A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WIFE IN THE ICU WAITING ROOM

December 1, 2004

I’m writing this in hopes that there might be someone out there in cyberspace, in the world that might be comforted, amused, or reminded that we are not alone through my experience in the ICU waiting room and beyond.

They say the longest journey starts with the first step so would it be right to say that the longest story starts with the first word. I wrote a 10 page plus saga on my experience in hospital while my husband Jan was going through a TEE, Cardioconversion and Ablation and then some. You may ask what are all these procedures? So, I went to my web browser and got you some information. Now you’re almost as smart as the doctors. When I think there were approximately 20 people in the waiting room times 360 days. That represents 7,200 familes just in one hospital’s waiting room. Mutiply that by the total number of hospitals doing this procedure every day and you can see that it might affect almost every family in America at one time or another.
Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE)
TEE is a special type of echocardiogram. A tube with an echocardiogram transducer on the end of it is passed down a person's throat and into the esophagus. (This is the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.) The esophagus is right behind the heart, and images from TEE can give very clear pictures of the heart and its structures.
Cardioversion
In this procedure, a small electrical shock is delivered to the heart through the chest to stop certain very fast arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia, or sinus tachycardia. The patient is connected to an EKG monitor which is also connected to the cardioversion device. The electrical shock is delivered at a precise point during the EKG cycle.
Ablation
This is an invasive procedure done in the electrophysiology laboratory, which means that a catheter (hollow tube) is inserted into the heart through a vessel in the groin or arm. The procedure is done in a manner similar to the electrophysiology studies (EPS) described above. Once the site of the arrhythmia has been determined by EPS, the catheter is moved to the site. By use of a technique such as radiofrequency ablation (very high frequency radio waves are applied to the site, heating the tissue until the site is destroyed) or cryoablation (an ultra-cold substance is applied to the site, freezing the tissue and destroying the site), the site of the arrhythmia may be destroyed.
This is the first installment for if I wrote 10 pages it would blog down my blog. So, I thought I'd write it in stages. A little at a time. But in the end it will all be there.