The Cellar - View Single Post - My Heart, My Fear, and the Power of the Mind

elf · 01-26-2005, 11:26 AM

Hey... I don't want to give you more stuff to worry about, but this sounds a little too familiar to me.

Some ten years ago, my husband started having some issues with his heart. Isolated incidents that he couldn't quite explain at first, and each time, it would pass, and he would move along. Figure at twenty-something, you brush it off and move along. We didn't think 'heart condition'. Well, after awhile, the patterns to it started becoming obvious. His heart would kick him every so often, mostly when he hadn't gotten enough sleep or if he was unduly stressed. If he was stresed and lost some sleep, we knew he would have issues the next day.

So off to the doctors we went. It was hard to get them to find the problem to begin with. Sporadic issues are difficult to pin down, and I think that the Hubby's fear of hospitals actually tamped down the issues during transit. Basically, by the time he got hooked up to any machines, his heart would be treating him fine. No problem at all.

Since he was so young, the doctors would just send him on his way, (after asking him fifteen thousand times whether he did any cocaine) saying "there's nothing wrong with you". Yeah. OK. Tell me that at three in the morning when he's laying there, panting and sweating and pale as a ghost and I'm sure I'll be a widow within the next few minutes. Repeat this paragraph about fifteen times over the course of the next few years...

So finally, it got so bad we did the emergency-room thing. His heart rate was over three hundred bpm, at which point your heart isn't pumping blood anymore, it's frothing it. But they got it on record!

Turned out to be Atrial Fibrillation. It's a condition where there's extra electrical patterns in the upper part of his heart that made it go out of synch with the lower portion, then it gets all out of whack trying to catch up with itself.

The docs that originally diagnosed this condition put him on meds that masked the condition by slowing the heart rate down to lethargic...

~jeez. I see what you mean - even just recalling all this stuff still makes my breath catch in my throat~

Well, to make a long story short, there's a procedure we had done called cathater ablasion where they go in with a laser and fry the spots inside the heart that were conducting the extra electrical charges. (scar tissue isn't conductive). They didn't have to open him up for it, just stick a little camera with a laserbeam attached to it through his veins and into his heart.

Now, about two years after, his heart has been treating him.. perfectly.

Anyway. I just wanted to mention all the trials and tribulations we had gone through in order to simply get him properly diagnosed. . .

My main point: if you've any doubts in your mind, get another dr's opinion. Don't ever be afraid to question a doctor. They do know what they're talking about, but they're certainly not infallible.

01-26-2005, 11:26 AM	#9
elf Yay! We're Dooomed! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Mostly: New York. Most Recently: New Jersey. Currently: Colorado Posts: 214	Hey... I don't want to give you more stuff to worry about, but this sounds a little too familiar to me. Some ten years ago, my husband started having some issues with his heart. Isolated incidents that he couldn't quite explain at first, and each time, it would pass, and he would move along. Figure at twenty-something, you brush it off and move along. We didn't think 'heart condition'. Well, after awhile, the patterns to it started becoming obvious. His heart would kick him every so often, mostly when he hadn't gotten enough sleep or if he was unduly stressed. If he was stresed and lost some sleep, we knew he would have issues the next day. So off to the doctors we went. It was hard to get them to find the problem to begin with. Sporadic issues are difficult to pin down, and I think that the Hubby's fear of hospitals actually tamped down the issues during transit. Basically, by the time he got hooked up to any machines, his heart would be treating him fine. No problem at all. Since he was so young, the doctors would just send him on his way, (after asking him fifteen thousand times whether he did any cocaine) saying "there's nothing wrong with you". Yeah. OK. Tell me that at three in the morning when he's laying there, panting and sweating and pale as a ghost and I'm sure I'll be a widow within the next few minutes. Repeat this paragraph about fifteen times over the course of the next few years... So finally, it got so bad we did the emergency-room thing. His heart rate was over three hundred bpm, at which point your heart isn't <i>pumping</i> blood anymore, it's <b>frothing</b> it. But they got it on record! Turned out to be Atrial Fibrillation. It's a condition where there's extra electrical patterns in the upper part of his heart that made it go out of synch with the lower portion, then it gets all out of whack trying to catch up with itself. The docs that originally diagnosed this condition put him on meds that masked the condition by slowing the heart rate down to lethargic... ~jeez. I see what you mean - even just recalling all this stuff still makes my breath catch in my throat~ Well, to make a long story short, there's a procedure we had done called cathater ablasion where they go in with a laser and fry the spots inside the heart that were conducting the extra electrical charges. (scar tissue isn't conductive). They didn't have to open him up for it, just stick a little camera with a laserbeam attached to it through his veins and into his heart. Now, about two years after, his heart has been treating him.. perfectly. Anyway. I just wanted to mention all the trials and tribulations we had gone through in order to simply get him properly diagnosed. . . My main point: <i>if you've any doubts </i>in your mind, get another dr's opinion. Don't ever be afraid to question a doctor. They do know what they're talking about, but they're certainly not infallible.