News From The Medical Front

[Will]

Went to the doctor today to see about getting my heart rhythm fixed. Here's what he had to say.

The bottom part of my heart is beating fine and strong. The top part however, is just sorta fluttering. This is bad. There are generally three options of treatment for this type of thing.

1. Take medicine for 3 to 4 weeks and then shock my heart and try to jumpstart it back to normal.

2. Do a heart cath with a special wire thingy that has electrodes on the end. They'd go exploring in the heart, find the pathways that are causing the problem, and cauterize them. That's generally the preferred method.

3. Do another surgery where they stick a tube in my side into the heart and do the same thing as number two, except more invasive.

He said that my cardiologist was thinking about doing option number two. However, in his professional opinion(and this is his specialty), I'm NOT a candidate for either 2 or 3, instead, we're going to try the first one. Normally, this type of thing is fixable by this procedure. And patients go about living normal lives. I, however, am a special case. I've learned that there are certain things you NEVER want to hear a doctor say, and today I heard those words again, "I've never seen a heart as big as yours." My heart is so big that options two and three are completely out of the picture for me. Option one may work. He said that he normally never sees a heart that's above "size 4." Mine is almost twice that at size 7.8, which is not good(obviously). If we get it fixed, I can go on living a reasonably long life, so long as nothing else kills me. If we can't get it fixed, my life span will be rather reduced because my heart will have to work so hard.

So now I'm on new meds, and hopefully in a few weeks we'll have the heart beat back to normal.

But there's still the question of if my heart will go back to normal size. Nobody seems to know the answer to that, we're just waiting to see.

If worse comes to worse, I have discovered the silver lining...I NEVER have to worry about getting old and wrinkly! :Green: I get to make a good-looking corpse. :lol :cooldude: :lol:

[HappyChristian]

Praying for you, Will.

[John81]

My Dad has some sort of rare heart problem that there's not much they can do about. They put in a couple of stents and then they had to deaden part of his heart, and now his heart is permantely out of rhythm.

Basically, he just has to live with it, take several medicines, try not to overdo it, and hope for the best. The only other option is some very drastic recourse that all the doctors have said is something they wouldn't recommend unless it was a very serious, immediate emergency. So, my Dad will likely die of a heart attack or heart failure one day. I'm thankful to God he is with us now and pray he may be with us much longer.

Very sorry to hear of all your heart problems. I'm thankful that you are saved so the most important "problem" you faced has been fixed.

I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you and grant you the healing, strength and comfort you need. May the Lord guide the doctors and all involved that they may provide the necessary assistance.

[Anon]

Awww Will, you are acting so upbeat but I know how scary that must be. Why is your heart enlarged? Is it just how its made or is it inflamed or something?

I'll definitely be praying for ya, I can't imagine going through that at your age (not that you are much younger than me, but hey, I can't imagine going through it at MY age...)

Maybe THIS time you'll meet the cute Baptist nurse.... :wink

[Psalms18_28]

praying for you

[dadof4]

Praying daily for you, Will. Keep us updated, please.

[Sophie]

Praying.

[IM4given]

praying

[Will]

Awww Will, you are acting so upbeat but I know how scary that must be. Why is your heart enlarged? Is it just how its made or is it inflamed or something?

I'll definitely be praying for ya, I can't imagine going through that at your age (not that you are much younger than me, but hey, I can't imagine going through it at MY age...)

Maybe THIS time you'll meet the cute Baptist nurse....

When my mitral valve quit working properly, the bottom chamber of the heart began filling up with fluid. Like I said, you never wanna hear a doctor say "I've never seen this before!"

I figure one of these days I'm gonna be written about in a medical journal.

[5dumplings@home]

praying again, Will

[Larry02]

Praying...