Wednesday, August 29, 2018

My SVT Story [6 Months Post-Ablation]

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

I hit my 6 month mark in July and am now past 7 months post-ablation. I absolutely meant to do an update and then life happened. It's been an incredibly busy past few months. We're now a month into the school year and soccer is underway. Oh and Mason is potty training. And I'm enrolled in college again! Yes, it's been busy to say the least.

I had my follow up appointment with my electrophysiologist  in April or May (I was a day late to the appointment so had to reschedule). It was supposed to be at 6 weeks, but due to the pulmonary embolism, I went back way earlier and that pushed my 6 weeks closer to 8. I ended up being closer to 9 or 10 weeks post-ablation after the reschedule. He said that if the SVT had not come back in 3 months, he felt confident it would not and that he didn't see the need to continue seeing me unless I felt I needed to come in. It was a crazy feeling because I thought I'd for sure be seeing him at least once a year for...well, the rest of my life.

I was really struggling once again with anxiety up until that point. I was having issues with high blood pressure (which always made me nervous to go to the doctor - although it was only high at the cardiologist's office...nowhere else), chest pains, dizziness, etc. After my follow up, I decided to start off with gentle yoga to get back into exercising. I've now been doing yoga for a few months and there is such a huge difference in how my body and mind behave on days I don't do yoga or if I take 3 days off in a row. I was clenching my shoulders up to my ears and it was resulting in some pretty nasty back and neck pain. Yoga has really helped me a lot. I am much less stressed and ache less on days where I do yoga. If you're interested, I highly recommend Yoga with Adriene on Youtube. She's wonderful, funny, and her 30-day programs are great! I'm on the tail end of doing her TRUE series.

I am still on blood thinners for the pulmonary embolism and I go back in October for a repeat CT scan and then hopefully, I will switch over to baby aspirin. My blood work came back negative for any type of disorder, so it most likely was my birth control (which I no longer take) combined with the procedure that did it.

It's weird to me that most days I feel normal now. I feel stronger and healthier. I don't check my heart rate very much at all. I still do every once in a while, but it isn't an all-day affair now. It's not a panicky situation. I have had fewer and fewer little hiccups and what nots in my chest from my heart as time passes. I know my doctor said he believes I am cured but I'm still very cautiously optimistic. I do think I am cured, but I'm not going all out and going skydiving and running marathons. I'm trying to take care of my heart and strengthen it up slowly but surely. :)

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