Radiofrequency catheter ablation

So back in April, 1987, I was diagnosed with Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia.

Normally, an electrical signal is generated in special pacemaker cells in the upper chamber (atrium) of the heart. This impulse causes the atrium to beat in a coordinated fashion and push blood into the ventricles (the lower heart chambers). The electrical signal continues to a junction box between the atrium and ventricle (the AV node), where there is a slight delay. This allows the atrium to contract and send blood to the ventricle. The signal continues throughout the ventricles and causing them to beat and push blood to the body.

""In paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT), abnormal conduction of that electricity causes the atrium, and secondarily the ventricles, to beat very rapidly. It is paroxysmal, because the rapid rate can occur sporadically and without warning. It may last a few seconds or many hours. Often the PSVT resolves before the patient reaches a healthcare provider. The abnormal conduction pathways may occur anywhere in the atrium or around the AV node.

PSVT was once also called paroxysmal atrial tachycardia or PAT. As more has been learned about the electrical wiring of the heart, terminology has changed, and the term PAT is more often reserved for a specific type of circular electrical conduction pattern occurring in the true atrial tissue, and not the AV node.

Regardless of the terminology, the rhythm disturbance occurs in the AV node, or in the atrium above, and should not be confused with ventricular tachycardia, which arises from the ventricle.""

MedicineNet

Then I took medication for 22 years, 6 months, and 8 days. Digoxin, Metoprolol, Verapamil. One made me anxious, the other made me tired, the other did both with the added benefit of lowering my blood pressure and making my hands shake. And then I graduated from college and got a new doctor. On the second visit he told me I needed surgery.

This morning I went in, they gave me a giant dose of some excellent drugs, and I went in to this amazing state called "conscious sedation." I was awake for most of the procedure, except for the parts where I fell asleep because everything was alternating too much between hurting and being awesome. Through a vein in my chest, a vein in my left leg, and a giant, painful artery in my right leg, the doctors snaked some wires INSIDE OF MY HEART. And I could watch it all on these four giant flat screens. Also, I have an instrumented spinal fusion, of please sper impose the previous image with this one:

So it was pretty cool.

In the end the procedure ended up taking twice as long as planned. Why? Because I didn't just have PSVT, I had the rarest form of PSVT, called Permanent form of Junctional Reciprocating Tachycardia.

""Permanent junctional reciprocating tachycardia is an uncommon form of reciprocating tachycardia, almost incessant from infancy and usually refractory to drug therapy. PJRT is a potentially lethal arrhythmia in children with tachycardia induced cardiomyopathy. Radiofrequency ablation should be performed in older children or when rate is not controlled, especially in patients with persistent left ventricular dysfunction.""

BCS

I was born with an extra electrical connection between the upper and lower chambers on the back of the right side of my heart. Guess which spot is the hardest to get at? That one. Guess how many times they had to go back in to my heart to find it? Four. Guess how many burns I got? "A lot. On both sides." Nice. If I can give any of you a little tip: never, ever be awake when a doctor pulls a three foot wire out of a vein in your leg. Ever. It hurts. That goes double for your chest.

After the operating room, I was on bed rest for four hours. At the end of that time I tried to sit up, and promptly passed out. An hour later, I got to eat a turkey sandwich and some cookies. Then I got to walk around. That, of course, hurt, and made me feel really tired, and a little passy-outy. So I got back in to bed. Once I could complete a lap around the nurses station, they let me go home.

I no longer have a heart defect. I'm fixed. Stellar!