thinline any anybody else,lol

[mommyto4]

hey there, hope you had a good hat shopping day!!
ok , so here is the story, about 3 yrs ago i started having pvc's,my 4th baby was about 6mos old
holter in march 05 ,.showed about 900 pvc'sand  775 pac's etc.just reading on bottom of report doc wrote frequent pvc's, couplets, sinus tach..i was to take meds, but i declined as i was stilll breast feeding.....ohh avg pulse was 83 but i used to have a pulse of 68beats per min....

so , i did nothing for a long while,long story finally went to ep in sept 2006.he didn't think too much of this but i said, no they are much much worse, so i told him i wanted a long term holter, well i did the 30 day holter and it was crazy, everyday, all day pvc's had 3 episodes of vtach,some of report reads.....uniform pvc's. mutiforms pvc's, pairs, triplets, bigeminy, tri,when in vtach heart rate was 205-250.......
ok, can i ask a question here, vtach is 3 or more pv'c's in a row??and what else??
i had a stress test without the cardiolyte, i declined.....i had vt before starting the test , went away during and was terrible on cool down.dizzy, lightheaded, etc
ok, so ep was like you
have to take meds, discussed ablation and i was like wait wait
so i took toprol and almost died, HA HA it was terrible, my pulse was barely 50, just like poop stopped it and started verapamil, which we played around with for about a yr

so up to date appt in oct i told him on meds i was bad, having like 10-20pvc's in a minute, so what is that in a day??LOL
so i finally agreed to ablation and you remember the torture, ha ha
but i have to say i do believe it was successful, i just have a few blurbs here and there everyday but nothing to talk about
ohhhh before this echo every valve had some degree of regur
trace in aortic and pulmonic and mild in tricuspid and mitral???and i having bowing of mitral valve?but he said it is not prolapsed?

so i was very interested to see how regur in tricuspid was 2 wks ago now that pvc's in right ventricle  was sooooooooo much better...anyway, same regur, but he said mitral just just trace and not mild...which who really makes that call??

ok if you got this far i am just babbling out info

hope you understood it all
thanks sooo much
hugs
maria
ps had an mri of right ventricle it is fine, but never had mri of heart?should i???and i do think they said i need another stress test, should i do the dye???

[mommyto4]

thinline, so where was your arrhythmia??that makes me jealous, lol, he said he couldn't give me more drugs to not get the arrhythmia and he was very surprised to find 3 foci areas!!!
he said they were directly under my pulmonary valve...like dangerously close
ok, please tell me yours was in a diff area.lol
hugs and feel better
maria

[Thinline]

Hi Maria.  Your doc sounds like a bit of a sadist.  How dare he not warn you that it was going to be so painful.  If you are forewarned that there will be pain or discomfort, you can prepare mentally for that.  The entire ablation experience is stressful, just that room is daunting.  My doc doesn't have a heart so it sounds like he'd get on well with yours.  At the hospital where I've had my ablations, the EP lab is connected to the cardiac cath lab, and I have such a reputation there.  When I get going with the drug induced psychosis it brings out the worst in me, and cursing is just the beginning.  I have to be strapped down to the table to keep me down because once I jumped up and threatened to smack the cardio.  I must tell you I am a very non-violent person, so such behaviour is totally out of character for me.  I also get into joke mode and tell the most racy jokes I know.  People stand at the door of the EP lab watching this entire thing just for the entertainment value.  They get quite excited when they know I'll be coming in for a procedure, everyone in there knows me by my first name and they all come speak to me while I wait.  It's odd cause I only know the EP lab people.  My mom calls me "Fairy Mouth" because I swear so much, so you can imagine when I really get going how bad it is!  I think I have more fear of how badly I'm going to behave than I do of whatever procedure I'm going to have.  With my last ablation they had to stop because they had used so many drugs to try keep me out that I heard the doc saying "we would have killed a bull elephant with all these drugs", they told me they used on me what they usually use on all their procedures in the lab in a week.  They had to send the person who was scheduled for his ablation right after me home because they didn't have enough stock of the drugs to do another one.  He must have been well and truly hacked off!!!!  I know when they sent me to ICU they told the nurse to keep waking me up because they had given me so much medication and were worried I might go to sleep and not wake up, but I barely slept at all that night.

I definitely think I'm going to do the book thing.  Still considering how much work its going to be though, but I think it would benefit a lot of people.

[mommyto4]

wow thinline what a big, expressive book that would be, lol!!!!
sorry you didn't have a good day, let's hope tomorrow is better for you!!!
my ablation story goes like this
I WAS UP THE WHOLE TIME, KEPT TELLING THEM THAT, lol
then my entire body was shaking the table when they put me into vt
THEN THE TORTURE
OMG, I CAN TAKE PAIN SISTER, LOL
but it was sooo terrible, i started to cry and called out for help, dont[ know what a heart attack feels like but i had chest pain from right shoulder across through the left side and felt like 100 bricks were laying on my chest
they ONLY pushed versed.....wth
then i remember crying 2 more times, took me a while to figure out that was the 3 foci areas, but he said he burned them 18 times, so it took me a while to realize that i felt each area being burned, they pushed versed the second cry and F$#%% FINALLY they gave me demerol!!
thinline, i was and i am still a bit upset , i felt sooo violated
when i went for my f/u he said he didn't want me to sleep as once he found one arrhythmia another one came up and he couldn't give me more meds
WHATEVER, i take comfort in knowing that other people also had pain because when i first came on here i felt sooo upset that everyone who had an ablation was sleeping, didn't remember anything and were soo drugged!!!!
ok, now that you got me all fired up, lol

i guess i have to be grateful, ha ha
and think that if he did medicate me more maybe he would have missed a foci area and i would have more arrhythmia, lol!!!
ok, how was that for a  story, too bad you can't curse here
ohhhhh speaking of cursing, after the first set of frying of my heart i said' i  said, oh how this sucks, i feel like cursing since there are no kids here" and the doc said'I don't think you should curse!!!!!!!!!!
HELLO, i should have had some choice words for him,lol

also at f/u i said, 'it was torture and would you have done that do your daughter??
at end he said it was where my arrhythmia was and that he didn't want to tell me that it would hurt or i wouldn't have done it
ok i am babbling, lol
hugs
night
maria

[Thinline]

Hi Maria
Hat shopping!  Ha, I’m thinking I was over optimistic about how I’m feeling.  I did not take a shower or bath before we went shopping so I could conserve my energy.  Needless to say, by the time I’d drawn money at the ATM I was tired and ready to go home.  I did the basics that needed doing.  Never even set eyes upon a hat.  Came home and was absolutely exhausted for the rest of the day.  Even today I feel very tired.

The hats will have to wait till I have more energy and can deal with people better.  One good thing about not going out is that nobody sees my lovely blonde locks getting scragglier and thinner.  Can’t miss the hideous sight of my face.  The cortisone has made my face massive – I’ve got all the side-effects, red face, moon face, hump back, hairy face – you name it I’ve got it.  I sorted the facial hair out with an Epilator.  Jeez using that thing is like using some kind of Chinese Torture Device, it was agony, my face had become rather hairy though and so I decided ripping out the hair with an epilator would be a good idea!  When women are in labour they should hand them an epilator then they can feel real pain!  On the positive side, I no longer have facial hair.  I’ll be weaned off the cortisone in another week and it will take about three months for the moon-face and back hump to go away.  Yuk, it’s a terrible sight to behold.  Maybe I should consider getting one of those Muslim outfits, the ones where only your eyes can be seen, then I don’t even have to worry about the hair – just do a total cover-up.  Don’t know how well it would go down around here as we live in a very Jewish community!

Thanks for all the info about your health issues, at least now I sort of know what goes on with you.  I need to sit and read through it properly and look up anything I don’t understand before I comment

I do know about bad ablation experiences, I’ve had three EP studies, 2 ablations, and a 3rd attempted ablation which lasted over 7 hours and they still couldn’t induce a tachy.  I was so cheesed off.  If the new drug I’m supposed to be taking (too scared with all the other meds I’m on) does not work I’m probably going to have my av node re-ablated because it worked so well the first time, it lasted for 7 years, and I’m already pacemaker dependent, so another av nodal ablation would be my choice.  Probably with a different doc though, but that is a whole nother story.  During all the EP studies and ablations I was awake most of the time and on my worst behaviour.  Tell me about your ablation experience.  I’d like to compare.

I have no structural problems with my heart at all.  It’s a really good heart, its just the electrics that don’t work properly.  I have IST (Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia) and POTS, so I have very limited treatment options left to me.

I don’t know about the dye in relation to a stress test, you’ll have to tell me more.  To me a stress test is when you are hooked up to an EKG machine and BP machine and PulseOx meter and then you go walkies on the treadmill.  I’ve never had anything done with dye except contrast CT scans, but as I say, my heart is perfect in every way but the electric circuit has gone awry, so I don’t have all that many tests done.  As I said, I’ll give you my personal opinion if I know what you are going to have.  

I’m considering getting everyone’s ablation stories and putting them into a book.  I don’t want all good or all bad, I want to be able to have a book which explains to people exactly what they can expect.  It would be quite a project, I’d have to get stats etc, from all over the world, so I must consider carefully before I take that one on.  Also patients are always keen to share their stories, good or bad, but doctors are very reluctant to share anything – especially the bad.  

What do think?

[mommyto4]

hi dawn, thanks for repying, funny thing is i never even knew i had pac's till i got a copy of my holter results, lol!!
i guess they will want the stress test to see how heart does after the ablation
the only real concern right now is the elevated heart rate of 140 after just climbinb up my steps and before the ablaition , feeling as yucky as i did  i worked out at least  4days per wk?
ok thanks again, wishing your family and you well also
ciao for now
maria

[ddavey]

almost everyone has some trace regurg in valves,   it shouldn't be anything to worry about.  if you think your ablation was successful and you are feeling better that is great news.    why do you think they want you to have another stress test?   are your pac's and pvc's causing you problems in your day?   just curious, as my daughter had over 27,000 pac's on a 48 hr holter and she doesn't mention them much...         wishing you and your children good health          dawn

[mommyto4]

not that is matters but i messed up the regurg..lol
in05 it was mild in tri and pulm and trace in mitral and aortic?which i did read it is weird to have any degree of regur in aortic?(is there a better test to check?)
and now in dec it was trace in pulm and mitral, supposedly none in aortic and still mild in tri
thanks again
i feel like i just did a report, ha ha!!!