my heart surgery story.....

This story of mine, starts on Tuesday December 29th 2009.
My appointment was scheduled for eight o’clock in the morning for a procedure called SVT Ablation. To fix an arrhythmia problem I have had for years.
So my parents and I drove to Seattle to the University of Washington Hospital. We arrived a little earlier then scheduled, as you would normally do before a surgery.
We walked up to the counter; got all checked and signed in. And mom and I headed to a room for preparations while my dad sat in the waiting room for me to be done. (Little did he know it would be about seven hours later.) But, there were some wall decorations my dad really liked. They looked like buttons in plate like sizes. They were all different colors and patterns, very fascinating to check out. My dad took pictures of them he was so impressed.
So a nurse came in to get me all ready for surgery. She was nice, but not super nice. I don’t even remember her name…that should tell ya something if you know me! As she had me repeat my date of birth and make sure I was the right patient for the procedure. My mom sat in a chair by the bed…that seemed to be in everyone’s way as they worked around the hospital bed/gurney that I was in. She kept scooting over a little to give them more room. The nurse took my vitals and gave me an awesome hospital robe and garb to wear. She also gave me these horrible hospital non-slipping socks…I hated them! They were too small on my huge feet and a horribly ugly puke brown color…I am supper picky when it comes to things on my feet that are un-comfortable. I really wanted to cry…seriously, I started to cry. I asked if there were larger ones thinking that they would be better…but I was wrong. The nurse went and got men’s blue ones that were bigger, but squared toe’s. Who wears those? No thanks. I asked if I had to wear them and was informed…I did, they were mandatory. Rats, that was not what I wanted to hear. So reluctantly I put the brown puke ones back on.
The nurse was almost ready to get my IV going. But before she started she called down the hall…peeking out of the curtain from my room asking somebody down the hall if Teddy was available to help her with the IV. I knew then that it was not going to go well if she did it. Well he wasn’t available to help her so she said, “Oh that’s fine. I just thought if we tag teamed it’d get done faster.” Oh boy here we go, I thought as I tried to remain calm. So she came over heated my arms, tried to find veins, tried some more and again checked with not much success. After some time passed she decided to start digging! Yikes I hate IV’s!! She dug and dug…apologized a few times because she couldn’t get it. I was getting so dizzy and light headed…by this time it has been a couple hours that I have been in the prep room…and mind you I haven’t eaten or drank anything since Monday night at midnight. And that’s not good for me I get a little hyperglycemic. So bout the time I started crying she stopped and was waiting a minute for me, so I could catch my breath a little. Teddy came in an was like “Oh good you got it?” and the nurse said “No I stopped I don’t like making people cry.” So she left and Teddy took over. He was cute…but married, haha. He was very nice…I steadily looked across the room with determination and concentration, as he quickly got an IV in my wrist. Ouch, not a fun place for one, but the job was done. I then was ready to go!
So then I waited for the doctors to come in and talk with me. A nurse came in an introduced herself as Elizabeth. She was going to be with me the majority of the time at the head of my bed during the procedure. Soon Doctor Mohan Viswanathan came in and again went over the procedure and said I’d be going back fairly soon. Then a secondary doctor who would be doing what later felt like the majority of the actual hands torturing me part of the procedure with Doctor Viswanathan came in to meet me. He was Doctor Bipin Ravindran. He and doctor Mohan are both Indian I believe. He was Short but very nice… His voice sounded a lot like my friend William from work. Which is a good thing I guess, because I have a lot of respect and admiration for him. This was the first time I had met Doctor Ravindran, but he made a good impression just like Doctor Mohan did when I first met him. And I felt comfortable in the hands I knew I would be in. He went over the procedure and how things in the heart work and answered all questions either mom or I might have had. He then left and said he would see me soon. Which shortly was true…
Elizabeth my nurse came in an asked if I was ready to go. Which I was as ready as I would be! She asked if I wanted to walk or go on wheels…I thought walk I guess, how far do I have to go? But it was a short walk…I said goodbye to mom and said I loved her and ill see you soon. She went out back to the waiting room with dad and I went with the nurse to the operating room.
This was where the action began!! It was super weird being awake and walking into an operating room…there was two other nurses in their already prepping a table and stuff for me. The doctors were also in their fixing the equipment and getting that part ready. I stood there holding the back of my lovely robe to keep it closed. Waiting for the nurse to tell me what to do. As I was standing there the nurse told me don’t back up into that table. It had knives and tools I think. I was said, I wont…I was standing there stiff and nervous, even thou I was relatively calm. I had already said quite a few prayers and knew whose hands I was in (Gods) and the Doctors whose hands He was using to fix my broken heart! So then Elizabeth the nurse, had me take a seat on the operating table. She then they started getting things going and set up. By this time it was about eleven, it had been three hours already since I had been in the hospital getting ready. So they put electro/d-fib patches on my front and back…it was very cold and dry in the room. So they brought me some warm blankets and got me wrapped up. My knees were shaking, I think mostly because of nerves and some cold. So the warm blankets didn’t really stop my legs from shaking. But they felt pretty good considering. So about then they sent the “boys” out and prep’d me with them gone. (I am leaving all those details out) but, there was a funny part were after they had a catheter put in (which I wasn’t prepared for it and it was my first one)…so all of the sudden I felt wet all over my hip and thigh and thought you’ve got to be kidding me I didn’t go, why am I wet?! And asked the nurse…um is there…what’s the…and the nurse was like oh; opps I didn’t put the clap on that…it was just water thou…not from me. And they fixed it! So they kept prepping things…and they put x’s on my feet and ankles to mark where to find my heart beat. So that later if needed to find them they could…in which in doing they had to take those horribly gross socks off to find them...Yay…but then they were trying to put them back on and they are twisted, I asked if they could fix em?! And then said you could just leave them off… and they were happy to oblige…mandatory my foot!! Haha, and then all the nurses admired my pedicure. They were painted a cute pink!
So soon after I was all ready to start the procedure, the doctors came back in and asked how I was doing and said they were going to get started. They said if I had any pain or concern to let them know. I said I would, but truthfully I am not very good at verbally saying ok, wait something is wrong…but my face normally gives me away if something is wrong.
So then the action began…Doctor Ravindran gave local anesthesia on surface area before inserting the first catheter/probe up my main artery from my groin towards my heart. Wow, the sensation was weird and painful. As he fed it up I could feel it, I couldn’t tell exactly pinpoint where it was, but the pain I was feeling was as if he was trying to push it thru my kidney! Not a great feeling… he paused for a minute so I could get my breath and I think he gave me a little more local anesthesia to the site. As he pushed them up, it felt like a snake pattern being fed up the vein, weird feeling. He put two probes up on both sides left and right. Then they put one down the main artery/vein of my neck. For the one in my neck, they had me turn my head to the left, and they draped a blue cloth type cover over my face so that I wouldn’t get blood on me I think. Because I saw a little on the plastic cover that goes over the big machine equipment that was above me. And probably so that Doctor Ravindran could focus on just the spot he needed to go in at. That incision as small as it was, was so painful. It felt like he was strangling me as he pressed and squeezed my neck as he fed the probe down me neck towards my heart. It also made my whole shoulder feel like really bad arthritis. The one they put down my neck was actually an ultra sound one so they could see inside. The four from my groin were probes that actually were inserted into the heart. The push them thru the heart to then send a signal to aggravate the heart and send it into an arrhythmia. They had to map it and pinpoint right were the problem areas were and see how they wanted to fix it. And in order to map it, it would have had to be in one of its bad episodes to see it. So after all off the probes were in place…more action began!
One of the most annoying things thou I haven’t mentioned, was the air piece over my nose. It had a rounded piece the curved over my lip; it was so uncomfortable and I didn’t like it. It moved around and didn’t stay in place. And I was not aloud to move an inch. That was made very clear from the beginning, if there was any itch or something I needed or fixed, one of the nurses would get it for me. I was just supposed to say so. If I were not able to remain still on my own, they would have had to strap me down. I did not want that and said I was fine staying still by myself. I would have felt very trapped if I was strapped down.
So then both of the doctors went behind this wall where there was computers and all the study equipment, and began doing their thing. They started off a little slower then really got my heart going. Periodically they would ask how I was feeling and if it was the same as how I would feel when on a normal day if I had an episode. Which of course the answer was, yes! I told them if I had been standing up, I would have fallen over or would have already passed out. Because with my heart racing that fast for so long is not easy to function. They said that is why you’re laying down. I laid there for a few hours without moving a muscle as they studied the pathways in my heart. Doctor Ravindran came out and checked on the sites and how everything was going. They used the probes to irritate the heart and a medication too thru the IV to trace the pathways of blood flow and mapping of the heart. And then would go back behind the wall with Doctor Viswanathan where I couldn’t see them, I could just hear them. I could hear them using big words and I was able to watch the x-ray/ultrasound like screen that I could see. I could see the probes that where in my heart moving around. I could see my ribs and lungs too in the screen I think. That was really amazing to watch. I couldn’t help but stop and think wow, God has truly given these doctors such a gift in the knowledge He has given them.
As the Docs were back studying, I laid there and talked with the nurses… they mostly talked about fine cuisine and restaurants in Seattle that they really enjoyed. It wasn’t very nice. I was so thirsty and hungry! And they said sorry we will try to stop, but it didn’t really stop…they continued with talk of croissants. Oh yum, those were sounding good. But it would be a long while before I would get to eat anything. So, I continued to lay there while things were going on. Elizabeth sat at my head I couldn’t really see her the whole time; but every now and again she would lean toward the side of my head to look at my face and ask how things felt an where it was hurting an how could she help me…a few times she had to fix my nose piece. And at one point my blood pressure cuff was so tight because they were setting my heart in such crazy arrhythmias that it was hard for it to get a proper heart reading. So it was squeezing the life out of my arm. At one point it felt like it was stuck and cutting off the circulation in my arm and hand, my hand was cold and numb and I could barely feel my hand. So I asked the nurse what she could do. She said it was almost done and would release soon. I told her it was making my whole arm ache and my shoulder was killing me…so she rubbed my shoulder some to help it relax. And which it did help a little. A couple hours into the process I realized there was something in the center of my head pressing into my brain and it was aching. I remembered I had my hair in a ponytail and asked the nurse to please fix it. I was getting a headache from laying on it. Which she kindly did that too.
When the actual ablation took place, I was pre-warned that they were going to start it and they knew what spots they were going to ablate. It felt like a burning sensation and a weight pressing down on my chest…and I think that is about were I started to cry not exactly on purpose, it was more of an instinct I think out of, I can’t move a muscle and I can’t make this pain feel any better right now, kind of a way. And that’s when they gave me a slight sedative to help me relax my muscles a little so I wasn’t as tense. It didn’t put me to sleep it just made me tired and relaxed…which I was already getting exhausted because of the arrhythmias they set my heart into. And Elizabeth was stroking my forehead to help me relax. After the ablation process the doctors told me they had ablated four different sections. They then re-tried to set into an arrhythmia, which it didn’t go into any. Which was good because that meant they got all the spots they were working on.
So a little after four thirty I think is when the procedure was done and a group of nurses and I think at least one of the Doctors said I was not to move, we will move you to this other bed. It was a bed that had wheels, so they could take me to my room that I would be in for the night. I then had to remain still four another four hours. Wow, I had no idea I would have to remain so still for so long. Someone should have warned me so I could have prepared myself!! But it may not have helped…this process I would have never been ready for.
I then was wheeled up to my room. Were I had to remain flat four another four hours! As soon as I could after getting to my room for the night I had my mom hand me my purse so I could get my phone out and I started texting people. Letting them know I was alive and things went well!
Around quarter to seven a nurse came by and told me if I wanted something to eat to order it. So I think I ordered some apple juice, a roll and some string cheese. It wasn’t very good string cheese, but I needed the protein so I ate it. By now I was really ready to bend my knees and I wanted to sit up. So somewhere in between having a snack and seven thirty, my catheter was taken out. Wahoo!
My hips and back were aching from being so flat and motionless. The nurse said I could try to get up since it had been long enough since the procedure and it was past the point of blood clots forming. So I tried to lift my leg to bend my knee. Ya right, painfully and it didn’t work so well. I had to have my mom bend my knees for me. I couldn’t do it on my own. Just lifting my knees a little was such a huge relief.
Then I got to slowly walk to the bathroom in my room. But it was also conjoined to the room next door. It had a lock in the counter if u turned it, it would lock both doors. Well, I didn’t realize how it worked until about the third time I used the bathroom, and that was in the middle of the night. The first time I pushed on the neighbors door trying to figure out how they knew if I was in it or not and it almost opened so I figured that was not a good idea to push on it again. Afterwards I went for a very brief walk, my mom took me down the hall and back. And that was more then enough to wear me out!
A little after eight thirty my parents headed back home and I was left to myself in the hospital room. It was quite and noisy at the same time. There were so many noises of machines and the nurses in the hall checking in on other patients. So I turned the TV for noise and the light was on for company. And besides I couldn’t reach the switch to turn it off without getting up. So I didn’t care if it was on. I think it was my first time being anywhere only ever. Needless to say I didn’t sleep much, from the pain inside of me. To the aching of my body and the IV that felt like it was pinching every time I moved my wrist. I had some sleep but every time I started to drift off a nurse would come in to check my pulse and blood pressure. It was a long night.
In the morning, the nurse woke me about five!! She took my vitals and told me the doctors would be coming by sometime to talk with me and release me to go. But before that would come to pass, she brought me some toothpaste and a toothbrush. Which I had forgotten mine at home, so I was glad she asked if I needed any. About the time I brushed my teeth and was in the bathroom, I heard a knock on the bathroom door. I think he thought I was missing in action because I wasn’t in the bed. It was a little embarrassing to be in the bathroom when he came thou. Doctor Ravindran had come to check on me. He said he would come back in a few. Glad I just had freshened up a little. He came back shortly and said everything was looking good. Although my voice was so hoarse, he said it was just from dehydration and such a dry operating room. I had been on my phone and it was in my hand still when he came, so he saw a picture on my phone of baby, and me he asked if it was mine… I said no of-course because I don’t have any… yet. Then he saw the background on the phone and thought it was really nice. It was a graffiti city but architecturally it was very well done. He shortly there after left and said Dr. Mohan was planning to come by in a while too.
My parents arrived soon after that, and I ordered breakfast…well more like lunch since I had been up since five…I believe I order some macaroni an cheese and a piece of cheesecake…I only ate like a third of the Mac an cheese and practically forced my dad to eat the rest. Haha, later the nurse was said she was proud that I finished it. I didn’t want to disappoint her by telling her I didn’t eat it. I’m sure I paid an arm and leg by having it ordered and put on my bill!
Well the morning was quickly turning into afternoon, and soon I would be going home. Throughout the morning nurses came and went checking vitals and getting me set to go with paper work signed and everything. I then had one more EKG done before I was released to check my heart out. It looked good! So a wheelchair was brought for me while my dad went to get the car, my mom wheeled me to the exit shortly behind to meet him. On our way down the hall, we had seen on the white board by my name was a big red heart; I wanted to take a picture of the board because mine was special with a heart! But just as we got to the end of the hall an turned towards the white board… a girl took a white board eraser an swoosh it was gone…sniff’’ no more heart for me. Oh well I now had a new and improved heart and was heading home. I had a scheduled two weeks off of work and was ready to relax and get a bunch of sleep in!
So the ride home seemed quite long and bumpy…. but we made it, and I went to my bed. The only thing that I never followed thru on while at hospital was some kind of pain meds for at home. I wish I had some for the first week especially. By the time I called about not having any, it was the second week and I didn’t really need any. The nurse I talked to when I called an said I was having some weird pains said “well, your still taking your pain meds right?” but I told her I was never given any. So then I just started taking some Ibuprofen on the second week.
Recovery has been going well and I continue to feel better a little more even now over a month later everyday! I am just so thankful to have been referred to Doctor Mohan Viswanathan by my specialist Doctor Yang. I am not on any heart medications since four days before the surgery and will not have to go back on it unless some of the arrhythmias return. Which Lord willing they don’t, but it is possible…but not likely. I have been wearing a heart monitor to collect data from the small issues I was having since the surgery, and soon I will be getting those results back too. I send the data in every 24 hours and they are collecting it and will go over the results with me after the 19th of February. I have been having less and less to send in so that’s a good improvement. And I have not been having the pain that I was having before.
I am just thankful for the people whom God used to fix my heart! I use to say it was broken, but I truly believe its whole and will be in great shape for a long time. Its ready for the next hundred years of my life! Which I am sure God has great things in store for it.



Thank you for taking the time to share my story. This is my knowledge of before the surgery and after. This was in its entirety to my knowledge accurate and factual! Thanks for being part.



~LydiaC.