The Wheel of Fortune

September 26

What a day, as some of my dearest friends would say, “Oy vey”.    This morning I was awakened by a phone call from Randy, letting me know they were moving him back to the ICU.  The last couple of days he has had some heart racing and arrhythmia.  They have given him medication, but this morning the arrhythmia was bananas:  80, 190, 130, 190, etc etc…..He was obviously not feeling well, and was having some chest pain with it.  It was so difficult to watch….from 80s it would go to 190 and back and up and down.  Watching those numbers on the monitor was nerve wracking. He wasn’t in pain exactly, but he would feel pressure in his jaw when it was high, and he was really flushed.  The docs seemed very concerned, but it took forever to get him to the procedure.  So now they have him in the heart catheter lab, doing an Ablation.  “Ablation is used to treat abnormal heart rhythms, or arrhythmias. The type of arrhythmia and the presence of other heart disease will determine whether ablation can be performed surgically or non-surgically.  Non-surgical ablation, used for many types of arrhythmias, is performed in a special lab called the electrophysiology (EP) laboratory. During this non-surgical procedure a catheter is inserted into a specific area of the heart. A special machine directs energy through the catheter to small areas of the heart muscle that causes the abnormal heart rhythm. This energy “disconnects” the source of the abnormal rhythm from the rest of the heart. It can also be used to disconnect the electrical pathway between the upper chambers (atria) and the lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart.”  Thank you, WebMD.  The cardio doc says that Randy probably has had the condition for years….he said it usually goes undetected except in circumstances like these, the stress of the lung transplant made the condition noticeable, and uncomfortable.  It is called a tachycardia.

It turns out that Randy doesn’t have just one, but several, in both the right and left ventricles.  The doc ablated the largest one in the right, and the one he could reach on the left.  After the procedure, and Randy woke up a bit, he said he felt “normal”  for the first time since the transplant.  His heart rate was normal, his blood pressure (which they couldn’t even find for a while this morning) was perfect, his oxygenation great.  What a relief.  They will keep him on some meds now that his rhythm has recovered, and he can begin to get on with the business of getting better.  After such an incredibly difficult surgery, being basically on life support for 11 days, and having these bumps since the surgery has been worrisome and stressful….  Just when I thought we would get some normalcy back (hey, that is a very relative term), Randy working on recovery, me continuing to work on the house and with my students, the kids helping with the house, garage, and other issues…we run into bumps.  But that is okay.  He is alive, and two and a half weeks ago I had moments of doubt that he would come back to us.

I heard a song on the way home in the car, “Wheel in the sky keeps on turning, I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow”.  It reminds of a tarot card…the Wheel of Fortune.  The roller coaster metaphor relates to the Wheel of Fortune….sometimes your fortunes fall, but they always go back up.  The really bad times make the good times much more precious.  The journey ahead is long, but I have to believe we are headed up the wheel and joy lies ahead.  I’m hoping for no more stressful “bumps”, but we will deal with whatever comes our way.  I’m just hopeful that we are on the way up.  He is so exhausted, so I am hoping he has a good night of sleep and wakes feeling rested.

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