One year ago this week......

One year ago this week, I was recovering from what would be my first of three unexpected heart surgeries.

I know totally outrageous......

I have been asked for the low down on this story......some of you have heard it.....some of you don't want to hear it, and if that is the case.....just leave me a comment you are glad I am all better, and leave it at that.......otherwise......get comfy....it is quite a story.

This is how it went down. I had been asking Mister if he was ready to have more babies for awhile, he wasn't. We had gotten into a great deal of discussions on the matter, and his reasoning nearly always came down to......"I can't explain it, but I am worried about your health, and that something would happen to you, and I would have three babies, and no you." I bucked this explanation EVERY time he used it......."That is ridiculous!" Before you think I am too harsh....I will tell you this......I have been very fortunate to have unbelievably easy pregnancy's, and relatively easy births. I have never even experienced morning sickness. I don't have any special sickness, had never been hospitalized, never broken a bone, had stitches once when I was 8.....seriously, except a few extra pounds, pretty darn healthy......I just didn't get it.

We had finally agreed, I would have my IUD removed, and get on an oral contraceptive, so when, and IF the time came to try to have another child, we wouldn't need to make the appointment. This was in May of 2006. There was a new Gynecologist in town, and I could get in to see him the following day, so I jumped at the appointment. The oral contraceptive he wanted me to be on, was one I had never used, and I am not super duper good with change.....but I decided I would roll with it. I read all the packet instructions that came with them, and was on them for June, July and August. I was having some of the symptoms which are labeled as "side effects" and figured, well.....I have only been taking it for 3 months, I should give it another couple of months.......they didn't get any better.

I called and spoke with the OBGYN's nurse, and told her the symptoms I was having, and asked to get a prescripti0n to the pill I had been on before babies.......she wasn't that easy to convince, said she would talk to the Dr. and call me back........

**(irritating, thorough new Dr.'s)**

Well, she called me back and said the Dr. said it made him "uncomfortable" to give me another prescription with these "symptoms," and asked me to see in internal medicine Dr. if he said I was fine, then he would call in a new prescripti0n.....

**(irritating, over the top-thorough NEW Dr.'s!)**

The nurse gave me an appointment with the internal medicine Dr. who was new to town also, and had an opening the next day. They did a complete blood count, and an EKG, wanted an ultra sound of my liver, and an Echo cardiogram of my heart, took x-ray's of my chest, and to put me on a Holter Monitor!

**What on Earth is going on with these crazy new Dr.'s?**

I agreed to the Holter Monitor, the x-ray's, and the liver ultra sound because my liver enzymes were "high." I declined the ultra sound of my heart, as I saw that ALL of it was unnecessary. All I wanted was a different pill for goodness sakes! By the end of the week, Halloween, I had finished with the other tests, and was "wearing" the 24 hour Holter monitor. This is a monitor, that for 24 hours records the beats of your heart. It is put on with those sticky circle things you see in movies, with the wires all over the place, and a little pocket i-pod like device which is the recorder. I figured it made for a good costume, what the heck!

I turned the monitor in the next day around noon........I got a call on my cell phone at 3:00 pm. from the internal Dr.'s nurse.

"Hi SoDak, this is Jenny......Dr. has looked over the results you turned in today."

"yeah?"

"He would like to go over those results with you, um.....what are you doing right now?"

"Shopping the Halloween clearance, at Wa!!mart...."

"Okay, then we will see you in 15 minutes."

click......

**what the....what?**

That just doesn't sound all that good you know.....so I dropped off my boys at Mister's office, and went to the clinic.

Dr. explained things to me, but what I remember was, "this is no good." He called a Cardiologist friend of his in Sioux Falls, explained the results to him, and he wanted to see me within a week. Then he faxed the Holter monitor results to the Cardiologist, who called back in minutes, and said I needed to be in Sioux Falls for an appointment the next day, at noon. I still didn't quite get it I guess....

Sioux Falls is three hours away, and we decided to take the boys in case we wanted to stay the night after the appointment, and do some shopping. We packed an over-night bag for the family, and took off early November 2nd.

When we got to the appointment, at the heart hospital, it was explained to us that I had what is called Ventricular Tachycardia.....which causes my heart to speed up at random times, and go from say 80 beats a minute, to 180 in the blink of an eye. Also, occasionally my heart stops beating for 2-3 seconds. I had nooooo idea. They told us they almost NEVER see this sort of thing in someone my age. They see it in young children, and it can be corrected with medication if caught soon enough......usually at a well child visit. Or very old people, and it is corrected with a pace maker. WOW......

(The thing is.....I never really had any well child visits....my mom worked at a Dr.'s office, and we would get all our immunizations for free....and just not have a "check-up." Also, I had-had a lifetime of shortness of breath, but just thought that was me, I had asked several times in my adult life about light-headedness.....and was told I was dehydrated. I had told my OB's when I was pregnant that on occasion I would get a really rapid heart beat, and I was exhausted.....they said I was growing baby, and that was normal........)

My options were, I could go on medication, for the rest of my life, or I could have surgery in about 6-8 weeks, when they could get me on the schedule.

That is a lot to consider.....like immediately....definitely did not want to be medicated all my life, so we agreed we would get on the surgery schedule. The nurse got us some pamphlets on the procedure, so we could look it over. They scheduled an echo cardiogram of my heart before I left......(psst...you know the one I declined from the first Dr........yeah, that one). Then they would schedule my surgery.

I had the Echo cardiogram, which lasted a half an hour, and was recorded on VCR tape. The technician was really vague when I would ask questions, and would say the Dr. will talk with you. Just kept measuring......repeating.....I could tell she was concerned. She asked me to wait in the lobby, while the Dr. looked over the results. I told her he said I could go following the Echo cardiogram, and she asked me to wait in the lobby, that he would like to look it over.

That didn't seem good......

The nurse came out, a half hour later, and asked us to come back into the room.......Dr. came in.....

"We have you scheduled for surgery at 6 am tomorrow morning."

"What.....what.....what happened to 6-8 weeks?"

"Your heart shows it is functioning at 35%.......and that is where a heart functions, right before a heart attack, we have rearranged the schedule, and you will be the first surgery tomorrow morning......it should last 4 hours."

Oh my..........

Tune in for more soon.........really.......soon.