A VERY HAPPY HEART

Well, there are a lot of happy hearts tonight. Terry's heart procedure went swimmingly today, and we are all very grateful to have T's heart on the mend. Just for a little background, we discovered Terry had atrial fibrillation last year during a regular physical. After several attempts to "reset" his heart, it soon became apparent more invasive methods were going to be needed.

So he was scheduled for a cardiac ablation which is a procedure that scars small areas in your heart that are behaving erratically. So what you have left are the parts of the heart that are behaving.

This morning we got to the hospital around 6:00 a.m. Terry was prepped and readied for his procedure. He was not happy about having to gargle a special kind of mouthwash prior to surgery, but he complied. The nurse told him he handled it like a champ.

Three and half hours later, he was out of surgery and in recovery. He is always a lot of fun when he's coming out of anesthesia. He never remembers any of his conversations, so there are a lot of "repeats". He was required to keep his head down and on bed rest for four hours following the procedure. He kept forgetting and was reprimanded by a nurse to "Keep your head down!" In his defense, he was going crazy wondering what was going on below. They enter the groin area and go up to heart to perform the ablation. So he had good reason to be in discomfort!

Here's a look at his heart before and after: As you can see, they took a lot of the "red" away which is a really good thing. I won't get all scientific on you, but you want the gray ..not the red!

By evening, he was doing just great. Monkeying around and ready to go home.

But he won't be released until tomorrow. Then he's going to have to "chill." He can't do any physical exercise, lift anything over ten pounds, or stress his heart for three months. In other words, he needs to relax and take it easy.

Might have to have a "heart to heart" with him to keep him on track!

Thank you for all the words of encouragement and support. Terry and I very, very much appreciate it.

Love,

Carolyn