Une deux

A second opportunity to understand this vocabulary:

atrial flutter

cardioversion

ablation

Yes, my heart decided to have atrial flutter AGAIN. The difference between atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation? The location in the heart. The doctors suspect that the atrial flutter is coming from scar tissue from my ASD repair surgery in 1989.

So I took some medication on Monday to see if it would stop it, alas a failure and the only remaining solution is cardioversion, which is the ole paddles to the heart.

And that went well. Back to 61 beats. And I didn't have to go to ER this time, I just had an outpatient room.

However this is a most interesting story. The nurse spends about 30 minutes doing intake information on her computer. One of the thousands of questions she asks is do you do a special diet at home.

Yes, I do gluten free.

No more comment.

Then later after the cardioversion the nurse says she ordered lunch. Hmmm, I'm thinking, surely it will be something I can eat.

So in comes lunch: Hamburger, fries, green jello, caffeine (I drink decaf), milk and vanilla ice cream (I am lactose intolerant.) Ed and I laughed! So I ate the hamburger,(without the bun...just think of that juicy (dry), fresh (frozen), lean (fat) burger, YUM) asked for decaf coffee and ate the green jello because I was starved due to not being able to eat since the night before.

Next time (which may be tomorrow) I will make a request for a salad or insist that Ed go retrieve one for me!

Next in the vocabulary lesson is ablation. This is an outpatient procedure which may take place tomorrow or next week, depending, and the doctor goes through the artery in the groin to the heart and he will discover whether the rapid heart beat is coming from the entrance (can't remember that word) or the scar tissue. Then he will heat the area and deaden that area's malfunction. This procedure works 80% of the time.

Send it out to the universe that I be in that 80%. I don't want to learn any more cardio vocabulary!