Pic Re Starting Heart Rate Up Again

I couldn't slumber. My center rhythm was in chaos and my mind was racing. I had a resting heart charge per unit of anywhere from 110 to 140 beats per infinitesimal. In that location was no consistency to the rhythm or strength of my heartbeat. I was easily winded doing everyday tasks, felt uncomfortable in my chest, and if I stood up too apace, I'd get airheaded. In short, I only felt "off."

Even though I knew information technology was atrial fibrillation, which I'd been diagnosed with 18 months ago, the thought of being out of rhythm once again worried me. I was physically and emotionally taxed. The electrical chaos going on in my heart was causing chaos in my head and making it difficult to slumber.

I didn't feel I was in any immediate danger, just I'll admit I had some what-if-I fall-comatose-and-don't-wake-up-considering-my-heart-throws-out-a-claret-clot-that-causes-a-life-ending-stroke thoughts running through my head. Atrial fibrillation definitely creates some anxiety, to say the to the lowest degree.

What had caused my heart to go out of rhythm this fourth dimension?

My best guess was stress. While I love running, I don't run often. When the opportunity came to run a Thanksgiving Day 5k for a project I was coordinating at work, I took the challenge caput on – just I probably should have taken some training head on first. I ran the race in 33.5 minutes, capturing the photos and videos I needed for work AND I trounce the local mayor to earn myself a medal. Just I guess I also won a side dose of chaos.

Three days after the 5k, I was notwithstanding tired. I attributed it to the stride I kept upwards in the race. I tried checking my middle charge per unit and discovered I had no rhythm. I even had my married woman listen to my heart and she agreed the beats were desultory and the strength of the heartbeats varied, besides. Equally soon equally the Intermountain Medical Centre Middle Institute clinic opened on Monday morning, I was on the phone with a nurse who confirmed my fearfulness and I was scheduled the following day to have my heart shocked back into rhythm.

The treatment is known as a transesophageal echocardiogram (or TEE) followed past a cardioversion

In layman terms, they put a scope downward my pharynx to capture images of my eye to make certain no clots accept formed in it due to the irregular centre rhythm. If it turns out to be clot-gratis, they have a pad on my chest and one on my back and they deliver a stupor to my heart. Having gone through two of these procedures, it's not as awful as information technology sounds – simply like anyone who has to go their heart shocked, at that place'south some feet that accompanies the thought of swallowing a tube and getting shocked.

My experience was positive, and I was glad to share it publicly. I've worked closely with the team from the Intermountain Medical Center Eye Constitute for the past four years in my part every bit a public relations professional with Intermountain Healthcare.

I've helped share new technologies and research that requite heart patients a second chance at life, returning to doing what they beloved with family and friends. Only I'd never been involved in sharing information nearly a TEE or cardioversion, so I bundled for my feel to be shared live on Twitter – including the moment 200 joules of electricity raced through my heart.

The twenty-four hour period went something like this

After checking in at the front desk, I was taken to an exam room and put on a infirmary gown. I had monitors placed on my chest to follow my heart rate and they took my blood pressure as well. My BP was 115 over 93 and my heart rate was ranging from 110 to 140+ beats per minute, compared to a normal eye rate of 60 to 100.

The next part of the prep work definitely took me out of my condolement zone. I wasn't a fan of showing the world my chest, allow alone having a strip of breast hair shaved off so the cardioversion pad could exist positioned. But it was just role of the procedure. When the teams began to get together in my room, things started moving pretty fast.

After a brief conversation with cardiovascular electrophysiologist Jeffrey Osborn, Doc, he got the process started by giving me some lidocaine to gurgle, classy, and swallow. That helped numb my pharynx for the TEE. The taste wasn't bad – but information technology wasn't good either. At the aforementioned time, fluids were hooked up to my Iv and medications were started to help sedate me for the procedure.

The concluding thing I remember was the doctor asking me to lay on my left side and a nurse placing a pillow behind me to help keep me on my side. I started to feel a niggling sleepy and shut my eyes, and when I opened them, almost everyone had left the room and my heart rate was hovering effectually a consistent 90 beats per infinitesimal. I was told the TEE was a success, and subsequently sharing a tweet from my personal account that everything went well, Dr. Osborn replied to my tweet: "1 shock, that'south all to restore rhythm to normal."

During the adjacent 60 minutes, I looked to come across what had been shared on Twitter while I was sedated so I could become a amend idea of what happened. Afterwards going into low-cal sedation, the scope was inserted into my esophagus and images were taken of my heart, which showed it was healthy (other than the abnormal rhythm) and I had no claret clots.

In one case that was completed, 200 joules of electricity shocked my center back into rhythm. In fact, a curt video of the "shocking experience" was posted to Twitter – which prompted some feedback from others effectually the land:

• Give thanks you for beingness willing to share this video! Too many #afib patients see terrifying vids online. This will help so many of us. – Debbe McCall (@DebbeMcCall), a cardiovascular patient researcher and advocate.
• Thanks for sharing the video and the fact sheets. Will be using to educate our patients and hopefully decrease some of the fears and concerns that they have. – Haide Landeros (@hidee27), a nurse practitioner in cardiology in California.
• Merely a social media manager would live tweet own cardioversion. Astonishing resource for patients. - @JediCath, an interventional cardiologist at Brigham Women's and Deaconess Hospitals in Massachusetts.
• I promise my friends at @Intermtnmedctr don't listen that I compiled these to make them easier to follow and to use equally education for patients? Thanks for live=tweeting your #cvTEE Guided #Cardioversion for #Afib. – John P. Erwin Three, Physician (@HeartOTXHeartMD), a cardiologist at Baylor Scott and White Health in Temple, Texas.

The idea of getting your heart shocked may sound — well, shocking – just it isn't anything to exist nervous virtually. I knew I was working with an amazing squad of centre experts from the Intermountain Medical Centre Eye Institute, and they did everything possible to assist me understand the process, know what to look, and ultimately return to doing what I love without worrying about an aberrant rhythm or getting hands winded… although my married woman has banned me from running whatever 5ks in the future.

Here's a epitomize of the journeying as it unfolded on Twitter.

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Source: https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/heart/2018/02/shocking-the-heart-back-into-rhythm-isnt-as-shocking-as-it-sounds/

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