hi everyone!
joey was doing spectacularly well, but went into a-fib on saturday night. he has had some bouts with a-fib in the past and is very sensitive to it and knows immediately when he is in it (no need for an ekg). now, however, with his newly fixed heart, the way a-fib manifests itself is by a racing,elevated heart-rate (palpitations, i guess). this is new.
we were told that this is perfectly normal. still, it's distressing to have to stay put in bed on meds so your heart rate doesn't go too high, especially when you want to go strolling down that hallway and move your blood around a bit.
he came out of afib less than 24 hours later and went back into afib 17 hours later. this is where we now stand....
game plan is as follows: they started a heparin drip and he will be taking coumadin for a few months preventatively (especially if he should flip flop in and out of afib). inaddition, theywanted to start him on procainamide, but although this has converted him successful 2 out of 3 times in the past, the third and last time, it didnt work and he had to be cardioverted. so, this was not the ideal drug of choice in this case.
so, amiodarone is what we are going with. they will be monitoring him very closely. one of the side effects is hypothyroidism, which joey already has, so they'll just up his synthroid dose. they don't seem concerned, despite the fact that this is supposed to be one strong drug. ( i think i'll spend some time on that amiodarone thread tonight making copies for joey).
he's also anemic (his hematocrit is 22ish out of 35-40! that tank is half full!!!! he is taking iron (they didn't feel the need to do a transfusion, but he's pretty anemic!)
they also just gave him a lasix because the chest x-ray showed some fluid in his lungs (must be because they won't let him up and move around)
we both feel comfortable with a game plan, atleast we feel we're going in some direction. dr. stelzer is planning on discharging joey on thursday if all goes as planned and nothing new surfaces.
he is a bit down, but when we go over it together, he realizes that although we knew this might happen, we had not counted on it. plus, i actually think he thought he'd leave the hospital and run a mini marathon!
his incision is really not troubling him much (he actually coughs without the pillow sometimes).
i can't wait till he is upstairs in bed with me and he turns to me and says "that is the deepest breath i've taken in umpteen years. wow!" that, to me, will make this all worth it.
so, that's where we are.... i am so glad to hear everyone out there rooting for joey.
thank you all so much; you have no idea what a morale booster this is for us... all this wonderful support and your encouraging words...
i'll try to keep posting over the next few days.
my best to you all and God bless you.
-sylvia
p.s. anyone hear from chris and McCln?
