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I am now 2 days away from my Epicardial Ablation for Inappropiate Sinus Tachycardia.

I don’t think it has hit me yet that I am having ‘heart surgery’. Again, I don’t want to say that, I’m having a heart procedure that will hopefully change my life.

Because of this procedure, I had to take my exams early and for the past 2 weeks all I’ve been doing is studying and everyone always asks me if I’m scared for this procedure. I honestly forget I’m having it done since I’ve just been studying until my eyes bleed.

I hate the question: “Are you scared?” I mean my dad had the balls enough to say the real thing, “Are you scared you’re going to die or lose oxygen to your brain and end up on life support?” Dads are great.

Luckily, being in the medical field, I know that it is an almost impossible chance of that happening, but hey, look at Joan Rivers or the girl who went brain dead through a tonsil surgery.

I will be ‘awake’ during this procedure, but highly sedated, so I am one step above them. There is a 30% it won’t take and they will have to do other methods such as going through my femoral vein and go straight into the heart. That’s the most common method, but can lead to scar tissue in the heart.

At this point, I’m not 100% positive which method they will be doing. My EP told me epicardial, but the nurse said the femoral vein. We will most likely know during pre-op or of course, during the surgery itself.

The main risks they have mentioned are a pacemaker or a paralyzed diaphragm. Apparently a nerve that control your breathing, the phrenic nerve, runs right over the sinus node, the place they are ablating. So if they burn the nerve, I could have troubles breathing. So I guess that’s a way to go brain dead.

Tomorrow we leave for Austin, TX from Dallas, TX and go to the pre-op appointment. Then my procedure is scheduled at 5:30AM Thursday, Decemeber 11th.

Luckily I’ve reached my $10,000 deductible for insurance, woot!

Thanks again for reading this little update 🙂