I was diagnosed with SVTs when I was 14 years old, it was never active until I had my little one. I had her at Kaiser and the level of irresponsibility (tu put it kindly) at that hospital really shocked me. Well, my heart rate was going crazy, they made me have a natural birth which was not good for me and made me wait 2 days in and out of SVT episodes of 250 bpm. I finally had my little one and the stress on my body from them having made me wait two days messed my heart up. I ended up having to have ablations. The Electrophysiologist was so rude and full of himself I was shocked. He even told my family that I was only having the ablation done because I wanted to, not because I needed it. After he got to see one of the episodes I had he changed his mind and became a bit more humble towards my case. Well, he did the first one but didn't know where the electrical signal was coming from, they had me there for 6 hours before giving up. After that I had two more and they did burn some spots but didn't find the source of the SVTs. It got better but I still have problems with it.
Every now and then when my magnesium gets down by a hairline or when I am stressed or have caffeine I go into a crazy SVT episode where my heart stays between 150 and 200 and won't go down until they shoot me through an IV with some beta blocker (hi never I am on at the time). Yesterday I had an episode that scared me as the rhythm wouldn't slow, even after 2 shots of metoprolol and a 5 ml shot of adenosine then another 12 ml. Now, I'm sure some of you have had adenosine and know how it is no fun.
I am seeing a group of Electrophysiologists at Stanford hospital, they are also geneticists and genetic counselors and experts and they want to do another ablation. I will be honest, I am scared. Apparently the problem is on the left side on the upper chambers of my heart so that makes it a bit more dangerous (that it's on the left side) and it also makes it a bit scary. The death risk is 1 maybe 2 in 10,000 and that is only for older people, I am in my 30s but I have a child. I am everything my child has and my child is everything I have and as every parent, I fear my child not having me there. I guess I am ultimately looking for someone to say "Pearl, stop being silly. You will be fine." The doctor who will be doing the ablation has done 100s before and never lost anyone so that's comforting but has he done an ablation on someone who's had 2 before and one attempted? Do the more ablations you have make it more dangerous to have another one? Those are all things playing in my mind and sanity.
Ugh!