5/1/10

Yesterday was roller coaster ride. As I mentioned, Jill was going to go through a group of tests to try to determine what may have caused this event. The first two were tests where two different stimuli injected into Jill's system to see of they generated a response that might point the doctors to what may have happened. One of these was adrenaline and the other was a medical term that someone who didn't write it down on a piece of paper wouldn't remember. Neither of these had any effect on Jill which crossed them off the list of potential causes.

The ablation, that I briefly discussed yesterday, was the third and final test before the doctor would finalized the decision to put the defibrillator pacemaker in. An ablation is the process of putting a catheter with a wire in it into a vein, guiding it up to the heart and then sending charges to various parts of the heart to see if there is a reaction from the charge. The cardiologist performed this test on Jill and moved through the different areas of her heart without finding too much. He then moved to one of her ventricles, sent a charge and she went into cardiac arrest again, similar to what happened on the baseball field. The doctors got her heart going again with the electric jolt of the paddles they keep on hand in case this happens. This was very scary to here to after the fact but she was revived without any noticeable damage. This event confirmed that there was no other option than to put the defibrillator pacemaker in. Later that afternoon, the cardiologist did the implant and Jill came out of surgery at about 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

She had a very difficult day. The long term outlook however is very positive. She feels like she has been hit with a baseball ball in the chest due to the surgery but is now in full recovery mode. The recovery is going to be slow. The doctors say she won't be able to lift her arm above the shoulder for six weeks, can't drive for a couple weeks and has put a fair number of other restrictions on her which will be a challenge in themselves. Regardless of all these restrictions, the great thing is that she will be coming home soon. It will be good to get her out of the hospital and into her own bed so she can get some sleep and get her strength back. It seems like it been an eternity since this whole thing started, and Jill has been through so much, but now there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.