At the end of my last post I mentioned my surprise hospital visit......
If it's of interest this is what happened...
One morning I woke up and immediately felt that something wasn't quite right. It took a minute or two for me to realize what it was...
My heart seemed to be pounding away flat out.
Normally my resting heart rate is about 45bpm particularly on waking up in the morning, but this seemed way way higher. It was as if I had just cycled to the top of an alpine climb.....
At first I put this high rate down to the possibility of a dream or nightmare that I couldn't remember and I just lay there in bed trying to relax and get the rate down to normal.
After about ten minutes nothing had changed and I don't mind admitting that I was a bit concerned.
If you have ever had the throttle on a car stick wide open, that is what this felt like, but without any means of switching it off....
Anne insisted that I rang the emergency health line and after answering lots of questions I was told that I should get someone to drive me to the emergency dept of the local hospital within the next hour......
Before long we were at the hospital emergency dept....we spoke to the girl on the reception desk and had hardly sat down before I was called into an initial consultation room by a senior nurse and the next thing I was whisked to the 'Majors' section of the department and being checked over by a couple of Doctors...
I was told it would seem that I had a bit of an electrical short circuit in my heart causing my heat to keep racing along at 155bpm.... I was told that they would try and correct it with the use of a drug which should have the effect of causing my heart to hesitate and hopefully return to it's normal rate.... I was told that I would experience a 'sinking feeling' as the drug was administered.
They tried this twice and I experienced the feeling of dropping through the floor twice, but unfortunately it didn't work....
By now I felt both tired and breathless and the decision was made for me to undergo a cardiac procedure called a 'Catheter Ablation' .... It was arranged for this to take place in the afternoon and I was taken to a room in the Cardiac Ward where I was wired up to some machines and prepared for my visit to the operating theatre......
In the early afternoon I was wheeled along the corridor and the procedure was completed....
It consisted of me being given sedation to make me drowsy...I was wired up to more machines.... Local anaesthetic was injected into my groin....tubes were then inserted into the main vein of my groin and then long thin wires were passed through the tubes and up into my heart.... X-ray machines were used throughout so that the Doctor could guide the wires to the correct place in my heart and see the heart rhythm disturbance on a computer...
Once the Doctor had located the areas of abnormal electrical activity between the heart valve and a large blood vessel in the top right chamber of my heart, the ablation was performed.
This is done by applying radiofrequency energy which heated up the tip of one of the wires positioned in my heart.
I was told that I would be awake throughout all of this.....but although I remember the start of the procedure and I remember the end of it.... I don't remember anything from the middle part.....
Later I was told that I had needed an electric shock to the heart in order to restore its rhythm, so that accounts for me having no memory of a good chunk of all these goings on.....
Anyway.... my heart was restored to it's normal pace....and after a few hours of further checks and observations I was allowed home in the early evening.
I was told that my heart appeared to be fit and healthy and that it was just a bit of bad luck that this had happened.......
That was about three weeks ago...today I had a heart rate monitoring device fitted to check out my heart rate etc over the next six days.....
In ten days time I hope to be setting out on my Bournemouth-Holyhead-Bournemouth cycle trip..
I am just hoping that my heart continues to run at a nice steady pace.............
If it's of interest this is what happened...
One morning I woke up and immediately felt that something wasn't quite right. It took a minute or two for me to realize what it was...
My heart seemed to be pounding away flat out.
Normally my resting heart rate is about 45bpm particularly on waking up in the morning, but this seemed way way higher. It was as if I had just cycled to the top of an alpine climb.....
At first I put this high rate down to the possibility of a dream or nightmare that I couldn't remember and I just lay there in bed trying to relax and get the rate down to normal.
After about ten minutes nothing had changed and I don't mind admitting that I was a bit concerned.
If you have ever had the throttle on a car stick wide open, that is what this felt like, but without any means of switching it off....
Anne insisted that I rang the emergency health line and after answering lots of questions I was told that I should get someone to drive me to the emergency dept of the local hospital within the next hour......
 |
| The Royal Bournemouth Hospital |
I was told it would seem that I had a bit of an electrical short circuit in my heart causing my heat to keep racing along at 155bpm.... I was told that they would try and correct it with the use of a drug which should have the effect of causing my heart to hesitate and hopefully return to it's normal rate.... I was told that I would experience a 'sinking feeling' as the drug was administered.
They tried this twice and I experienced the feeling of dropping through the floor twice, but unfortunately it didn't work....
By now I felt both tired and breathless and the decision was made for me to undergo a cardiac procedure called a 'Catheter Ablation' .... It was arranged for this to take place in the afternoon and I was taken to a room in the Cardiac Ward where I was wired up to some machines and prepared for my visit to the operating theatre......
In the early afternoon I was wheeled along the corridor and the procedure was completed....
It consisted of me being given sedation to make me drowsy...I was wired up to more machines.... Local anaesthetic was injected into my groin....tubes were then inserted into the main vein of my groin and then long thin wires were passed through the tubes and up into my heart.... X-ray machines were used throughout so that the Doctor could guide the wires to the correct place in my heart and see the heart rhythm disturbance on a computer...
Once the Doctor had located the areas of abnormal electrical activity between the heart valve and a large blood vessel in the top right chamber of my heart, the ablation was performed.
This is done by applying radiofrequency energy which heated up the tip of one of the wires positioned in my heart.
I was told that I would be awake throughout all of this.....but although I remember the start of the procedure and I remember the end of it.... I don't remember anything from the middle part.....
Later I was told that I had needed an electric shock to the heart in order to restore its rhythm, so that accounts for me having no memory of a good chunk of all these goings on.....
Anyway.... my heart was restored to it's normal pace....and after a few hours of further checks and observations I was allowed home in the early evening.
I was told that my heart appeared to be fit and healthy and that it was just a bit of bad luck that this had happened.......
That was about three weeks ago...today I had a heart rate monitoring device fitted to check out my heart rate etc over the next six days.....
In ten days time I hope to be setting out on my Bournemouth-Holyhead-Bournemouth cycle trip..
I am just hoping that my heart continues to run at a nice steady pace.............
11 comments:
Wow! Hope you're still doing okay and this doesn't happen again. Must have felt very freaky.
Trevor,
SO GLAD you are okay.
I wish you all the best.
Take care!
Cheers,
Chandra
Crikey, what a thing to happen! Glad everything seems to be OK now!
I have read that some viruses can attack the heart and cause a multitude of problems - even the very fit and healthy can be affected. Its just bad luck I guess.
*Rebecca Olds*
Thanks Rebecca, it certainly was pretty scary...:-))
*Chandra*
Thanks Chandra....
*Downfader*
Yes luck, or certainly bad luck seems to play a big part in this. That seemed to be my Doctors view on my situation...my heart etc seemed pretty healthy otherwise apart from this..
Trevor. Wow they have actually found that you have a heart!!! Well I never would have thought it in all of these years that I have known you!! Will phone before we set off.
Cheers
Howard
Scary. It's probably better you don't remember the middle portion of the procedure. Regardless, it seems some of the medical types do pretty well, even if they refer to it as "practicing."
*Howard*
I can always rely on you for a 'Heartless' comment Howard lol.... Will look forward to speak to you before the start of our Holyhead ride.....
*Steve A*
They have had plenty of 'practice' on me over the last few years Steve...I'm thankful for their skills.....
Wow! that's a scare.
Take care and don't over do it!
I am glad to hear they were able to fix you up and are keeping an eye on what is going on. That is scary. Take care!!
RL
*limom* *rlove2bike*
Thanks Guy's....I will be taking care and won''t be overdoing my daily mileages on my upcoming ride...
That's an incredible account you gave, hope everything is ok now.
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