[Rhodes22-list] I'm back from the hospital

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Hi All,

The 3 day Tikosyn loading procedure went pretty well.  They took their best guess as to an appropriate dose and I responded well.  When I checked in on Tuesday morning, the initial EKG showed me going in and out of A-Fib.  The data logs from my implanted pacemaker showed I was in A-Fib ~50% of the time!  When they started dosing me with Tikosyn, I reverted back to normal sinus rhythm almost immediately.  They didn’t have to do an electrical cardiac inversion (i.e. shock treatment!) to get my heart back into normal sinus rhythm.  They were also prepared to do another cardiac ablation and upgrade my implanted pacemaker from a 2 lead to a 3 lead unit.  If they had to do that, the cardiac ablation would have been used to kill off all the remaining biological pacemaker cells and completely rely on the upgraded pacemaker.  It may come to that in the future.  But, for the moment we’re going to stick with the 2 lead pacemaker and Tikosyn.  They also did an ultrasonic echo cardiogram to determine how enlarged my heart has gotten after all this A-Fibbing and measure the volume % ejected.  These measurements will be needed for the procedure next week.  I was hooked up to a wireless cardiac monitor for the entire 3 days I was in the hospital.  So, they were monitoring my heart function constantly while I was getting loaded up on Tikosyn.  By the morning of the 2nd day of Tikosyn loading, my wireless cardiac monitor showed I was in normal sinus rhythm and didn’t glitch once from then on!

I actually feel much better.  But, lying about in a hospital is one thing and actually living a normal life is another.  So, for an initial cardiac insult test,  I mowed my front lawn yesterday.  I felt OK afterwards.  I was also climbing up on a ladder measuring the length of my mast for Allyn, again with no apparent ill effects.

I’m scheduled for another COVID-19 test this Sunday.  Then, I have to quarantine until I go into the hospital on June 10th for a cardiac catheterization procedure.  If nothing goes crooked, this will be a 1 day out patient procedure.   But, this is exploratory laparoscopic surgery. They might have to keep me longer depending on what they find &/or if something goes crooked with the procedure itself.  Thanks for all the kind wishes and please keep me in your prayers.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

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