Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:26:38 +0000 2 Comments

8 Long Years with Atrial Fibrillation

Tomorrow I’m having heart surgery!!  It’s really more of a procedure than a surgery, but it does involve doctors going into my heart and making some burns around my Pulmonary veins.  For 8 years now I have lived with Atrial Fibrillation, and tomorrow this procedure will hopefully be the start of a life without AF.  For me anyways, when I’m having an episode I get tired, winded, light headed, and weak.  I have found over the years that certain things tend to precipitate an episode, include: drinking beer (damn), staying up late (damn), unhealthy eating habits, drinking coffee before bed (damn), and allowing myself to get dehydrated.  Also, laying on my left side at night tends to cause problems.  When an episode does start it can last anywhere from 1 - 24 hours.  Just this morning I came off the tail end of a near 24 hour episode.  I only recently found out that exercise can cause my heart to go back into normal sinus rhythm.  So, a light jog/brisk walk this morning did the trick.

So, goodbye AF.  You have been a pain in my ass and you will not be missed.

Update: The surgery went well.  From what I’ve been told I was very hard to control on the operating table and had to be restrained.  At one point I sat up during the procedure and knocked my  head against one of the overhead devices.  There were 281 different burns made around my Pulmonary veins, and evidently I am a rarity, as I have 5 veins instead of the typical 4 (go me)!  I think the total time I was on the table was around 5 hours.  After my recovery period I was pretty sick due to the dose of anesthesia needed to keep me under.  Currenty I’m taking 5 different drugs, 2 of which are blood thinners.  I hate medication.  Lisa was awesome of course and is taking great care of me.  Her mom came into town to watch Cameron.  We’re so lucky to have her.  Anyway, my healing phase is 3 months, after which I hope to be drug free and free of AF.


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2 Comments for "8 Long Years with Atrial Fibrillation"

Comment 1 Mike Ames - Gravatar Mike Ames

WOW Buddy!

I had no idea. I check your blog hear and there but must have missed this one. I am dam glad your good to go and better now. I think its interesting you were able to sit up during surgery. Not much can stop you, not even heart surgery. Now I see how you are able to stay up all hours of the night learning new code when I get frustrated after a few hours.

P.S. Bob Fitzgerald took over our site as webmaster. I found a way to get out from under it without pissing people off. He says to say hi. He asked me how I knew so much and I said I taught myself, but got started trying to follow people like you. I said I tried to learn from and follow code gurus. I mentioned your name and he said he knew you.

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:12:40 +0000 Link

Comment 2 leveille - Gravatar leveille

Thanks for the note Mike. Yeah, things have been going well since the surgery. I'm pretty much back to normal, and hopefully will be completely free of AF (not quite yet) by October.

Tell Bob I said hi.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:43:05 +0000 Link

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