[This heart monitor hangs around Sam's neck or clips to his belt. It beeps when the recorder is full]
Since Sam was calling the doctors office daily with updates they decided to put him on a 30 day heart monitor so that they could monitor his heart and see any/all arrhythmia's [and they may have been sick of hearing from him too ;)]. A 3rd party monitoring company closely watches Sam's heart 24/7 and whenever he has an "episode" or hits his button for the device to record something they call the house or he has to call them to download the data off the monitor. At that time they can talk to him to see what he was doing and how he was feeling when they recorded an "episode". The monitoring company then sends reports to Dr. Bach so that he can see everything as well. He was supposed to be living a "normal" life with the device however, he went to wash my car the other day and his heart rate jumped up to 190 beats/minute. The heart monitor company called Sam to see what he was doing and how he felt...needless to say they told him not to wash any more cars. So living "normal" isn't what the average person would see as normal. Extremely frustrating for Sam.
On top of this fabulous heart monitor the doctors office has increased his rhythmol medication to the maximum dose and increased his beta blocker (coreg). They were hoping with these two medications increased his arrhythmia issues should subside and after a 1-2 weeks of the increased medications he would be able to go back to cardiac rehab.
Today was Sam's first day back at cardiac rehab. He was THRILLED to leave the house and do something again. He made it through his whole session without an issue and in the cool down phase his heart went into atrial fibrillation where it is still currently. Cardiac rehab sent a report to Dr. Bach's office at U of M and the heart monitor company called Sam to verify his symptoms etc. Since his heart rate has remained normal during this episode we do NOT need to go to the hospital. However if his heart rate should increase or he gets any symptoms we will have to make a trip to the ER.
Dr. Bach's office has recommended Sam to see a Cardiac Electrophysiologist at U of M. The first available appointment isn't until April so we are currently pushing back on Dr. Bach's office to pull some strings or we will consider going to another hospital. Since this issue just started with Sam in January - we don't want to waste anymore time when the issue could get corrected faster. Sam is eager to go back to work and be able to get back into his everyday routine + Baxter :) We are hoping this is like surgery... a minor speed bump that can get resolved soon and we will be able to laugh about this months from now. When we look at the calendar it seems like it has been longer than just 14.5 weeks since surgery!
For now I try to crack some jokes around the house... I usually sing something ridiculous to get a quick smile... currently I have been trying to find songs about beats, rhythm or faith. Something like a flash back to Gloria Estefan's Rhythm is Gonna Get you. ;)
