A tough evening

I forgot to post about the cards. We received nearly 50 cards today. Mostly from people we did not know, from Massachusetts and Oregon to Colorado and California and all over Texas. She received many cards from all over from people we did know with sweet notes, too. Many of the cards where from a watercolor group that Brittany is in on FB. Those were hand-painted by people we did not know; it was too sweet! It was encouraging to see the love from those we knew and those we didn’t. 

Amanda would be mad at me; I’m back at the volunteer desk. She is so straight-laced, but I’m the rebel. I’m fired up, too. Power trip better not to come at me again with no one else in the waiting room but me!

There were a few others in the waiting room. I overheard a doctor speak to a lady about her husband, who had just had a lead replaced on his pacemaker. She was getting her second cup of coffee, and I noticed she’d probably had many today. She let out a sigh; I said Long day? That was all she needed; she seemed to need to talk a bit. We chatted by the coffee maker for a while. After that, a man asked me about Amanda because he’d overheard me say she’d had a transplant. He was intrigued and asking questions because they had mentioned transplant to him about his wife, who was back having a cath done. He looked run down and worried. I was even a little pacy today, a hall I am all too familiar with in this hospital. My feet have seen every inch of the hall by the cath waiting room!

Amanda came out with no complications from the procedure. The EP sat down with me for a while to explain in detail what they did. He was very forthcoming, answering my questions and explaining things; I like him. They found the cause of the rate and ablated it, but it quickly popped up in another spot. They ablated that spot, and it lowered the rate to a normal rhythm, but it again popped up in another place. That spot was risky because it is close to the sinus node (where we’d had all the issues in the old heart). When I heard sinus node, I had flash backs. That is where they stopped, though. He didn’t move forward with the ablation because of its location. They wanted to consult with us before proceeding any further. 

The EP said if we can get the rate below 100 with medication, he’d be happy with leaving it, but if it is sustained and over that and doesn’t respond to medication, we may need to talk about the risk and think about going back in for another ablation. He would like to wait a few days and see what the rate does. 

I went back after they had Amanda’s pain down. They pulled the sheath where she had the central line in her left groin. When she first woke, Amanda said she heard them yelling. “She’s still bleeding.” They had to hold extreme pressure and then added a FemoStop compression device that straps on and inflates to apply pressure to just the right spot.

When I got to Amanda’s side, I noticed her heart rate was in the 120s. I proceeded to explain all that had transpired. It wasn’t a fun conversation. We may be right back where we were 15 years ago. Amanda was pretty down about that. Neither of us wants to relive that. Amanda said, “New heart, same old problems,” with tears in her eyes. This is pretty hard to stomach.

The fellow came by, and it was good to ask questions I had thought of after seeing the EP. However, he didn’t seem too confident that they had made any progress. As the EP had mentioned, he said the native heart had a normal rhythm; all the issues were in the new heart. For once, the old heart had a normal rhythm! It’s still wild that the native heart has a different rhythm than the new one.

Once back in the room, Amanda asked why I was mad. I wasn’t mad, just disappointed. I was concerned as I watched the high rate and noticed little change. I was really hoping the ablation would do the trick. This is a lot to take in and process.

I’m praying her heart will calm down over the weekend, and she won’t be in any pain because of the high rate. She has been having chest pain frequently when the rate runs away and gets in the 140s. It would be good if she could maybe get out and walk a little bit now without pain. Really not looking forward to making any decisions to go back in, though.

There’s a good bit more to go over, but this is all I can get out right now; too much is going through my head. It seems we are back to square one, so prayers for our team and the decisions that lay ahead.