My Heart

Let me start this off by saying that I am doing much better and feeling really good. On September 29th I was getting ready for work I went into ventricular fibrillation (V-fib) with a heart rate of 250. I was immediately taken to Banner Desert Hospital where they sedated me and shock my heart. My heart responded well to this and went back to normal. I have never had this happen before so it was a complete shock and very scary at the same time. Of course I was admitted to the hospital and sent to the cardiology unit to be watched. I am in the good hands of two doctors from Tri-City Cardiology. The next day I had a echo cardiogram done. That night I received the news that the right side of my heart is enlarged and I have a leak in my tricuspid valve. This is of course was news that you do not want to get. To give some background I was born with a congenital heart defect known as Atrial septal defect(ASD) which was repaired with open heart surgery at the age of 3. At that time I was watch for a year and then given a clean bill of health.

They are not for sure but my current problem could be from this original defect that was never noticed and then got worse over the pass 30 years which would cause the right side of my heart to enlarge. One Friday I had a cardiac catheterization done where they look at your heart and make it go into V-fib again to find out what caused it in the first place. You are awake during this procedure. It is one of the weirdest feeling I have had. To be lying down while someone controls your heart rate. They were able to find the nod that caused me to go into V-fib and dead in it, which means I should hopefully never go into v-fib again. I was released from the hospital the next day. The next step is to deal with the valve that is leaking. This can be treated with medication or surgery depending on how bad it is. Which I do not know at this point. I have more test this week which should lead us to the right direction

This whole experience has been VERY humbling, however I truly have felt the hand of the Lord throughout this whole process. I had a blessing on Wednesday night and have felt very calm since and still do. I have to thank my family and friends for all their love, prayers and support. I have felt them on a daily bases. I have to get a big thanks to my mom. She stayed with me at the hospital for 3 and a half very long days. When you can not leave the cardiology unit the days go by really SLOW. People asked if the triathlon caused me to go into v-fib the doctors do not think so, I think it was just a matter of time. And if I had to pick when I would have it happen now. Keep smiling everyone, everything is going to be just fine, I promise. Love you all!