Sometime readers of this blog may remember that I do share one thing with Jeff Jarvis - I have atrial fibrillation. Fortunately, I have the paroxysmal variety, and even more fortunately, I know when I'm in afib, but it's still an incredible pain in the butt - I need to take Coumadin, and when I get attacks, they're not dangerous but my heart speeds up and beats very irregularly, I get short of breath, and I sweat profusely. On Tues, I went to Columbia Presbyterian to have a electro-physiology study and catheter ablation. It went pretty well, the doctors took a different and somewhat more aggressive approach than the last one I'd had, which worked for about a year. The afib returned in April of this year, right about the time I started my new job. This time, they burned tissue on both sides of the heart (having done only the right side the last time), and deeper (to create scar tissue) than the last time. It's a long procedure - you're on the table for about 8 hours, the first 5 sedated but awake while they map the electrical regions of the heart to isolate the afib-causing nodes. It's pretty cool, you're on this table next to a bank of 8 large monitors, while the doctors operate joysticks to manipulate the catheters. You can almost forget that it's your heart they're probing.
When it was time to do the actual ablation, they put me under; though, oddly enough, I woke for part of it, which was some of the worst pain I have ever felt. It went well; the only problem was I developed an enormous hematoma afterwards, which has resulted in a left leg so ugly I can barely bring myself to look at it. You haven't lived until you've had 2 very strong-handed doctors massaging your bruise to break up and redistribute the blood. I screamed several times, resulting in profuse apologies from the doctors; I'd scream again, and they'd apologize again; finally I just said "Just do what you have to do and don't mind my screaming." The burns were so strong that my chest ached every time I inhaled for a couple days, which is a very odd feeling. I am home recuperating comfortably, and was at the head of the table carving the unTurkey yesterday. I'm getting a little better every day. I've also been in sinus rhythm ever since. Keep your fingers crossed.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that Columbia Presbyterian is by far and away the best hospital I've been in. Every single person I dealt with was cheerful and took pride in their work. The nurses were humorous, sympathetic and responsive. And get this, I have finally found a hospital that does. vegan. food. They didn't say "huh, what's that?" They brought me veggie burger and rice. They brought me sugar snap peas and rotini with marinara. Whee.
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