Part 6: Matters of the Heart

After a few days of recovery from surgery, I thought I was in the clear, and that any day they would send me home. Little did I know my heart wasn't in it.

One of the complications with surgery to the lungs is Atrial Fibrillation - an abnormal heart rhythm in the upper chambers of the heart. (Do you feel like you are in medical school, friends? I'm sorry to bore you with all of these terms and definitions) First came the monitors, then came the increased number of nurses, and the questions as to how I was feeling, then the furrowed brows when looking at what the monitors were saying. I got moved down to the cardiac floor and one morning met Dr. Orme*, my cardiologist.



I also met my roommate, Donna in the middle of the night. She was there for the same complication, as well as several others. Donna was an interesting lady, but she had a really good heart, and over the next several days she really started growing on me. The company was actually kind of nice, too.

The next morning in came Dr. Orme with an entourage people. I found out later that Dr. Orme was the heart specialist for the hospital, and that he just happened to be standing at the nurse's station when my heart really started going crazy. The head nurse requested that he come take charge of my situation. A couple nurses, several interns, and two blond-headed young kids (maybe nursing students?) who stood at the foot of my bed smiling at me, and whispering to eachother and looking expectantly excited. I thought they looked like teenage Hansel and Gretel (isn't it funny the things you think about when you are in A-fib?). It was like there was a big show going on and I was the star, but not in a good way. They just stared at me, waiting. No one spoke to me. I found the scene so funny, I actually counted how many people were around my bed. Ten.

After the monitors were hooked up, the electrocardiogram showed me what all the fuss was about. The lines were going crazy, up and down, up and down, one right after another, with little break in between.

Bottom line is how it should look, top line is how A-Fib looks,
only mine looked even more crazy and close together.

Then I looked down at my chest, and my hospital gown was moving up and down as though I had popcorn popping under my shirt! It was nuts. My rate was over 200 at one point. That's some serious calorie-burning, according to Josh. They began giving me medicine in an IV, under Dr. Orme's direction.

The lines started getting farther and farther apart, and slower and slower, until I suddenly felt like the wind had been sucked out of me, and I was passing out. Then Dr. Orme said, "Cough, Amy!" (cough, cough, cough), and I was back. All of the entourage smiled down at me, and I had had it. I lost my temper. "Will somebody PLEASE tell me what is happening to me?" The nurse who was distributing the meds said, "You are in Atrial Fibrillation. Your heart was beating too fast, and if we didn't slow it down, you would have tired out. We gave you some medicine to slow your heart to almost a stop, in order to get it beating the right way." I'm still not sure why they couldn't have told me that to begin with. Maybe they thought I would panic and run for the door? The whole experience leaves me shaking my head.

The entourage left as quickly and quietly as they had come - still not uttering a word. I felt terrible, confused and kind of mad. Then from the other side of the curtain, my roommate Donna said, "Amy? It's gonna be okay." It was the most kind and thoughtful thing I had heard all day.

*Dr. Orme grew on me after a while. He's a great doctor, but very professional and serious. He actually did his schooling, residency and fellowship all at the University of Utah!