My Heart

This may or may not come as a bit of a surprise to some of you that I have had some heart issues. I have experienced what I thought were heart palpitations since middle school. It turns out I was experiencing Tachycardia. I kept this mostly to myself, but informed my parents about them sometime around high school. They would come sporadically, usually when I caught my body off guard-like missing a step or bending down and coming up too fast. When I got pregnant with Aiden I found myself having them a little more often and they were harder to stop. Now after my pregnancy with Devin I began having them for no apparent reason at all, just sitting in the movie theater on one occasion. Given that my Grandmother, and 2 Uncles on my mom's side have all died from heart issues, I figured it was about time I take this seriously and see a Cardiologist. My mother had me see a doctor right after my Uncle Bob died, a few months before I got married, and had an Echo done. Everything seemed normal except for a minor murmur. So nothing more came of that.
Last month I made an appointment to see a cardiologist at our Heart Center and he scheduled me to have a Stress/Echo test done and put me on a heart monitor/event recorder to see if they could get one of my 'episodes' recorded. The recorder works by pressing the button if you have an episode, or it will automatically make a recording if it detects your heart going above or below a set pulse rate. My recorder would automatically record about twice a day-and I would have to call it in and send the readings over the phone. Not even a week after I had the recorder I got a call from the Cardiologist stating that they were going to refer me to their Electrophysiologist (EP), and that they would call me to set up an appointment within 2-4 weeks depending on what they saw on my EKG's from the recorder, my stress/echo results were not in yet. I got a phone call a few hours later telling me that my appointment was in 2 weeks. I was told to make sure I continued with the monitor and send everything in. Another week went by and I got a phone call from my cardiologist again stating my stress/echo results were back and everything looked fine except for the EKG portion of the test-and again wanted me to consult with the EP. My doctor saw evidence that I had Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW) and that the EP would be able to definitively diagnose it. I told them I already had an appointment scheduled, and they were glad.
So I just had my appointment with the EP and he concluded that I do have WPW and that the best way to treat me was to have a catheter ablation done. With WPW, there is an abnormal "bridge" of tissue, called an accessory pathway, that is connecting the atria and ventricles-and this extra pathway can allow rapid heart rhythms. The catheter ablation destroys the bridge of tissue, and in most cases provides a permanent cure. My doctor can tell by my EKG's that I have one on my right side, but there is a good possibility I have more than one. I am scheduled for surgery on May 29th where they will do and Electrophysiology Study (EP study) where they insert special electrode catheters into the heart. These catheters can sense electrical activity in different areas of the heart, and also deliver tiny electrical impulses to pace the heart. This will allow the doctors to see where my accessory pathways are, and then continue with the ablation procedure. They anticipate for the surgery to take about 3-4 hours depending on where the pathways are located. If I have any on the arterial side (left side) then it can be a little more complicated and require an extra day or two of recovery. They anticipate for me to stay overnight for observation and then just a few days of taking it easy. After that and an aspirin a day for a month I should be as good as new.

Here is a website that briefly describes all this.

Heart surgery is nothing to sneeze at that, and there are of course real complications to consider-however they are rare. My doctor has been doing this procedure for over 20 years and has a very good success rate. I do feel I'm in capable hands, and that this is the right course of action for me. I was born with these accessory pathways and have lived this long :) However there can be real complications if left untreated. I want to be able to live a normal healthy life with my family and not feel restricted to do things because I'm afraid of having an episode, as I have in the past.
I want to thank you for all of your thoughts and concerns. I'm sorry to those who were unaware I was having any issues...I did keep this to myself for many years-my own sister was caught off guard a few weeks ago when she first learned I was going to the doctor. Your prayers are always welcome, and I'm grateful we finally have the answers we needed, and that I can stop wearing the recorder now :)