Ugh.....

Spoke to my EP yesterday. I had sent him an email concerning my current state and asked him about another drug to use along with the Ticosyn. He felt it not to be a good idea for my type of arrhythmia. So I am staying the course for now. I will be seeing him next week to discuss the next move which is to see Dr. Natale in Texas for a 3rd ablation.

He did mention what he thought should be the next step which would be a Thoroscopic Maze Procedure. Which is similar to the Mini Maze or 5 Box Procedure. These are minimally invasive procedures but more invasive than Catheter Ablation and work from the outside of the heart in correlation with interior.  We shall see. On interesting note about these procedures is that they remove the Left Atrial Appendage which is thought to not only contribute to Affib but can also eliminate or reduce the formation of blood clots. Tere is also a current study being done using the LARIATE Suture System that isolates the LAA which has the same effect. This particular study is being carried out at Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia but I don't know if I am a candidate or not.

Cycling Fail........

So I did get out for a short ride the other day. Did not go so well though. High winds and torrential thunderstorm created need to cut the ride short. Te 200 plus heartrate at the end was not helpfull either.

Maintenance Outage Infinity.....

So our so called 2 week mini outage has turned into well over a month with way to many startups and shutdowns. Tonight involving yet another since the end of Infinity outage. Then we get the pleasure of putting it back on and taking the other unit of on Sunday. Assuming everything goes well which it probably won't.  This also means we will be bringing the unit back off before the heat to repair another gremlin that won't allow us to make full load when it gets really hot outside. It's a comedy of errors perpetrated by people I am pretty sure should not be in charge of the asylum.

Back In The Saddle....

Got home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and headed straight for the bike and a nice easy 20 mile ride. What a positive affect getting out in the fresh air doing something you enjoy has on your perspective. I made sure to keep my heart rate at a manageable level and just enjoy the moment.

I did the same thing on Sunday. The weather was not nearly as nice being about 20 degrees cooler but all in all a nice ride. Up until the point my heart went into affib again. It appears that my heart has gone back to its old ways by triggering the affib at low resting heart rates and recovering heart rates.

I went in to affib about 2 miles from the house. All I had left in the ride was a nice easy down hill then a decent climb before another flat stretch to home.I was just starting the downhill watching my heart rate. When my rate reduced to 85 bpm it converted to affib and shot up to 199 bpm. it then fluctuated between 199 and 100 for a while then settled in at around 150 bpm.

My heart converted back to NSR yesterday morning but went back out again just a short while ago. So we will see how long it takes me to convert back to NSR again.

That's a Relief....

Spoke with my Doctor yesterday afternoon. He called to follow up with me on my hospital stay and also my recent affib episodes. He let me know that he had spoken to his associate and that he was totally fine with me seeking out a second opinion. We had a really nice conversation and he offered up his assistance in any way he could to help me find a solution. He thought that my choice of surgeons I had chosen was top notch and referred to him as a Guru.

I actually spoke with that doctors office today and the process for seeing him is underway. They already received some of my medical records and the rest are in process for them to receive. So hopefully that will all work out and I will be going to see him. I will write more about that ast the situation progresses.

That Didn't Work Out So Well

So I had mentioned in one of my last posts that my EP wanted me to start tapering off of the meds.  I was apprehensive and excited the same. So I started tapering. 1 3/4 dose,  1 1/2 dose, 1 dose . Each step separated by 4 days or so.  the single dose is as far as I got before I started having trouble.

The weather turned at about the same time and I had started riding my bike. Not hard by any means but riding. Watching my heart rate as best I cold without a HR monitor. This was probably a big mistake. I was doing fine until my second day of cutting y dosage in half.

This had been my third day in a row on the bike. I had been doing about 30 miles each time and again taking it easy. The third ride went really well but I was pretty tired. Riding on the meds I'm on seams to really take its toll. I finished the ride a little faster than i had planed so I know that I pushed my HR higher than I had wanted to. About an hour after my ride my heart was out of rhythm. Needless to say I was bummed but understand that this can happen early on.

So the first thing to do at this point is get my heart back in rhythm so I went back to my normal dose times 2 to try to get my heart to convert to NSR, This is also what I did back in January  and ended up passing out. I didn't pass out this time but my heart did not convert either. The next day I was still out of rhythm and whet back to my normal dose. I was wiped out and disgusted as I hardly slept the night before.That evening when I got home I took a double dose again and about another hour later I converted. I must say this whole thing is enough to make a Guy nuts but I have faith it will get better. I had similar issues last time around then went almost 9 years without any real issues.

So I am back to my normal dose 2 times a day for a whole now. The doctor will be sending an event monitor in the next couple weeks and I am very anxious to get back to normal life.

Feeling Good

Not much going on on the heart front and I have had a couple nights where I slept more than 4 hours. Oh and the nightmares are back which I experienced before from the meds I am on. Otherwise, I'm feeling really good and plan to start doing some light training this week. 

I did get to the gym last week and plan the same for this one. I also think I'm going to set the rollers up and start doing some light spinning. I've probably been a little overly cautious about exercising but it hasn't hurt anything either.

Science

So I took the family to the Carnegie Museum Of Natural History yesterday. We always have a good time there and my son is really into dinosaurs so of course they are his favorite exhibits, He is annoyed that they tend to focus on the more popular species although he does really like the T-Rex. I always try to test his knowledge or at least have him explain something to me. And to me the easiest target is the T-Rex. 

When I look at the Rex all I can focus on are those tiny arms. Tiny in comparison to the rest of its body and appendages. They just seem out of place to me , especially when you look at the rest of the natural world and how proportional they are in how they are put together.

I also had a interesting experience with and employee of the Museum. In one of the exhibits they had small scale windmills and solar panel's on a card table with a young lady sitting there. I wanted to avoid her but at the same time wanted to here what she had to say and maybe have a conversation with her. She started showing me her windmills and I let it slip that I actually work in the power industry. She became really interested then and asked what I did. Oh to have a video of her reaction when I told her I worked in the central control room of a coal fired power plant.

Her grimace and convulsive reaction was priceless which turned what I thought might be a conversation into a lecture/by me on the downfalls of both these sources of power at this point in time. This didn't last long as my son and wife where dragging me away. I was by no means belligerent or disrespectful in any way but they just wanted to move along. my wife said that she ran off as they were dragging me away. I'm guessing they have a safe space set up somewhere or maybe she was off filing a hurt feelings report. 

I did see that she later returned and was frantically typing on her cell. I would like to think she was checking up on the facts I was telling her but most likely she was texting her friends about the horrible coal guy she just encountered.

Breakthrough.....

No. Not an epiphany nor some great eye opening enlightenment. Just a visit from a bad heart rhythm. Now it is unclear as to weather or not this was afib or some other arrhythmia. All I know is, it is not what I was expecting to happen. It did thankfully not last too long, about an hour. I had read of a method of stopping an attack so I actually started it before I got hold of my EP. He actually said that I had done the right thing and to take a larger dosage.
Now I would have expected this to happen on Saturday during or after the race. Or maybe even the next day. But this many days after, while sleeping is a real oddity for me. I have not felt 100% since Tuesday evening, when i did actually notice a blip in my rhythm, kind of like when you get an itch and you go to scratch, it but before you get the chance it goes away. Also if this was the time before my ablation I would expect it as well, as this is normally the time of year I would experience the most trouble with it.
So I don't know. Was it just a fluke? Did I deplete my electrolytes too much on Saturday and the following couple of days of riding? Am I going to start having trouble again? I don't know and I don't think anybody can 100% sure say. All I can do is put it behind me and keep doing what I have been doing and see what happens.
We will see.........