Surgery --- one week later Part 1

**I started this last Friday and never finished or posted until now. I am clicking the publish button tonight as I have hit a brick wall with so many aspects of my life I feel the need to get this out there to move on.**

Honestly I don't remember the last time I logged into Blogger or went directly to a few of my favorite blogs.

Since the procedure I have sat down to write about it for myself over a dozen times and I just haven't been able to. I'm awake early, the house is quiet so I figured I would try again.

Last Wednesday (2/23) was the first time in over two years I left my daughter to stay with Grammie for a few days while I was in the hospital. I've never been away from her for more than a few hours so this was really hard on me. Before I drove away I let myself have a good cry. Then calmed myself down so I would be okay to drive home.

Thursday morning the traffic getting to Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) was much heavier the first time we were there. It took nearly too hours and we arrived moments before my check in time. Little did I know that the appointment time meant nothing and we would be waiting hours after getting there.



After waiting to be admitted and getting lost IN the hospital we found where we needed to go. They had me change, asked for a urine sample and got an IV set up (not without incident, my veins do not cooperate). Roughly 3.5 hours later they were ready to prep me for the ablation. I hugged and kissed my husband and got wheeled away.



It felt like I was on the table forever. There were these long stretches of silence during the procedure which I hated. I could hear something but not enough to know what was going on. A few times I asked if everything was okay and sometimes I got a response but once I know for sure I did not. Throughout the ablation people did ask how I was doing or told me I was doing great. I remember two occassions specifically when they made my heart rate so fast it scared me. Even with my worst SVT attacks I never felt like that.



Roughly six hours later from start to finish I was done. The doctor told me I was one of the rare patients, he said he sees cases like me once ever 4-5 years but both (that's right folks TWO sources of SVT) were taken care of and I would never suffer from it again.



Once in the recovery area I found I could not move my left arm at all. Apparently I had frozen shoulder, which hurt like hell. Honestly it hurt more than anything else did at that time. One of the nurses moved my arm into a different position and placed heating pads on it. That helped a ton. A bit later after they got me unhooked I got to see my husband. I broke down after seeing his face. I was so relieved. I had some cranberry juice and then I was taken to my room.



I had a private room and Bart had the option of spending the night. I told him to go home so he could take care of the pups and get a good nights sleep. Lord knows you don't sleep well in a hospital with all the noises and beeps. Ahh the beeps, little did I know what the beeps from my room meant. I thought it was the same as when I was in the hospital giving birth. Nope, but I will get to that in a moment.


to be continued....

Nina's Mama