Where to begin for this update?
For as busy as it has been on the work-front (recalling the crazy amount of young men experiencing cardiac arrhythmias'), a burn patient (90% of his body) running into the ER screaming, and a few other complex cases this past week, I fell victim to my surroundings the other morning. (Osmosis?)
-No, I did not get burned, however I woke up Wednesday morning with a really weird and unsettling feeling in my chest.
I tried to shake it off and suck it up, but there were a few diagnosis running through my head that would be all bad if I let it go much longer. Grace had her final day of preschool picnic at the park that we were all preparing to go to, so I was hoping it would resolve itself before then. It didn't.
I couldn't get an accurate pulse on myself, so I grabbed my stethoscope to get more detail. I still couldn't get a good rate. It seemed to bounce around from 40, to 200 beats per minute.. I asked Tess to try. To no avail she couldn't get it either, so I walked next door for a good friend's second opinion of my own. ...and I quote, "Dude. You gotta get checked out." (I knew that, but I was just hoping that I might be wrong.)
Telling Tess that I was going over to where the local EMS usually stages, I was going to put myself on their cardiac monitor..
-Nope. Didn't happen. Of course they weren't where they were suppose to be. I called Tess and told her I was going to go into work to put myself on a cardiac monitor and see whats up. ..If it was nothing, I would just slip back out the door I came in, and get to the picnic. ..If it was SOMETHING, then, I would be in the right place.
Yeah. My heart rate was variable at about 190 beats a minute. I was in atrial fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response. I called a buddy over to do a quick 12 lead EKG, and sure enough. It showed the same. A-Fib with RVR.
We showed the attending physician the EKG. "Interesting.. Whose is this on"?
I raised my hand and said, "Uh, that would be me, Jim". "You'd better have a seat Carl.."
So the story goes, they got an IV going, I got two doses of Cardizem to slow my heart rate down, but the atrial fibrillation wouldn't convert, so they prepared to cardiovert (shock) me. Tess called on the phone when she was about two minutes away, and I told her what was going to happen. She made it there before they put me down and shocked.
Thankfully, they sedated me enough with Diprivan that I don't remember a thing. Just a sore shoulder and defibrillator pad marks left over on my upper right chest and lower left flank. It only took one shock to get me back to the cardiac rhythm that I needed to be in. After getting the fogginess out of my head, a cardiologist with West Michigan Heart came down and we agreed to a diagnostic cardiac echo in the coming weeks.
So I'm left to wonder; why I went into A-fib with RVR, and been forced to join the ranks of the cardioverted at the age of 37. Not that it's a big deal. I can calmly say that even though I was anxious prior to the cardioversion, during the time I was put out, my heart was shocked enough to stop-and-restart, and my breathing momentarily stopped, I was at peace. Whether it be grace and peace given directly from God Himself through assurance of whom I belong to, or a pseudo-peace from the sedation, it was amazing.. And so, I am still here. Still in minor disbelief that it even occurred; meditating on what God is speaking and teaching. -And grateful to be able to hug my family and freinds.
Weird.
On a lighter note; here is a picture I took yesterday of our newest HiltonLife Ranch tenants.
Cheers!
-C
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