOUGHT they "killed". I should know more tomorrow - and will likely end up wearing another CardioNet monitor for a month. I knew this was a possibility when I spoke with my EP cardiologist on the phone last week. He said he wanted to throw another monitor on me if I had more tachycardia issues... and of course, I have.
Pray that things so well tomorrow!
It looks like I will be in the hospital next weekend for IV meds.
Then in about 2.5 weeks I go back to Columbia for my 1 year post-op appointment as a follow-up to last year's heart surgery. (atrial septal defect closure) Yay for health insurance to cover all of these appointments and visits!
On a happier note - I enjoyed some mint chocolate chip ice cream last night... which I purchased at the world's largest dairy store. Yummo!
night,
Rach
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Where do I find myself, today?
Okay, this post is bound to be a bit "wordy".
Well, I'm about 358 days out from heart surgery #1, and about 14 days out from heart surgery #2.
Isn't it amazing where a year can take you?
The funny thing is, I'm not sure I would trade the last 12 months of my life. Yeah, it's easy to say I wish I didn't have to deal with some of the medical stuff... but at the same time, when I look back and reflect on where I am right now, I think I've really "lived" a lot in the past 358 days! I take that back, I KNOW I have!
Let's see... it all started back in August of 2008 when I had heart surgery and received patch/implant, which basically serves as a new wall separating the upper two chambers of my heart. Then immediately upon recovering, we jetted off to celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We went on a cruise out of Florida, headed down to Central America, and were able to visit Mexico (again), and got to visit Belize, and Honduras for the first time. It was amazing!
Then the holidays came... and went... and we found ourselves on a flight headed back to one of our favorite European cities - Barcelona, Spain! We hopped on a ship and sailed to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Malta, and then back to Spain. I still can't believe that I got to go to Egypt! Wow!
April approached, and guess what... another surgery! This time it was on my shoulder and neck. You should see my scars!
Fast forward to Easter, and we end up zooming over to Nevada to spend a few days in Las Vegas. Guess what else we did? We hopped into a helicopter and flew through the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and landed inside of it!
In May I found myself in New York spending a day at a teaching with the Dalai Lama. What an experience that was!
Okay, we can't forget July... July was a pretty big month. We spent the first 5 days of July in Paris, France visiting family. Paris is very closer to our hearts (no pun intended!) because this is where we got engaged.
July also found us back in the hospital, up against another heart surgery, imagine that! Pretty soon I'll be fully recovered from THAT surgery.
Speed ahead to early September of 2009, and you'll find us globetrotting over to Tokyo, Japan!
Throw in about, let's say... 12 or so weekends in the hospital, a few visits to the ER, and no less than what, 20 doctors appointments, several trips up to Maine to visit my family, a whole bunch of other stuff, and there you have it... The most adventurous year of my life!
Sure, there have been quite a few "ups and down" over the past year. However, I think that all of the downs really gave us a nudge to "live it up" and do a few things we never imagined in our wildest dreams!
Life is good. I wouldn't change things. I've learned and experienced too much. Yes, not just the ups. I've also really lived through those "downs". But that's a good thing, because I've learned more from the downs than I have the ups. Make sense? Haha, it must all sound a bit crazy, but I value the down days more than I value the up days... If it weren't for the downs, I wouldn't appreciate the ups!
Has anything in your life caused such an impact?
Heh, okay... I also had braces on my teeth for a few months, stuck my head in a lion's mouth (see below) and drank MANY milkshakes from Stew Leonard's.
Well, I'm about 358 days out from heart surgery #1, and about 14 days out from heart surgery #2.
Isn't it amazing where a year can take you?
The funny thing is, I'm not sure I would trade the last 12 months of my life. Yeah, it's easy to say I wish I didn't have to deal with some of the medical stuff... but at the same time, when I look back and reflect on where I am right now, I think I've really "lived" a lot in the past 358 days! I take that back, I KNOW I have!
Let's see... it all started back in August of 2008 when I had heart surgery and received patch/implant, which basically serves as a new wall separating the upper two chambers of my heart. Then immediately upon recovering, we jetted off to celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We went on a cruise out of Florida, headed down to Central America, and were able to visit Mexico (again), and got to visit Belize, and Honduras for the first time. It was amazing!
Then the holidays came... and went... and we found ourselves on a flight headed back to one of our favorite European cities - Barcelona, Spain! We hopped on a ship and sailed to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Malta, and then back to Spain. I still can't believe that I got to go to Egypt! Wow!
April approached, and guess what... another surgery! This time it was on my shoulder and neck. You should see my scars!
Fast forward to Easter, and we end up zooming over to Nevada to spend a few days in Las Vegas. Guess what else we did? We hopped into a helicopter and flew through the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and landed inside of it!
In May I found myself in New York spending a day at a teaching with the Dalai Lama. What an experience that was!
Okay, we can't forget July... July was a pretty big month. We spent the first 5 days of July in Paris, France visiting family. Paris is very closer to our hearts (no pun intended!) because this is where we got engaged.
July also found us back in the hospital, up against another heart surgery, imagine that! Pretty soon I'll be fully recovered from THAT surgery.
Speed ahead to early September of 2009, and you'll find us globetrotting over to Tokyo, Japan!
Throw in about, let's say... 12 or so weekends in the hospital, a few visits to the ER, and no less than what, 20 doctors appointments, several trips up to Maine to visit my family, a whole bunch of other stuff, and there you have it... The most adventurous year of my life!
Sure, there have been quite a few "ups and down" over the past year. However, I think that all of the downs really gave us a nudge to "live it up" and do a few things we never imagined in our wildest dreams!
Life is good. I wouldn't change things. I've learned and experienced too much. Yes, not just the ups. I've also really lived through those "downs". But that's a good thing, because I've learned more from the downs than I have the ups. Make sense? Haha, it must all sound a bit crazy, but I value the down days more than I value the up days... If it weren't for the downs, I wouldn't appreciate the ups!
Has anything in your life caused such an impact?
Heh, okay... I also had braces on my teeth for a few months, stuck my head in a lion's mouth (see below) and drank MANY milkshakes from Stew Leonard's.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
I can certainly say...
...that this recovery is different than the recovery I had last year. I can't say it's "better" or "worse". It's just "different".
I'm experiencing more physical discomfort this time around. Last time I was having issue with aura, etc. Since last week's surgery, I've been suffering from chest pain and an incredibly amount of tenderness at my incision sites.
I'm taking it easy, and spending most of my time laying down. Most of what I do these days, I do laying down. Hopefully after a few more days of this and I'll be a little further down "Recovery Road".
I had a pulmonary function test on Monday, and some meds have been increased. We drop a few arrhythmia meds off the list while we wait and see of my ablated arrhythmia returns... and add a few to make up for them. Ha, as long as things aren't going downhill I' m happy.
Next week I see the electrophysiologist (arrhythmia doctor) for another follow-up, and then about two weeks after that... I see my congenital heart defect specialist for a ONE YEAR post-op appointment. (For anyone that's new here, I had my first heart surgery back in August of 2008.) My doctor will perform another echocardiogram to evaluate the implant he inserted which now serves as a new wall separating the upper chambers of my heart. I'm also going to talk to him about my mitral valve. While in the hospital last week, I was surprised to hear one of the electrophysiologist fellows questioning me about it, and what symptoms I've been
experiencing. Ahh... I didn't know things were looking as though I "could" be having symptoms. *scratches head*On a happier note, I got my braces off. I'm VERY happy with my new smile. You'll see pics one of these days. :)
Off to get another ice pop.
Rachel
Saturday, July 18, 2009
I'm home... and have pictures from my journey.
Here's a visual recap of my crazy week. As always... more to come... eventually...
Sisters making a good luck "heart" with our hands, before going into surgery.
Looking pretty worn out, eh? Heck, they pretty much induced a heart attack, deadly arrhythmias, paced my heart, and shocked it with electrical currents, etc. My body went through a LOT! I'm looking pretty good in this picture, ha!
Recovering in the hospital with my mom. Notice the blood pressure cuff I had to wear 24/7. It squeezed my arm every 5 minutes. Try sleeping with that sucker on. Even after my atrial septal defect repairs I STILL have dangerously low blood pressure.
The view from my hospital room at
Columbia University Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital. They wouldn't put me on the VIP floor this time. I was put into an observation room with a glass wall opposite the nurse's station on the cardiac floor. At least I got the bed next to outside window. :) My room was directly over the front door to the hospital.
Get me out of here! Enough of these wires already!
Home at last! Rocking my "Congenital Heart Defects, Nobody's Perfect" t-shirt.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
out of surgery
...and spent most of the night in a healthy sinus rhythm. Preliminary tests show that they believe they were able to destroy an accessory pathway on my atrioventricular node in my right upper chamber. Only time will tell, though. (For anyone that isn't a CHD patient, maybe one of these days I'll go into detail and explain exactly what that means.)Yesterday's surgery took about 6 hours, and the entire situation was pretty traumatizing. I'm still digesting all that happened. Just imagine being shocked while you're awake... I had 6 or 7 entry sites, an IV heplock in my arm, and an IV heplock in each leg. I didn't even know they did that!
Hanging out in an observation room by the nurse's station on the cardiac wing, and am all "wired" up and attached to monitors. Not feeling too good this morning...
Wonder why I'm blogging? Because it's either that, or stare at the wall. Having my laptop perched on the little table that slides over my bad is a nice outlet. I'm here, but I'm not.
I'm going to try and get back to sleep. My body has been through a lot in the past 24 hours, so I owe it some R&R!
There's ice pops waiting for me at home... Gotta focus on the prize, right? :)
Rach
Sunday, July 12, 2009
I haven't been MIA
I've just been over tired, traveling, scared about my upcoming surgery (and typing about it, is re-living that uneasy emotion), and all of a sudden shy about blogging.
I'm dreading surgery next week, and already starting my countdown to TOKYO!!
It's always important that I have something to look forward to. Distractions are GOOD!
xox
Rachel
The weekend before last I was in the hospital for an infusion (not how I like to spend my weekends)...
Then last weekend, I was in Paris, France (exactly how I like to spend my weekends)...
I'm dreading surgery next week, and already starting my countdown to TOKYO!!
It's always important that I have something to look forward to. Distractions are GOOD!
xox
Rachel
Thursday, July 9, 2009
has it really been almost a month?
The motivation to blog, sure has been lacking.
I've been to Maine, in and out of the hospital, and to Paris and back over the past few weeks. I having nothing but pictures to account for my trip to maine, still have a nasty bruise from my IV hep-lock to prove my visit to the hospital for an infusion, and yummy French chocolates to attest to the fact that flew to Paris last weekend.
Aside from that, there's nothing new in my world!
I'll try and get everyone up to speed in the next day or two, as July 15th quickly approaches...
Sorry for being MIA! Sometimes I'm a bit shy about blogging... although I know quite a few of my friends and family members rely on my blog to "stay in the loop".
I promise to update my blog on the happenings of the coming days and weeks.
I've been to Maine, in and out of the hospital, and to Paris and back over the past few weeks. I having nothing but pictures to account for my trip to maine, still have a nasty bruise from my IV hep-lock to prove my visit to the hospital for an infusion, and yummy French chocolates to attest to the fact that flew to Paris last weekend.
Aside from that, there's nothing new in my world!
I'll try and get everyone up to speed in the next day or two, as July 15th quickly approaches...
Sorry for being MIA! Sometimes I'm a bit shy about blogging... although I know quite a few of my friends and family members rely on my blog to "stay in the loop".
I promise to update my blog on the happenings of the coming days and weeks.
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