Good news from the cardiologist!

This morning I went the first of two appointments with cardiologists to follow up on the mess that landed me in the hospital right before Easter (or 3 days after Phoenix's debut at the ICDOC trials, although I'm pretty sure there was no connection).

Today I saw an electrophysiologist, a cardiologist who specializes in abnormal heart rhythms. Yes, after 43 years, it has been officially confirmed that I am not normal.

Anyway, GOOD NEWS, they don't want to do ablation surgery to correct the problem, at least not at this point and possibly not ever but that's hard to say. Right now, we're going to manage it with medicine, although it might take a little while to get the right combination of drugs/dosage figured out. Great, just when I was finally remembering when to take the original prescriptions, now they've all changed.

Although atrial fibrillation is considered heart disease, it is an electrical malfunction as opposed to disease of the arteries, chambers, valves, etc. Apparently I have a very strong, healthy heart except for the fact it fires off abnormal electrical impulses whenever it feels like it. Sort of like "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"

Apparently, I am ultra-abnormal because the doctor told me adenosine (the medicine they gave me in the ambulance to "cardiovert" me back to normal rhythm) does NOT work on atrial fibrillation. Well, who am I to argue. The paramedic gave it to me, my heart rate dropped from 181 beats per minute to 60. Pretty good for a medicine that shouldn't have worked. Coincidence? Who knows. Welcome to my abnormal life.

Next week, I get to take a nuclear stress test to see if any of my arteries are clogged. This is a two-day event, carefully scheduled on Wednesday/Thursday, between going to Chicago with Marsha on Tuesday to pick up little Vinnie and showing Phoenix at the 4RK9s trial on Friday. Good thing I'm on furlough next week, I'm going to be too busy to work!

Since I had taken the whole day off, I did some shopping at Gander Mountain and a couple of greenhouses. Now I have flowers to plant. If I get busy, I can get some of them in the ground before going to agility class tonight.

Tomorrow, I go back to see the cardiologist at St. Luke's. I'm not sure what he's going to tell me but hey, it's more time out of the office.