Turbulent Ticker

Wanna know what the tech said about my turbulent ticker?

Good! Cuz I wanna tell ya' too!

I went and had the ultrasound (echocardiogram) done this morning, and although I haven't heard anything straight from the doctors mouth, the ultrasound tech was rather chatty. :-)

She saw right away that the top and bottom portion of my heart are not in sync at all. In addition, I'm having what she called "regurgitation and insufficiency." Meaning, the blood is supposed to be flowing out of my heart valves into the rest of my body, and instead, it's flowing back into the heart.

Not all of it, mind you. :-) But some. She either couldn't tell how severe it was or didn't want to say, so she left that to the doctor (who will hopefully call tonight).

So I know that the funky rythyms will need to be fixed, although I have no idea how they will attempt that. I'm hoping they can (viola!) magically tweak some settings on the pacemaker. After all, this is exactly what the pacer is supposed to fix in the first place!!

Sheesh.

I asked her why the symptoms get so severe when I eat, and she said that made perfect sense because the blood has to rush to my stomach when I eat, which makes the heart work harder. This is perhaps why the symptoms go away while I'm sleeping ... because the heart isn't having to work as hard. ?

I have no idea what the cure or treatment for either of these problems are. So we'll all have to wait for that bit of information.

If Dr. S calls tonight, I'll post something new in the morning. So keep your little tickers in tune, will ya'?

In the meantime, I'm going to go to Andrew's baseball tournament tonight and enjoy the bajeebers out of myself!!

Bajeebers. Yeah, maybe that's what is causing all of these turbulent ticker tantrums.

~Brenda, the bajeeberful prairie mama with the turbulent ticker

***Photo courtesy of iamhomosquirrel on Flickr