Heart Journey Update – Post-Ablations

Thought I would give an update on the results of my heart ablations!

First of all, thank you to all those who prayed, sent messages, and showed so much love to us over the past few days. It’s been a crazy time of life, but God always sees us through it all because he is a God of grace. We felt his presence in many ways! Someone shared a verse with me, Nehemiah 8:10 – “The joy of the Lord is my strength” and that verse I found myself repeating often, knowing it was what we needed – HIS strength, not our own.

I had to be at the CVC (cardiovascular center) at 6am Tuesday morning, to try and give the doctors enough time to work on what they call “a complex case”.  In typical Kristin fashion, they struggled to get an IV started so they had to call in the IV team to do an ultrasound and get one in, which put me a bit behind.

Once I was wheeled into the operating room, thus began a very long day. I was told that I wasn’t going to be given any sedation at the beginning so that they could map out where the PVCs were coming from. I thought okay, I had been through part of an ablation with no sedation before, but thought eh, I could do it. Well, I didn’t realize that meant going through more than half of it with no sedation whatsoever. I was given a local anesthetic in my groins where they put the catheters in to get up to my heart, but that was it. At one point, I was given some IV pain meds, but it was grueling. the reason for no sedation is because it can make the PVCs not as evident, so they wanted to maximize the opportunity to see where they were coming, which I understood. Though by 1:30, I was given all the local anesthetic they could in my groins (they reached the max toxicity rate), and my body started to refer the pain in other areas. That’s when I lost it because I could feel every move of the catheters. I tried for so many hours to hold it together that my emotions got the best of me. Dan and I said on the way home that the mind really is so powerful because to have made it that far, is farther than I ever thought I could’ve gone. My anesthesiologist (since she wasn’t able to give me anything till later), was my “coach” through it all. She would hold my head from behind and help me with my breathing and dream of places other than the OR room, to help fight the pain. It’s incredible what the mind can tell the body to do, until the body can take no more! And at 1:30, the doctors finally said, “give her sedation”. I thought I could do it. I told myself numerous times, “I can do this”. I kept repeating the verse from Nehemiah in my head; yet my body just couldn’t take anymore and like that, I was out. Whew.

Side note: Because I was awake, I will say it was rather fascinating to see them do the ablations and work the catheter around IN my heart, trying to find that places that are misfiring! It made me so grateful for the medical technology and resources we have in this country to even do such a procedure.

I woke up 4 hours later in a recovery room, where I was told I only needed to lay flat for 2 hours, instead of the anticipated 8. I could’ve hugged that nurse! After not being able to move a muscle for almost 9 hours, my body was shot and had to move. Those 2 hours flew by and then I could finally get up. The end had finally come.

As for the results, the procedure has been deemed incomplete. The doctors were able to get numerous spots, but not the ones they were hoping for. They even brought in the other top 2 electrophysiologists to work on my complex heart, which says how much they wanted this to work. In fact, one of them specializes in my specific type of PVC, and the other is world-renowned for his work on arrhythmias (he’s from Germany). So I had the best of the best. Though where one of my extra beats is, they are not able to access it. They tried so many times and this is just what God has allowed. We know they gave it ALL they had and we couldn’t be more thankful for their care, determination, and work they did on me. Again, this isn’t to say that they didn’t get any spots. They did! And now our prayer is that the areas they were able to zap, will make a big enough difference in my life that I won’t need to go on a new med.

So because the ablations weren’t as successful as they had hoped, if I am still symptomatic after a month or so, they will put me on an anti-arrhythmia med that will require me to be hospitalized for about 4 days, to see how I respond to it and adjust dosing. I’d love to go back on the med I was on the past couple of years, but for someone my age, the risk of organ failure is a lot higher which we do not feel is worth the risk. So we would try a different one, which acts similar to the one I had been on in the past, if it gets to that point.

At first I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t as successful as we had all hoped, but maybe in the next few months as my heart heals (yes, it can take a couple months for the heart to adjust), that maybe I won’t need any further intervention. At the same time, I also know that my doctor gave it all he had and between the 3 of them, if they weren’t able to get the spots, what more could we ask for? Even though my doctor seemed defeated, we couldn’t thank him enough. God’s sovereignty in the end reigns. God allowed what He did as part of his perfect plan for my life, and I have much peace in that. Do I want to feel better? Absolutely. But I also look at the gift I have of being able to come home, live a fairly normal life, despite living with heart failure. God is good.

I don’t know what the future will hold, but I serve THE God who does. And who knows the future? Not a single one of us. We can think we have it all planned out and that after an event or procedure that “this” is what life will look like, but God can often have a different plan. And God, once again, gave me just what I needed to make it through the day.

As for Mazy, she did fantastic with family. We are still wrestling with separation and the anxiety she carries with regards to me leaving for anything with my heart, but we continue to navigate the trauma road and seek out the help she needs. Thank you for praying for her as well. She is still really struggling, but we know God will see us through this as well. We see the results of those prayers and we pray that God’s mercy and grace will abound all the more in her life too.

Thank you for all of your love and support through this heart journey…we couldn’t do it without the body of Christ around us!