EP Study #2
Last Friday I underwent my second EP (electrophysiology) study. What is an EP study you might ask? The American Heart Association describes it as a test that helps doctors understand the nature of abnormal heart rhythms. The EP study tests the electrical activity of your heart in hopes of finding where the arrhythmia is coming from.
I arrived at the North Central Heart Institute/Avera Heart Hospital at 6 am. After checking in and going over the basic information, I was taken back to my room. Here is was give my very fashionable hospital gown, hooked up to a heart monitor and also had an EKG. They took my vitals and continued to prep me for the procedure. Because this was my second time doing this same procedure, I was familiar with what to expect.
Nurses came and went throughout the morning. There was a med student with the nurse, so she was explaining a lot of different things to her. After talking to the pharmacist, multiple nurses and doctors, I was taken back to the catheterization lab at about 8:30 am. My wrists were strapped to the table..."reminder straps" is what the nurses called them. The last time I had this procedure I was completely out, so this was all new territory.
The doctor was running a little late, so I had to lay there for awhile. After he arrived, the started to play music to help "distract" me. That did not work too well. During the EP study, six tubes were inserted into veins in my leg that lead to my heart. This was extremely painful right away. The three incision sites each came with their own set of intense pressure and pain. At this point, I had only had a little pain medication and supposedly they numbed the incision site. However, after a while they had to numb it even more because it hurt too bad. I wanted to move my legs so bad!
As the test began, I could hear them saying how many beats per minute they were charging the device to. At first, this was not a problem. I felt like I was running or working out, but all I was doing was laying on the table. After some time, they gave me a dose of adrenaline in my IV. Then they cranked the beats per minute to 300. And eventually they game me a second dose of adrenaline and made my heart go 350 beats per minute.
At this point, I was not doing well. I was shaking uncontrollably and in extreme pain. The nurse told the doctor, "She is doing terrible over here!" She then gave me some more pain meds and the doctor finally ordered some relaxing medicine. This was not enough to put me to sleep, but it did help the adrenaline wear off. The doctor said it was all because they were being overly aggressive to try and find the cause of the problems.
Let's back track...why did they give me adrenaline and why was I kept awake? I was kept awake because the doctor felt the more alert I was the better the chances my heart would go in to the fast rhythm on its own and the natural adrenaline would kick in. I was give adrenaline in my IV to induce that reaction even faster.
After an hour and a half of my heart racing at speeds up to 350 beats per minute, the doctor ended the test. He came over and told me he could not induce a rhythm. They were trying to induce a rhythm that would show what part of my heart is not functioning correctly. As you can imagine, this was quite disheartening to hear. I have been dealing with this for three years now. The doctor told my parents it is a non-life threatening condition. He decided to take one medication out of my routine and replace it with a new one. Hopefully that will help!
The wires were then taken out of my leg and boy did that hurt. The nurse had to hold pressure on the incisions for 15 minutes so they would stop bleeding. After that, I was taken back to my room. I was feeling much better by this point and did not feel sick like the first time I had this study done. The nurses said that is because I did not have the anesthetic that I had before.
I had to lay completely flat for 2-3 hours. A different nurse brought me some orange juice...that was difficult to drink laying flat. Then I watched HGTV and slept off an on. After the few hours were up, I had to sit up for an hour. At this time I was able to eat. I did not have much of an appetite, so I had toast and jello. When that time passed, I was finally able to stand up and go to the restroom. When I came back, they had completely redone by room...the bed was gone and replaced with a chair. I then sat in the chair for awhile longer before heading out of the hospital.
Today, three days later, I am still extremely sore. My incision sites are becoming bruised (which is common). I cannot lift more than 10 pounds for three days. We have our winter concert at school tonight, so I've had to rely on the students a lot today. My leg is stiff and sore and it is difficult to bend over or do much activity.
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Arrhythmia/SymptomsDiagnosisMonitoringofArrhythmia/Electrophysiology-Studies-EPS_UCM_447319_Article.jsp
I arrived at the North Central Heart Institute/Avera Heart Hospital at 6 am. After checking in and going over the basic information, I was taken back to my room. Here is was give my very fashionable hospital gown, hooked up to a heart monitor and also had an EKG. They took my vitals and continued to prep me for the procedure. Because this was my second time doing this same procedure, I was familiar with what to expect.
Nurses came and went throughout the morning. There was a med student with the nurse, so she was explaining a lot of different things to her. After talking to the pharmacist, multiple nurses and doctors, I was taken back to the catheterization lab at about 8:30 am. My wrists were strapped to the table..."reminder straps" is what the nurses called them. The last time I had this procedure I was completely out, so this was all new territory.
The doctor was running a little late, so I had to lay there for awhile. After he arrived, the started to play music to help "distract" me. That did not work too well. During the EP study, six tubes were inserted into veins in my leg that lead to my heart. This was extremely painful right away. The three incision sites each came with their own set of intense pressure and pain. At this point, I had only had a little pain medication and supposedly they numbed the incision site. However, after a while they had to numb it even more because it hurt too bad. I wanted to move my legs so bad!
As the test began, I could hear them saying how many beats per minute they were charging the device to. At first, this was not a problem. I felt like I was running or working out, but all I was doing was laying on the table. After some time, they gave me a dose of adrenaline in my IV. Then they cranked the beats per minute to 300. And eventually they game me a second dose of adrenaline and made my heart go 350 beats per minute.
At this point, I was not doing well. I was shaking uncontrollably and in extreme pain. The nurse told the doctor, "She is doing terrible over here!" She then gave me some more pain meds and the doctor finally ordered some relaxing medicine. This was not enough to put me to sleep, but it did help the adrenaline wear off. The doctor said it was all because they were being overly aggressive to try and find the cause of the problems.
Let's back track...why did they give me adrenaline and why was I kept awake? I was kept awake because the doctor felt the more alert I was the better the chances my heart would go in to the fast rhythm on its own and the natural adrenaline would kick in. I was give adrenaline in my IV to induce that reaction even faster.
After an hour and a half of my heart racing at speeds up to 350 beats per minute, the doctor ended the test. He came over and told me he could not induce a rhythm. They were trying to induce a rhythm that would show what part of my heart is not functioning correctly. As you can imagine, this was quite disheartening to hear. I have been dealing with this for three years now. The doctor told my parents it is a non-life threatening condition. He decided to take one medication out of my routine and replace it with a new one. Hopefully that will help!
The wires were then taken out of my leg and boy did that hurt. The nurse had to hold pressure on the incisions for 15 minutes so they would stop bleeding. After that, I was taken back to my room. I was feeling much better by this point and did not feel sick like the first time I had this study done. The nurses said that is because I did not have the anesthetic that I had before.
I had to lay completely flat for 2-3 hours. A different nurse brought me some orange juice...that was difficult to drink laying flat. Then I watched HGTV and slept off an on. After the few hours were up, I had to sit up for an hour. At this time I was able to eat. I did not have much of an appetite, so I had toast and jello. When that time passed, I was finally able to stand up and go to the restroom. When I came back, they had completely redone by room...the bed was gone and replaced with a chair. I then sat in the chair for awhile longer before heading out of the hospital.
Today, three days later, I am still extremely sore. My incision sites are becoming bruised (which is common). I cannot lift more than 10 pounds for three days. We have our winter concert at school tonight, so I've had to rely on the students a lot today. My leg is stiff and sore and it is difficult to bend over or do much activity.
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Arrhythmia/SymptomsDiagnosisMonitoringofArrhythmia/Electrophysiology-Studies-EPS_UCM_447319_Article.jsp
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