Friday, September 12

"What Do You Want To Hear First...

the good news or the less than good news?" That was the question posed to me by my cardiologist early this week during my post-operative visit. Seems my latest EKG is indicating that I have a condition know as Atrial Flutter. In layman's terms, an occasional irregular heartbeat. Seems my new reconditioned plumbing is okay, but my electrical system needs tweaking. Great!


"Okay Doc, what does one do to correct this condition? " We put you on the blood thinner Coumadin for a month in order to thin your blood to the point where we can then perform a Catheter Ablation." (Well, that made perfectly good sense to me!) "Talk down to me Doc. Reduce it to its lowest common denominator." "We go in through your groin (I'm ALREADY not liking what I am hearing), insert a catheter that travels to your heart (It's getting better by the second!), on the end of which there is a probe that will cauterize (BURN!!) the defective nerve that is sending the incorrect signals to that portion of the heart that is beating irregularly. This should correct the problem once and for all." Notice he used the word "should," not "will."


Next question... "What is the downside if I elect not to go forward with this procedure? "Well, it's not going to get any better and most likely will get worse. You could learn to live with the condition or the condition could worsen to the point where you would have a heart attack." "Isn't this where I came in a couple of months ago when you announced that my 'skinny arteries' could lead to a massive heart attack? " I strongly suspect he knew that that was a rhetorical question. He answered "Yes" anyway just to appease me.



So, apparently I'm not quite out of the proverbial woods yet, but hopefully headed more permanently in that direction. My attitude continues to be the same as it was prior to entering the hospital for the by-pass surgery; "It will be what it will be and I will emerge just fine." At least they won't find it necessary to open me up like a can of sardines, although I am thinking seriously about getting a tattoo on my inner left thigh that says "Insert Catheter Here!!" I do know this, I am getting tired if not bored about blogging about my on-going medical condition. I'd much prefer to talk about other more interesting topics...like politics. On second thought...maybe my medical condition IS much more interesting than that mess!!


For now...I'm off to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to take in this evening's college football game between our home town University of South Florida Bulls and the Kansas University Jayhawks. There's nothing quite like sitting among 65,000 screaming football fans to get the old heart pumpin'. Hum-m-m-m, maybe I ought to give that idea some more careful consideration. Later...

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