Change of Heart

Well, you just never know what type of curve balls life is going to throw at you. Up until about 3:00 this afternoon I was finishing last minute errands, then going home to pack for our trip to Chicago. Phil and I had a great workout on the hard courts again at Sandestin. I'm hitting well, no visible aches and pains...Fran even called just as we were finishing our hit to talk about when and where we'd meet up tomorrow afternoon in Chicago.

Rewind to last Tuesday.....
For quite some time, months, possibly a year or so, I have had this strange sensation in my chest that felt like my heart was beating really fast in my lower throat. It was a racing, fluttering feeling that would come and go fairly quickly. No other symptoms and no rhyme or reason as to why or when they would occur. Just this flutter. Because of the infrequency, I just sort of ignored it and never said anything. For some reason of late, it has been happening more often. I finally mentioned it to Phil and he insisted I see someone. Fortunately one of the cyclist in Robin's group is a cardiologist. I called his office last Tuesday morning, explained who I was and what was going on. In less than a half hour after making that call, I was in Dr. Phlaum's office, had an EKG and an echo cardiogram. Wanting to cover all bases, he put me on a 30 day heart monitor that constantly monitored my heart activity and if I felt an "episode" then I pushed a button and it sent a message to a lab to pay specific attention to my heart activity at that moment. I had to push the button twice this week.

Fast forward back to today....
I'm at the Commons with Phil when I get a call from Dr. Phlaum's office. He'd like to talk to me. We head straight to his office. The activity on my heart monitor shows that I've got atrial tachycardia. Basically it has to do with the electrical system in my heart that causes it to throw my heart beats out of whack and make my heart beat too fast. It's treatable, and as he says, it's "serious but not dangerous"...in other words not life threatening but needs to be addressed.
He asked how important the tournament was. I told him it was a national and important, but nothing was more important than my health. What would he tell his wife to do if it were her having to make the decision to go to Chicago. He said he'd tell her not to go, and get this taken care of. That was all I needed to hear. Case closed. I will see an electrophisiologist to have a catheter ablation that will take care of the cells that are sending the wrong messages to my heart. A routine procedure that will keep me in overnight. Now the question is where and when will this happen.

I've talked to my brother who feels like the best EP docs in the world are in St. Louis and he'd like me to come up there. I'll let him and Dr. Phlaum talk tomorrow and whatever and wherever they decide is fine with me. I just want to get it done and move on. Needless to say I'm very disappointed to not be able to go to Chicago. Although the field was going to be one of the strongest I've ever seen in a national, I was ready to go! I've withdrawn from the tournament, cancelled flights and hotel and now just waiting for my next move.

There is a reason for everything that happens in life, good or bad. I'll just take this as a sign from God that I need to take care of me first. Tennis tournaments will be there for me when I'm heart healthy again. Just goes to show....if you want to make God laugh, make a plan!

I'll update more as I know more.