Heart Story by Kelly Feel like you are caught up in a storm in your life? Then READ ON. <>< TRUST the LORD! This is a story of my heart "condition". I feel compelled to write it. Maybe you too are having a health problem? Last year at the age of thirty seven I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, and atrial flutter. (paroxsymal) I am a single mother with two young kids. This began back in July I believe it was..... At first I believed when I first noticed that I was having an episode, I had chest pains with it. I thought that I had my blood pressure "up" possibly. I kept thinking that it would go away if I ignored it. After all, I was only thirty seven! I never dreamed that I had atrial fibrillation. I felt weak, my pulse started to speed up, and then became erratic. I was at work, and luckily enough we have a medical department there. So, I decided to go see the doctor there and get them to check my blood pressure. He thought initially I was trying to get away with something...like WORK. But, as he listened to my heart, and checked my blood pressure, he decided to get an EKG. This confirmed my problem. He and the nurse just stared at the paper, and he told me I was going to have to go to the Emergency Room at the hospital. I asked what was wrong with me, but, he said I wouldn't know what it was, and if I did, it may scare me WORSE. So, this was the beginning of almost a year of heart related ER visits. My first time at the ER went pretty smooth. I was told that it was probably a freak thing and that I wouldn't need to take any medicenes for this. I was given a drug Cardizem and it got me back into a normal sinus rhythem. The second time back to ER was not long afterwards. This time I was given medicene to take. The cardiologist was suprised but, never dreamed I would turn into the regular visitor that I would become shortly after this. The third time being the charm, I developed atrial flutter and they tried all kinds of medicenes to get me into a normal heartbeat pattern. I was in the hospital for several days when I decided to get a cardiac catheter ablation. I was not in the best of shape, and I kept the nurses fairly busy. The fear I had was quite real. After all, I was very young to be having this problem.....as I was told mostly older people had this. I was a rare case and I didn't fit the norm. I didn't smoke, or drink. (If you call drinking about 3 times a year drinking) The cardiologist told me people get this in their seventies. He said some in their sixties, and a few in their fifties. WOW. I really couldn't understand all this. I thought that I might die, and I had to give that feeling up of fear. So, I prayed and prayed. I felt like the best thing to do was get the ablation. When you see fear on a nurses face waking you up out of a sound sleep asking you if you are alright......as she is shaking you to wake up...it is scary. But, by then you are in pure DENIAL to make it through without becoming insane. I knew things weren't going well. I had to tell God that He knew in my heart what I wanted. I wanted to LIVE. I wanted to live for my kids if nothing else. I was a Christian and I wasn't afraid of death. But, I didn't want to leave my kids. I told God that I wouldn't fight Him over this....that it was His choice through this surgery. Also I faced the chance of stroke, death, and being put on a pacemaker during the procedure.......probably more but, I cannot remember that. I was taken to the other hospital for my ablation. I had hoped for a complete cure with this procedure so I could lead a "normal life" and be drug free. The anti-arrythmic drugs are not very friendly to the body. Lots of side effects go with them. Also I had to take aspirin daily. The day of the ablation came and went. The surgery went well. I was cured of atrial flutter, temporarily. I was given Betapace still....which made me very sick feeling initially. I was thrilled to walk out of that hospital. Little did I know that the surgery only cured atrial flutter, not atrial fibrillation. I got atrial fibrillation back not long afterwards. I was filled with despair once again. I thought everything would be JUST FINE. Little did I know what I would be in for to come... I was going in and out of the hospital so much I lost track with atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter. I cannot tell you how bad it felt and can feel to have at times. Sometimes it isn't so bad. Other times you feel like you are gonna DIE. It will scare you and I cannot tell you what living with chest pains is like. I had to give God all this.....the load of the burden was too much for me to carry alone. I had to constantly find someone to watch my kids. I felt terrible all the time. I knew my job was losing patience with me. I was constantly trying a new medication and always finding that it didn't work EITHER. I had to force myself to work on more days than I could possibly count. I am only supposed to miss 3 times a year, or 6 days total without being a discipline problem. I definitely exceeded that. It became so bad that I had to be put on light duty for a while. I got the "talk" from supervision about me not getting an easier job unless my doc said this was permanent. If it was permanent, I wouldn't be able to do my job anymore, and these days the company just cannot put me in an easier job like they used to do...cutbacks and all. I'm sure someone has heard that line before! That added stress I'm sure helped my heart problem alot. Yes, I'm being sarcastic...sorry. I work in a heavy physical and mentally stressful job. It was getting physically impossible for me. Mentally I was having a hard time coping. Without GOD, and my friends, and church friends, I don't think I could of done it quite as well. Then the day of reckoning came. I thought I was having a heart attack. Until that day I had FOUGHT taking a blood thinner. I knew if I did, I wouldn't be able to work at my job anymore. I took aspirin daily instead. BUT, this day was the absolute worst. I lost my hearing....everything went black, I couldn't breath, and then I had unbelievable pain in my chest. My heart was beating wildly and I was scared to death. I called on JESUS to help me first of all.....and then I called a friend to take me to the hospital. That night I listened to an internal med doc on call for my doc. She told me how I needed to take the Coumadin, and I decided to go along and quit fighting it. This doctor was one in a million. She got out of bed to come see me at ER. She stayed on for a while to see I was okay. She really talked to me and you could tell she wasn't your average 1-2 minute "on call" doc. I admired her so much for that. She is the one who talked me into Coumadin. Even though I knew it meant NO JOB. I had to put my total trust in God then. Because I knew losing my job could easily mean financial ruin for me. I have a house, credit debt, and a car. My son is in a private christian school for one more year. My daughter went there and finished kindergarten there, and I'm determined my son will too. I'm in a waiting game now. Waiting to see if SSD pays, and or my private paid disability will pay as I cannot work now. My problem is now every week or two. I am up for an experimental ablation, or the Maze Procedure. (open heart surgery) I ruled out totally a pacemaker. It would NOT cure me, and it would be permanent. I would never be able to be drug free on it, and I'd still be having atrial fibs, and flutters. It would however keep me from having the extremes in heartbeat rates. I cannot collect unemployment. I cannot collect welfare. I cannot get a job, or hold one down. No employer would want to hire me because I'd miss too much work. If they were crazy enough to hire me I couldn't remain because of my frequent hospital visits and days off at the spur of the moment. I'm on of several who fall through the cracks of our "system". I've been lucky enough to have found an excellent message board with other people like me. We can encourage one another, or even vent out our anger. Living like this is not easy. These people have been a true God-send. I try and help as many as I can because I remember feeling so alone at times. I had the Lord, but, when you are in full responsibility financially you have some fears. I just have to trust God now. I don't know about my disability programs yet, whether they were accepted or not. The strange thing about all this is I think that God allowed this to happen, and it's actually a gift in a way. I'm suffering, and having to depend on Him...but, it has shown me how precious life is. I try and give love and be more empathetic to others more now than ever. I think God is going to use this experience to allow me to help others for HIM. I believe He wants me to encourage others, and I think He is getting me ready for something BIG. I'm going to get another opinion from another doc in a place a few hours away to see what he thinks. I just may try this new procedure they are doing at certain research centers. I do believe soon they will have a cure for this problem I have. But, I hope that the LTD companies realize that some people are not your usual a fib/flutter patient. For some people it is a constant thing to live with. It is emotionally as well as physically horrible problem to deal with. I imagine some of these people go on to fear of leaving their houses...you are afraid of being caught away from help...such as a plane, or traveling etc... The anxiety I believe is brought on by the heart "episodes"...I don't know how people face such a thing without God in their lives. I am so glad that He is there for me. He is Jehovah Rapha...the Lord who HEALS. Written on April 29th, 1998 Peace, Kelly ON NOVEMBER 1ST, 1998 *This is the second part to this message. I have put off writing this message until now. I want to update my progress and what God has done for me up until this point.* Today I feel like God wants me to catch you up on my progress. I went for that second opinion from the other heart specialist. He and I agreed for me, the best option would be the Maze Procedure. This would be decided after he saw how I did stopping all my heart medications. Well, I spent that night there in his town about 5 hours from home. The next day I drove home. I got to spend a short time with my kids before they had to go to bed. I woke up at 5am, suffering horribly with an attack of atrial flutter that was the scariest time I had ever experienced. I luckily was given a holster monitor from the 2nd opinion doc. He really saved my life with it. Finally I had some hard evidence of what I had been suffering. I called the number of the heart monitoring station and they took my EKG over the phone wire. THAT allowed me to have the proof I needed of how bad my heart was reacting. My heart was going so fast I could barely breath, or remain alert. It was all I could do NOT to pass out. The guy at the heart monitoring place asked me to get someone from home to take me to the hospital. The only ones here were my children, Kayla and Kyle. They were still asleep at that time. I said, no I couldn't be driven. They told me to call 911. Again, being the hard headed woman I am I said I couldn't do that. I said I couldn't leave my kids. So, I got up and woke my daughter. I told her I was going to the hospital. I thought I would pack my bag like so many times before. WRONG. The episode became so bad I couldn't make it and everything was going black. I couldn't even get it on the monitor. I was fighting that passing out feeling. I told Kayla to get me the phone because I COULDN'T. I called 911 this time. I also called my parents and woke them up and said to come over and take the kids for me, to school. I had pain that was the worst ever. If a heart attack is worse than that I wouldn't believe it. I had unbearable pain. I was SCARED. I thought I would die for sure this time. I again got up and tried to get a bag to go to the hospital. All of a sudden my heart went back to normal speed, right as the paramedics drove up. I was still having chest pain then. They gave me a spray of nitro-glycerin that stopped my chest pain. They took me to the hospital. While there they seemed to not know what to make of what I told them. I said the doc now was aware in the other place 5 hours away and that they should call him. Well, actually my doc in that town called looking for me. He said that they could take care of me if I wanted. I said okay, and I was taken by ambulance all that way. I was given cardizem for the ride. This was MAY13th. The 14th of May they were trying to thicken my blood for the Maze Procedure. I was scared to death actually. But, I knew that God was in control and that this whole thing was going according to HIS plan. A priest came to pray with me and taught me a prayer exercise that helped me. I breathed in saying Jesus, and exhaled saying God, over and over.....blocking all else from my mind. That helped me as I was so scared even so of the unknown. Don came to see me with a priest before my surgery that morning. It was all rushed and nerve wracking. I wondered how it would go. I felt God was gonna save me. I wondered still if I'd wake up on Earth. I had to tell God that it was up to Him and that I bowed to His authority and wisdom, not mine. The procedure went okay I guess except I was told that I was kept in the operating room because my blood wouldn't clot. I woke up in recovery with a iv in my neck. I had a respirator tube going down my throat that panicked me. I felt like I couldn't breath and tried to knock it off. Then I tried a couple of times to get up. (NOT A GOOD IDEA as this will make your blood pressure go shooting UP) They gave me Morphin to keep me from getting up, and to relax me. Funny how you can get the strength to jump up like that after being on a heart-lung machine and having open heart surgery. God made us STRONG willed. I remember making myself pray and calm down so I could breathe when they were pulling that tube out of my throat. I felt like I couldn't breathe at all and I knew I had to relax or I would not make it. I woke up to see Don, a friend. The second one in to see me was my brother, Rusty. Then I went to my room eventually. I don't remember much except pain, and I threw up blood for 3 days. They were asking if I'd had ulcers, and I said NO. What a time I had in that place. I missed my kids so bad I couldn't stand it. A lady from church just so happened to be in the city I had the surgery. She came everyday to see me. Her name was Leta Fae. So, God had this all worked out. I didn't have people staying with me, and it was hard. I made it with heavy prayer, and wonderful medical staff. The nurses and doctors at that hospital were FIRST RATE. I was so glad to get home and see my kids. My sons birthday was just a couple of days after I got home. I was worried I wouldn't get to see him on his birthday, but I made it! I was having a hard time breathing, and fast heart rate. But, decided to stay with my kids on Kyle's birthday. The next day I went to see my doc. He listened to me and took several chest x-rays. I was told to go to the hospital as I had alot of fluid built up in my lungs. (chest cavity) I had held up well until this time. I had remained strong. But, this latest and being away from my kids for such a long time finally discouraged me and I couldn't stop crying. I had to have a long needle pushed through my back to drain the fluid out of my chest cavity on the right side. They pulled right at a liter of fluid out of there. This was so upsetting to me that I went into ATRIAL FLUTTER. I'm telling you it was a discouraging time. I had to go through the whole bit again of a game I'd gotten very tired of over a year ago. Pneumonia, and heart arrhythmia problems are a pain after open heart surgery. When you have pneumonia they want you to COUGH. When you have had your breatbone sawed open and wired shut, the last thing you want is to COUGH HARD. I then went back to atrial fibrillation, then finally sinus tachacardia. The drugs they gave to help with pneumonia were adversely affecting my heart, making it beat faster. Oh, it was a time I won't ever forget. After I got out of the hospital I stayed at my brother's. I had a visiting nurse check up on me. When I got home I had a message from MY DOC, wanting me to come back for a cardioversion. This is where they take the electric paddles like you have seen to SHOCK my heart back into rhythem. It was one thing after another. I was scared again but knew God didn't bring me this far just to let me DIE. Now I take atenolol, and tambocor, plus coumadin. I am much better than I was. I wouldn't say I'm cured. My heart still has flutterings, and pain. I have many side effects that I have to live with because of my medicene I take. I cannot work at this time. I have been turned down once again by SSD for benefits. I am to the "hearing stage". My daughter Kayla has just been diagnosed with Henoch-Schonlein Purpura a month ago. I am hoping that this auto-immune disease will cease to bother her. I am praying for a total cure and healing from this disease, of which there is no cure. The thinking on this disease is it comes from having a virus, such as strep, upper respiratory etc.. Kayla had strep twice. This can be a hyper sensitivity to the drug given as in antibiotic for the strep, or her body fought so hard the virus itself and went haywire and starting warring upon itself. Thanks for the prayers. God is providing for us. This must be some testing period we are going through. I ask for peace and strength, and wisdom. In His Love, Kelly Update on Kayla. Kayla was very sick with the HSP. Luckily, she hasn't been bothered by it in several months. She has been her "old self" again. She is enjoying her summer vacation. She is taking swim lessons with her brother, Kyle. I am so relieved that she is okay. Peace, Kelly June 24th, 1999 COPYRIGHT 1998-2003 The message board I was speaking of is in AOL. The board is called "Arrhythmias, Rhythm Disturbances". You can find it under the BETTER HEALTH NETWORK, or type in Hearts in keyword area. These people are wonderful! There are other message boards in AOL for all kinds of interests. There are also chats scheduled once weekly for different heart problems...so check out the board, and you will see the notices put in the board ahead of time. I would imagine other large internet providers have these boards set up in their own areas as well. Check it out and see. I did list a Mediconsult Heart Support Board...it can be reached from the WWW. (hyperlink located on the Health/Info Page) Good luck, and I wish you the best in finding a support system to help you. I had open heart surgery called the Maze Procedure on May the 15th. I am now unemployed because my short term disability ran out at work. I am on long term disability. HOME click COPYRIGHT 1998-2003 Email KELLY
Feel like you are caught up in a storm in your life? Then READ ON. <>< TRUST the LORD!
My first time at the ER went pretty smooth. I was told that it was probably a freak thing and that I wouldn't need to take any medicenes for this. I was given a drug Cardizem and it got me back into a normal sinus rhythem.
The second time back to ER was not long afterwards. This time I was given medicene to take. The cardiologist was suprised but, never dreamed I would turn into the regular visitor that I would become shortly after this.
The third time being the charm, I developed atrial flutter and they tried all kinds of medicenes to get me into a normal heartbeat pattern. I was in the hospital for several days when I decided to get a cardiac catheter ablation. I was not in the best of shape, and I kept the nurses fairly busy. The fear I had was quite real. After all, I was very young to be having this problem.....as I was told mostly older people had this. I was a rare case and I didn't fit the norm. I didn't smoke, or drink. (If you call drinking about 3 times a year drinking) The cardiologist told me people get this in their seventies. He said some in their sixties, and a few in their fifties. WOW. I really couldn't understand all this. I thought that I might die, and I had to give that feeling up of fear. So, I prayed and prayed. I felt like the best thing to do was get the ablation. When you see fear on a nurses face waking you up out of a sound sleep asking you if you are alright......as she is shaking you to wake up...it is scary. But, by then you are in pure DENIAL to make it through without becoming insane. I knew things weren't going well. I had to tell God that He knew in my heart what I wanted. I wanted to LIVE. I wanted to live for my kids if nothing else. I was a Christian and I wasn't afraid of death. But, I didn't want to leave my kids. I told God that I wouldn't fight Him over this....that it was His choice through this surgery. Also I faced the chance of stroke, death, and being put on a pacemaker during the procedure.......probably more but, I cannot remember that.
I was taken to the other hospital for my ablation. I had hoped for a complete cure with this procedure so I could lead a "normal life" and be drug free. The anti-arrythmic drugs are not very friendly to the body. Lots of side effects go with them. Also I had to take aspirin daily. The day of the ablation came and went. The surgery went well. I was cured of atrial flutter, temporarily. I was given Betapace still....which made me very sick feeling initially. I was thrilled to walk out of that hospital. Little did I know that the surgery only cured atrial flutter, not atrial fibrillation. I got atrial fibrillation back not long afterwards. I was filled with despair once again. I thought everything would be JUST FINE. Little did I know what I would be in for to come...
I was going in and out of the hospital so much I lost track with atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter. I cannot tell you how bad it felt and can feel to have at times. Sometimes it isn't so bad. Other times you feel like you are gonna DIE. It will scare you and I cannot tell you what living with chest pains is like. I had to give God all this.....the load of the burden was too much for me to carry alone. I had to constantly find someone to watch my kids. I felt terrible all the time. I knew my job was losing patience with me. I was constantly trying a new medication and always finding that it didn't work EITHER. I had to force myself to work on more days than I could possibly count. I am only supposed to miss 3 times a year, or 6 days total without being a discipline problem. I definitely exceeded that. It became so bad that I had to be put on light duty for a while. I got the "talk" from supervision about me not getting an easier job unless my doc said this was permanent. If it was permanent, I wouldn't be able to do my job anymore, and these days the company just cannot put me in an easier job like they used to do...cutbacks and all. I'm sure someone has heard that line before! That added stress I'm sure helped my heart problem alot. Yes, I'm being sarcastic...sorry. I work in a heavy physical and mentally stressful job. It was getting physically impossible for me. Mentally I was having a hard time coping. Without GOD, and my friends, and church friends, I don't think I could of done it quite as well.
Then the day of reckoning came. I thought I was having a heart attack. Until that day I had FOUGHT taking a blood thinner. I knew if I did, I wouldn't be able to work at my job anymore. I took aspirin daily instead. BUT, this day was the absolute worst. I lost my hearing....everything went black, I couldn't breath, and then I had unbelievable pain in my chest. My heart was beating wildly and I was scared to death. I called on JESUS to help me first of all.....and then I called a friend to take me to the hospital. That night I listened to an internal med doc on call for my doc. She told me how I needed to take the Coumadin, and I decided to go along and quit fighting it. This doctor was one in a million. She got out of bed to come see me at ER. She stayed on for a while to see I was okay. She really talked to me and you could tell she wasn't your average 1-2 minute "on call" doc. I admired her so much for that. She is the one who talked me into Coumadin. Even though I knew it meant NO JOB. I had to put my total trust in God then. Because I knew losing my job could easily mean financial ruin for me. I have a house, credit debt, and a car. My son is in a private christian school for one more year. My daughter went there and finished kindergarten there, and I'm determined my son will too.
I'm in a waiting game now. Waiting to see if SSD pays, and or my private paid disability will pay as I cannot work now. My problem is now every week or two. I am up for an experimental ablation, or the Maze Procedure. (open heart surgery) I ruled out totally a pacemaker. It would NOT cure me, and it would be permanent. I would never be able to be drug free on it, and I'd still be having atrial fibs, and flutters. It would however keep me from having the extremes in heartbeat rates. I cannot collect unemployment. I cannot collect welfare. I cannot get a job, or hold one down. No employer would want to hire me because I'd miss too much work. If they were crazy enough to hire me I couldn't remain because of my frequent hospital visits and days off at the spur of the moment. I'm on of several who fall through the cracks of our "system". I've been lucky enough to have found an excellent message board with other people like me. We can encourage one another, or even vent out our anger. Living like this is not easy. These people have been a true God-send. I try and help as many as I can because I remember feeling so alone at times. I had the Lord, but, when you are in full responsibility financially you have some fears. I just have to trust God now. I don't know about my disability programs yet, whether they were accepted or not.
The strange thing about all this is I think that God allowed this to happen, and it's actually a gift in a way. I'm suffering, and having to depend on Him...but, it has shown me how precious life is. I try and give love and be more empathetic to others more now than ever. I think God is going to use this experience to allow me to help others for HIM. I believe He wants me to encourage others, and I think He is getting me ready for something BIG.
I'm going to get another opinion from another doc in a place a few hours away to see what he thinks. I just may try this new procedure they are doing at certain research centers. I do believe soon they will have a cure for this problem I have. But, I hope that the LTD companies realize that some people are not your usual a fib/flutter patient. For some people it is a constant thing to live with. It is emotionally as well as physically horrible problem to deal with. I imagine some of these people go on to fear of leaving their houses...you are afraid of being caught away from help...such as a plane, or traveling etc... The anxiety I believe is brought on by the heart "episodes"...I don't know how people face such a thing without God in their lives. I am so glad that He is there for me. He is Jehovah Rapha...the Lord who HEALS.
ON NOVEMBER 1ST, 1998 *This is the second part to this message. I have put off writing this message until now. I want to update my progress and what God has done for me up until this point.*
Today I feel like God wants me to catch you up on my progress. I went for that second opinion from the other heart specialist. He and I agreed for me, the best option would be the Maze Procedure. This would be decided after he saw how I did stopping all my heart medications. Well, I spent that night there in his town about 5 hours from home. The next day I drove home. I got to spend a short time with my kids before they had to go to bed. I woke up at 5am, suffering horribly with an attack of atrial flutter that was the scariest time I had ever experienced. I luckily was given a holster monitor from the 2nd opinion doc. He really saved my life with it. Finally I had some hard evidence of what I had been suffering. I called the number of the heart monitoring station and they took my EKG over the phone wire. THAT allowed me to have the proof I needed of how bad my heart was reacting. My heart was going so fast I could barely breath, or remain alert. It was all I could do NOT to pass out. The guy at the heart monitoring place asked me to get someone from home to take me to the hospital. The only ones here were my children, Kayla and Kyle. They were still asleep at that time. I said, no I couldn't be driven. They told me to call 911. Again, being the hard headed woman I am I said I couldn't do that. I said I couldn't leave my kids. So, I got up and woke my daughter. I told her I was going to the hospital. I thought I would pack my bag like so many times before. WRONG. The episode became so bad I couldn't make it and everything was going black. I couldn't even get it on the monitor. I was fighting that passing out feeling. I told Kayla to get me the phone because I COULDN'T. I called 911 this time. I also called my parents and woke them up and said to come over and take the kids for me, to school. I had pain that was the worst ever. If a heart attack is worse than that I wouldn't believe it. I had unbearable pain. I was SCARED. I thought I would die for sure this time. I again got up and tried to get a bag to go to the hospital. All of a sudden my heart went back to normal speed, right as the paramedics drove up. I was still having chest pain then. They gave me a spray of nitro-glycerin that stopped my chest pain. They took me to the hospital. While there they seemed to not know what to make of what I told them. I said the doc now was aware in the other place 5 hours away and that they should call him. Well, actually my doc in that town called looking for me. He said that they could take care of me if I wanted. I said okay, and I was taken by ambulance all that way. I was given cardizem for the ride. This was MAY13th. The 14th of May they were trying to thicken my blood for the Maze Procedure. I was scared to death actually. But, I knew that God was in control and that this whole thing was going according to HIS plan.
A priest came to pray with me and taught me a prayer exercise that helped me. I breathed in saying Jesus, and exhaled saying God, over and over.....blocking all else from my mind. That helped me as I was so scared even so of the unknown. Don came to see me with a priest before my surgery that morning. It was all rushed and nerve wracking. I wondered how it would go. I felt God was gonna save me. I wondered still if I'd wake up on Earth. I had to tell God that it was up to Him and that I bowed to His authority and wisdom, not mine.
The procedure went okay I guess except I was told that I was kept in the operating room because my blood wouldn't clot. I woke up in recovery with a iv in my neck. I had a respirator tube going down my throat that panicked me. I felt like I couldn't breath and tried to knock it off. Then I tried a couple of times to get up. (NOT A GOOD IDEA as this will make your blood pressure go shooting UP) They gave me Morphin to keep me from getting up, and to relax me. Funny how you can get the strength to jump up like that after being on a heart-lung machine and having open heart surgery. God made us STRONG willed. I remember making myself pray and calm down so I could breathe when they were pulling that tube out of my throat. I felt like I couldn't breathe at all and I knew I had to relax or I would not make it. I woke up to see Don, a friend. The second one in to see me was my brother, Rusty. Then I went to my room eventually. I don't remember much except pain, and I threw up blood for 3 days. They were asking if I'd had ulcers, and I said NO. What a time I had in that place. I missed my kids so bad I couldn't stand it. A lady from church just so happened to be in the city I had the surgery. She came everyday to see me. Her name was Leta Fae. So, God had this all worked out. I didn't have people staying with me, and it was hard. I made it with heavy prayer, and wonderful medical staff. The nurses and doctors at that hospital were FIRST RATE.
I was so glad to get home and see my kids. My sons birthday was just a couple of days after I got home. I was worried I wouldn't get to see him on his birthday, but I made it! I was having a hard time breathing, and fast heart rate. But, decided to stay with my kids on Kyle's birthday. The next day I went to see my doc. He listened to me and took several chest x-rays. I was told to go to the hospital as I had alot of fluid built up in my lungs. (chest cavity) I had held up well until this time. I had remained strong. But, this latest and being away from my kids for such a long time finally discouraged me and I couldn't stop crying. I had to have a long needle pushed through my back to drain the fluid out of my chest cavity on the right side. They pulled right at a liter of fluid out of there. This was so upsetting to me that I went into ATRIAL FLUTTER. I'm telling you it was a discouraging time. I had to go through the whole bit again of a game I'd gotten very tired of over a year ago. Pneumonia, and heart arrhythmia problems are a pain after open heart surgery. When you have pneumonia they want you to COUGH. When you have had your breatbone sawed open and wired shut, the last thing you want is to COUGH HARD. I then went back to atrial fibrillation, then finally sinus tachacardia. The drugs they gave to help with pneumonia were adversely affecting my heart, making it beat faster. Oh, it was a time I won't ever forget. After I got out of the hospital I stayed at my brother's. I had a visiting nurse check up on me. When I got home I had a message from MY DOC, wanting me to come back for a cardioversion. This is where they take the electric paddles like you have seen to SHOCK my heart back into rhythem. It was one thing after another. I was scared again but knew God didn't bring me this far just to let me DIE.
Now I take atenolol, and tambocor, plus coumadin. I am much better than I was. I wouldn't say I'm cured. My heart still has flutterings, and pain. I have many side effects that I have to live with because of my medicene I take. I cannot work at this time. I have been turned down once again by SSD for benefits. I am to the "hearing stage". My daughter Kayla has just been diagnosed with Henoch-Schonlein Purpura a month ago. I am hoping that this auto-immune disease will cease to bother her. I am praying for a total cure and healing from this disease, of which there is no cure. The thinking on this disease is it comes from having a virus, such as strep, upper respiratory etc.. Kayla had strep twice. This can be a hyper sensitivity to the drug given as in antibiotic for the strep, or her body fought so hard the virus itself and went haywire and starting warring upon itself. Thanks for the prayers. God is providing for us. This must be some testing period we are going through. I ask for peace and strength, and wisdom. In His Love, Kelly
Update on Kayla. Kayla was very sick with the HSP. Luckily, she hasn't been bothered by it in several months. She has been her "old self" again. She is enjoying her summer vacation. She is taking swim lessons with her brother, Kyle. I am so relieved that she is okay. Peace, Kelly
June 24th, 1999 COPYRIGHT 1998-2003
The message board I was speaking of is in AOL. The board is called "Arrhythmias, Rhythm Disturbances". You can find it under the BETTER HEALTH NETWORK, or type in Hearts in keyword area. These people are wonderful! There are other message boards in AOL for all kinds of interests. There are also chats scheduled once weekly for different heart problems...so check out the board, and you will see the notices put in the board ahead of time. I would imagine other large internet providers have these boards set up in their own areas as well. Check it out and see. I did list a Mediconsult Heart Support Board...it can be reached from the WWW. (hyperlink located on the Health/Info Page) Good luck, and I wish you the best in finding a support system to help you.
I had open heart surgery called the Maze Procedure on May the 15th. I am now unemployed because my short term disability ran out at work. I am on long term disability.
Email KELLY