my own home run.

Wow.

That's really the only word I can use to describe the last 7 days.

Last Wednesday at 11:30am I received word that I would be having a 3rd cardiac ablation. The message from my cardio office said they wanted to get it done quicker than later, with the 17th being the latest they'd let me go. I was at work so this was all via voicemail. By 1:30pm (same day) I had another call from them. Normally I don't sneak around at work to answer my phone, but a second call the same day? I was a lil nervous. I snuck into a bathroom and am glad I did. I don't think I would have been able to take what I heard over a voicemail.

I was told after looking at my latest EKG readings that were being transmitted, they didn't feel I should wait that long. With the levels of tachycardia they were seeing and the fact my cardiologist was going to be on a 12 day cruise around Christmas, as a repeat cath-er they didn't want to be in a position of something happening while he was unreachable. This was all on Wednesday the 2nd. I was scheduled now to check in to the hospital on Friday the 4th @ 10am. 48 hours notice- the shortest I've had yet.

All was going well upon check in. I wasn't too overly nervous (at least as little nervous as one could be in said situation...) Because we did it where I work I had a $0 dollar copay (YAH!) and they were even able to get my IV in on the first try - something not common for me! As standard they did an EKG in pre CTC and, as standard, I was sinus tach - just tickin along at about 115 BPM. Awesome. This was what we were there for, I guess, right?

This is where the wow factor begins.

My doctor got into my heart and within half an hour had found an irritable spot that he got rid of. For most, this would have been the end of it. An irritable spot can easily be the cause of the palpitations, the racing heart, the discomfort and shortness of breath even. However. Not for someone who is on the table mid 3rd ablation procedure. Luckily for me, my doctor knew there had to be something deeper. As he said it, "he knows me". After mapping the electrical circuits of my heart, they were seeing something, well, strange. Something they weren't certain they were seeing. So they remapped. And there it was. Thinking maybe I was moving, they gave me the amount of sedation they give to someone likely 5 times my size! They didn't want me moving at all. They mapped once more. This time, still seeing what they thought was a movement error, they were stumped.

My sinus node was right where it should be. But it wasn't doing what it should be. It wasn't doing, well, anything. What was causing my heartbeat you ask? An irritable spot, just like the one they had ablated during the 2nd procedure in August and just like the spot they had started this procedure freezing off. What was different about this one? It was acting as the pacemaker for my heart. The big whig. The whole shebang. The one and only. Not only that, but it was about 3cm higher than where the pacemaker should be. In terms of cardiac anatomy, that puts you just outside the heart. Nestled happily in the superior vena cava.

Yup. Not only did I have an unquestionably unstable pacemaker keeping my heart ticking, but it wasn't even IN my heart. At this point, my doctor was on the phone with one of his colleagues. Do we cryoablate the irritable pacemaker and cross our fingers that the real one somehow knows what to do and kicks in? Do we have an implantable pacemaker ready on standby to implant when we kill the only working pacemaker in this heart?

Yes.

Yes to both.

A temporary freeze of the irritable spot to determine if the pacemaker would kick in and decide from there. A lil freeze freeze here and a freeze freeze there...

Boom.

Normal sinus node....WORKING. For what could very easily be the first time...well, ever.

I was under enough sedation to knock a sumo wrestler out, and still was hitting 120BPM regularly. As soon as the normal pacemaker kicked in, I shot down to a slow, steady 65BPM or so.

To ensure they got "everything" my doctor paced my heart at levels he has never done before. When he rounded the next day he threw out the phrase "dangerous levels" and "levels I've never done before". I was pretty thankful at that point he had knocked me out as much as he had!

Four hours later they decided to call it. They had gotten everything they could find, including something they'd never expected to ever see.

Life has taken on a whole new quality since Saturday (I chose Saturday because Friday was incredibly miserable and there was still way too much healing to be done for it to count). The simplest things that used to throw my heart into one of its major episodes: sneezing, laughing, getting up quickly, etc, etc. Now...now they're just that: simple. Uneventful. Wonderful.

I go for a follow up on Thursday. I know I won't get a name for what I had. Friday night my doctor conferenced with some other electrophysiologists across the country. Neither of them had even heard of what they found, neither of them have encountered anything like it. It's safe to say all were stumped. Really, really stumped. (At this point I'm thinking I could be in a medical journal...just saying! haha)

Am I 110% out of the woods? I don't think so. Will I have to continue periodic follow up? I'm sure. Is there still a chance it'll all come back? You bet. Apparently I have a sneaky heart.

But for now, I'm resting at a comfortable 74-88bmp SINUS. RHYTHM.

A beautiful, wonderful home run.

I got some pretty awesome pictures to explain all this mumbo jumbo...I'll scan them in soon.