Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Horizon

Had my follow-up visit with the Surgeon who performed the first procedure. The Nurse ran a new EKG and the silly irregular beats popped up! Well...they didn't just pop-up they basically were not fully contained during the first procedure. I sat waiting for the Doctor to come and discuss the road map forward, and this is what was discussed...

During the first procedure known as "Electrophysiology Study" he located an area that was generating irregular beats. He was able to "ablate" - laser burn most of it, but the majority of the conduction system problem was located very close to my "Sinus Node" this is the heart's natural pacemaker that generates the pulse that beats your heart. He felt that it was too close and if he had continued would have had to insert an artificial pacemaker. During the procedure the 3D image mapping of my heart revealed an "RBBB" which is a "Right Bundle Branch Block" which typically is not an issue and a large number of people go through life without even knowing they have it. This is a defect in the conduction of the impulse in the bundle branches of the ventricles. In some cases coupled with an irregular heart beat it can be very disturbing, to the point of nausea, passing out, weight loss, fatigue...the list goes on, going into great detail isn't really important. During the mapping procedure he discovered that some of the arrythmia is focused on the outside muscle of the heart.

After being told all of this, the Doctor scheduled a second procedure which will be performed next week on February 6th. Happens to be Tammy's 21st birthday...arghhh - talk about timing!! The same Doctor will have his Mentor in attendance who specializes in dealing with external muscle ablations. This procedure is a little more complex, in that they will enter the groin area again, but also make an incision in my chest to access the outer heart muscle. The catheters in my groin will be used to generate the 3D mapping image, and once accurately located - the external procedure will be performed to ablate the arrythmia.

The scientific name for this is called: Radio Frequency Epicardial Ventricular Tachycardia Catheter Ablation - try say that ten times. Basically means performing the first procedure initially, but then instead of using catheters to ablate the heart internally, a small incision is made on the chest, giving access to the external wall of the heart to perform the ablation.

So...what does all of this mean? Well, simply said it means that they have figured out what has been going on with me for the past 8 months, and are finally zeroing in on the issues that need to be fixed.

At The Father's House - our fellowship, the word for the year is "Breakthrough". What does breakthrough mean for you? Do you even need breakthrough in any area of your life? Here is a revelation the Lord showed me...in order to attain "breakthrough" in areas in my life, I need to experience brokenness. Well, what does that mean? My life is given to the Lord, and in order for Him to bring me to the point of breakthrough in areas that need to be touched by Him, I need to experience brokenness, in order to receive breakthrough - am I willing to walk that path? Yes...no question about it.

1 comment:

daniel costa-lourenço said...

great blog!

daniel - lisbon

http://strawsea.blogspot.com/