About two weeks ago I paid a little visit to urgent care and
then to the emergency room. At urgent
care the doctor was so concerned for my well-being that he told me I needed to
get myself to the hospital. The funny
thing was I had gone to urgent care assuming that nothing would be wrong and
that I was just being silly, but wanted to make sure. I thought, though I don’t have a history of it,
that I was experiencing symptoms of anxiety.
For over a week I had been feeling this overwhelming pressure on my chest,
like someone was standing on my sternum. I thought it was all in my head and I
just needed to breath and try to relax.
I am, as many of you know, the queen of taking on too much sometimes, so
symptoms of anxiety made sense to me.
So, what was really going on and why did they send me to the
ER? Ever heard of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome? Simply put it just means an
additional electrical circuit in your heart that isn’t supposed to be there and
can cause your heart to overwork itself.
Many folks with this condition never present symptoms and so generally
do not have to undergo any sort of treatment.
Unfortunately, my time had come when I no longer fit into that
category.
The final result of my ER and urgent care visit was a trip
to see a cardiologist that specializes in electrophysiology. So two days later I found myself in that
doctor’s office discussing my condition and, ultimately, planning surgery so we
could correct the problem. Now hold the
phone here people the procedure is nothing like open-heart surgery or anything
like that. Check this out: catheter ablation. Pretty cool, huh?
I’d like to tell you that everything went super smooth and
that I was out of the hospital and on the short road to recovery at lightning
speed. Totally not the case! Before finally leaving the hospital I experienced
vasovagal syncope (that’s when you see someone go pale, sway back & forth,
start sweating and have their BP and heart rate drop super low), had to pee in
a bed pan…3 times (boy was that fun!), laid completely flat and still for 2+
hours with a weight on my right groin (let me tell you, it does not make it
easy to sleep), AND had 3 grown persons put all their weight on one side of my
groin 3 times for 10 minutes each. What
doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, right? (Thank you, Kelly Clarkson!).
After this past stay in the hospital I have come to realize
and begun to accept that being under a medical
microscope, as my family puts it, is a part of my life. I can’t run away from that, no matter how
hard I try J But
what I can do is let my challenges teach me and change me and share those
stories of challenge with others in hopes of inspiring them to believe in in greater
things in life, in themselves, and in others.
I would never have been able to get through this trial or
past trials or be where I am now without the love and support of you all. Every single person has contributed in some
way to the perpetuation of my life and
I am forever thankful for that. I have
not and will not go through life alone.
You have not and will not go through life alone. We are not passive bystanders letting life
affect us, rather, we are that stone that’s thrown into the water to cause
ripples that could reach someone far, far away.
So just remember that when you make choices.
I really hope that you don’t let your challenges bring you
down. I also hope that you find the
courage not to run away. I’ve done both,
and I’ve also tried adjusting my attitude and perspective and have found that
the latter option, though it can be tough, is the way to go.
Lets do this, people!
