I’ve had heart surgery

I got to the call exactly 6 days before I had to show up at the hospital and be ready. My mom dropped everything to come out to be with us - my dad and I talked about him also coming out and schedule wise it wasn’t great timing. We decided it would be best for him to stay home. 

Cue November 15th, 6am - leaving for the hospital and unsure what the day would hold. We were told I wouldn’t have to stay the night which was good (and ultimately true), but how long would everything take? 

Upon check in a nurse comes and starts a questionnaire. Typical stuff. Plus: ’Do you have a will and health directive?’ Yes, I do….?

Well, after waiting all morning I was finally taken in around noon. I spent most of the morning crying - partially because my veins are super bad for the needle and also because the procedure was getting all too real. 

Anyway, get into the cool new hybrid OR and shortly get some anxiety meds to help me calm down. The key thing here is that I’m awake for my procedure. I drift in and out of sleep. I wake up at one point and Dr. B asks how I’m doing - I’m not comfy that’s for sure - he orders some fentanyl for me. In my brain I think ‘isn’t that the hard stuff? Like aren’t we supposed to NOT be doing that?’ I fall back asleep. I awake up again, I feel a bit of electrical current in my chest. Odd. Very Odd. More drugs. I fall back asleep. I awake and hear Dr. B talking to someone - they aren’t in the room, so it’s a phone call. Back asleep. 

Then I wake up to my heart pounding. I’m in SVT. It’s very uncomfortable. The nurse comes and holds my hand and I either fall asleep or pass out. Jury is out on that one. 

Finally, it’s done. Dr. B tells me it was unsuccessful and he’ll be in to talk to me in a bit. 

We learn that the wire is too far away for them to safely reach from that angle, but far away from the aortic node so that we don’t have to worry about pacemakers, and also the SVT they put me into showed them it’s not life threatening. 

It’s good news. I don’t feel as scared now - if I go into SVT - which I did just before Christmas - I don’t need to panic thinking it’s the end. The event just before Christmas sorted itself out naturally which was also a relief - I didn’t even notice so that means my meds are working. 

I’ll have another follow up procedure this spring. So until then, I’m on daily meds, and monitoring.