Saturday, March 10, 2018

My SVT Story [Post-Ablation Complications]

For previous posts, click the label "SVT" at the end of this post or at the bottom of my blog.

Day 7 started off with me feeling horribly and I thought it was due to asthma and not using my inhaler the night prior. I tried to suck it up and use Tylenol, hot tea, and cough drops but nothing was soothing enough, so I went to my dr office at 4 and saw a nurse practitioner. She tested me for strep, listened to my chest, etc. and sent me home with a prescription for steroids. I was going to have to call my electrophysiologist in the morning to ensure I could take them safely.

I felt some chest tightness when I went to bed and felt uncomfortable. I decided to go to the ER because I knew I wasn't going to sleep anyways. I got there about 10:45pm. They did bloodwork, urinalysis, EKG, and flu swab. I came back with a positive flu test and then the dr (who was the same one from my last SVT episode) ordered a CT scan for pulmonary embolism due to just having the ablation.

I do have a small embolism but it is not putting any strain on the right side of my heart, which is good. I got a shot of blood thinner and then got prescriptions for a blood thinner, plus Tamiflu and Zofran. I then had to get an ultrasound done on my legs to check for deep vein thrombosis. I was clear there *phew*

I am hoping since I had just started having symptoms that the Tamiflu will help make it short and not as severe. It definitely worries me with my heart already trying to heal to be hit with not just the flu but a blood clot too. I haven't had much luck hearing good things or anything hopeful post-pulmonary embolism and that definitely freaks me out. From what I understand, it's called a "provoked embolism" because of the catheter ablation. Someone was telling another person who had had surgery that the likelihood of recurrence is not high with a provoked one and I really hope that's true because I really don't want to have another thing to worry about on top of everything else. I'm sure that I'll end up seeing a hematologist just to be on the safe side.

No comments: