Captain AFib

Photo from my friend Colin Rex

It's Tuesday morning, April 20th and it's been 4 weeks since I was discharged from the hospital. 4 weeks already?! Crazy.

Everyday I wake up wondering what I'm going to fill my day with and then before you know it, it's noon, then 4pm, then dinner time. Time flies and I've been able to get some things done around the house, like selling old bike parts, spending time with family and napping. The first couple of weeks saw some good napping as my energy would be sapped from the slightest effort, but these days I see less and less napping.

Atrial Fibrillation or Captain AFib has been haunting me ever since Monday March 5th.

I woke up around 3am that morning to take some medications and then it started to happen...

Extra high heart rate, irregular beats, shortness of breath and an overwhelming fear came over me. I thought I could 'calm' it down myself (not knowing it was AFib) so I spent the next 45 minutes lying to myself that it was fine and nothing to worry about. Deep down I knew it was AFib, even though I had never experienced it before.

I finally woke Kristen up at 4:30am and told her I needed to go to the ER straight away. Luckily for us we live less than 5 miles from the hospital, straight down Colfax and let me tell you that at 4:30am Colfax is a raceway!

We got there in no time and before I knew it I was being pushed down the hallway in a wheelchair hearing a Code Red-18 alert over the intercom. That was me, a Code Red patient. The nurse pushing me said, "we're about to round this corner and there are going to be a LOT of people waiting to help you out."

He wasn't kidding. We rounded the corner into room 18 and there were no less than a dozen people ready and willing to stab me with IV needles, (one in each arm and we know how much I love IV needles!) hook me up to an EKG machine and start running a bunch of tests.

I didn't have a chance to look at the monitor but Kristen later told me that my heart rate was 198+ BPM's while just laying there. I definitely felt it and I hope to never feel that again. It was terrifying because it wasn't a steady 198 BPM's but rather a jumbled mess of irregular misfiring's and I felt them all.

Luckily I was able to come out of AFib rather quickly with a solid IV drip of Amiodorone medication. Amiodorone helps to slow the heart rate as well as let it get fuller, slower contractions.

This was good news. Coming down from AFib with some meds is a good sign and much preferred over shocking the heart so everyone including myself was relieved.

Even though I popped out of AFib and was feeling better I was told I wasn't going home that day as they wanted to monitor everything for the next 24hrs to make sure things had returned to normal before discharging me.

Ugh, back in the hospital. Back in a plastic bed, but this time on the 10th floor so the views were nicer!

Needless to say, I was devastated. I didn't want to believe this was happening to me! I felt like all progress forward had been erased and that things weren't going as planned. 
BUT I was reassured by all docs and nurses that this was totally normal and even expected. Turns out 30-40% of open heart patients experience AFib shortly after surgery and I was reassured that everything was 'fine' and that it was the hearts way of dealing with being cut open and the electrical signals getting severed. That along with the fact that scar tissue is still trying to form since it had only been a couple weeks at that time.

It was reassuring to hear that from all personnel dealing with me and I was told that coming out of AFib with drugs was a good sign and there was nothing to worry about unless the AFib lasted more than an hour or continued for more than 2-3 months.

Since then I've dealt with a mild(er) case of AFib on a daily basis. BPM's from 100-130 that lasts anywhere from 10-45 minutes. Kind of exhausting but not nearly as scary as the first bout with it.

Yesterday (April 19th) was the first day I went 24hrs without ANY AFIb so hopefully this is a sign of things turning a corner. Fingers crossed!

Family walk!

On a positive note, I've been walking a little further each day (2.8 miles on Sat) as well as being able to pedal a recumbent bike at rehab. 

5 miles the first day, 11 miles the second and 10.5 just the other day. Never thought I'd be excited to pedal a recumbent bike, but it feels SO good to spin the legs and work up a sweat!

I've got 36 sessions of cardiac rehab and I'm really hopeful that the work I put in there will pay off when it's time to get back on the bike.

I had my first follow-up with my surgeon last Friday and he's very happy with my progress up to this point. All my incisions are healing excellently and he also reassured me that the AFib (while it sucks) isn't something to be afraid of just yet. I'm scheduling a meeting with an Electro Physiologist in the coming weeks to make sure all electrical signals are within spec and the meds I'm on are working correctly. Since the electrical signals are their specialty, I'm really looking forward to talking with them.

On another positive note, I'm cleared to drive next week! I feel like a 16yr old waiting for their license and really looking forward to the freedom to come and go as I please without having to ask for a ride.

The bike still needs to wait another month or so for the sternum to fully fuse together and as much as I know that I 'could' ride, the thought of falling or crashing and undoing all the healing that has occurred, has me listening to the docs and patiently awaiting their approval. I've got a whole summer ahead of me and with our current snow/mud season, it's the perfect time to just chill.

So that's about it for now. Taking each day as it comes and slowly, but surely making plans for later this summer which is a nice change from living in fear before the operation, not knowing what may come and not being able to plan for the future.

It's crazy to think that just 3 months ago I was told the bad news and now here I am in recovery. It feels great to have made the right decision (for me) and it feels great to be gaining a little more strength and a little more energy everyday.

My red blood cell count is literally half of what it was when I was admitted and I was told it will take another 3ish months to rebuild that cell count so I've been conscious of that and keeping a tight bubble of family to limit exposure as I still need to wait another week or so before I get my vaccine.

Looking forward to looking forward, as life is either a daring adventure, or nothing!

Love

-Joe