I have attempted to write a few blogs in the past, but I guess I could never keep with updating them as I had hoped. This time I feel like I have something to write about. Although it might just be a rambling blog of how I am feeling, during this tough road ahead of me, I plan to use this as a healing tool. Something to look back at after I have had the hardest days and smile with relief.
My Siblings
Top: Jarrett, Kendra, Bottom: Kelsey, Ryan
~ A Brief History~
My name is Kelsey, Im about to turn 30 on June 7th, 2013. I grew up playing in the Catskill mountains with my two brothers, Jarrett 34 and Ryan 22, and my sister Kendra 24. We have had a pretty great childhood upbringing, my parents Pat and Debbie are still together, 37 years of marriage and counting. I have always been an athlete, adventuring is my favorite sport, rock and ice climbing, white water kayaking, skiing, backpacking through the mountains of the Adirondacks, traveling to Alaska, Costa Rica, the corners of the southwestern deserts. I went to the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and received my bachelors in film and tv production. After a few years in the world of media, I decided I would rather spend my days on this Earth working to help people, to be a face, not behind a computer or camera. I needed a change in career and a change in scenery so I moved across the country to Austin, Texas, where my Dad's brothers and sister live, and I moved in with my cousin Megan and her adorable little French Bulldoggie, Olive.
While in Austin, I attended the College of Health Care Professions to become a LMRT, or Limited Medical Radiologic Technologist, Xray tech. I had a wonderful experience in Texas and met some remarkable friends that I will forever keep in touch with, and grew a fantastic friendship with my cousins. During a year of grueling school work, on a visit home in NY for Thanksgiving, I met my now girlfriend Willow. Our relationship was long distance, with various flights to and from NY to TX until I finished school and we made the decision that we wanted this to work for real, and I moved back from Texas to New York, a little over a year later. I moved in with Willow and her best friend/housemate Amy and their faithful doggie friends, Nev and Guy, and Noodle the cat.
Willow and I during one of her visits to Texas.
I got a job at a local hospital as a Patient Care Tech, where I began work in the ER, helping people on their toughest days from everything to being sick, splinting ankles to performing CPR on patients. I am so lucky to have a great fulfilling job, with amazing co-workers of Doctors, Nurses and friendly staff. It felt good to help people, to get smiles in return.
Its been peaches and cream kind of life as they say, until this past winter. Working with patients for long 12 hour shifts, regardless how many times you wash your hands, sanitize, use gloves, wear face masks, I am exposed to more germs than a person not working in health care. And being in the ER where we see a lot of virus', infections... I got sick a few times over the winter. I am ready for Spring and sunshine, and hopefully the flu season will quickly disappear along with the cloudy sunless cold days.
~ Feeling Faint~
At the beginning of February, right after Willow's 30th birthday, I was working in the ER and I felt light headed and fainted. I was quickly admitted to the ER by the nursing supervisor and was seen by one of our staff ER doctors. That is when they discovered I had an extraordinarily loud heart murmur and PVCs or Premature Ventricular Contractions. The Doc ordered blood work, and an EKG then my sweet, concerned Willow showed up at the hospital with flowers. I was later sent home with an appointment with a Cardiologist. It was all a bit overwhelming, I thought that maybe I hadn't eaten or drank enough water that day, 12 hour shifts can be exhausting.
So I showed up at the Cardiologist with my Mom and she had a full family history rundown to share with the Doctor. My older brother Jarrett, in the past 15 years had 2 open heart surgeries, he was diagnosed with Arterial Stenosis where his surgeries required pig valve replacements and the complex Ross Procedure removing one part of his heart to make the other part and using donor parts.... I watched him come out of surgery and being so scared for him. So our family has had to deal with heart stuff before, my heart however was never the issue. The Dr had a EKG ordered again, and an Echocardiogram to measure the size of my heart and the blood flow via ultrasound. He also sent me home with a heart monitor to wear for 30 days, it had 3 sticky leads I would wear 24/7 and carry a little blackberry phone where it would transmit data to it from the monitor. This was a bit overwhelming again, but me thinking it was just a routine a doctor does when a new patient gets referred to a cardiologist, I just went along with it knowing its gonna turn just fine.
At my follow up appointment with my primary doctor, she read me my echo report, and with Willow by my side this time, we learned what is going on with my heart. I was diagnosed with an atrial septal defect, and a heart murmur. This means I have a hole in the heart, defect is congenital, meaning I was born with it, and over the years the hole might have gotten bigger, and I started to have heart palpitations. I guess I always had palpitations, more so in the past 4 months but I thought everyone had them, pounding in the chest sort of feeling. The doctor said that since I was very symptomatic during the 30 days on the monitor, my readings were pretty crazy looking, having runs of PVCs for long periods of times. This was all a bit hard to understand, my primary ordered blood work to be done, then I had my follow up with the Cardiologist. This time I went alone, since my parents were away on vacation and Willow was at work, I thought that it was going to be something that the doctor will just put me on meds and that was it.
That was not the way the visit went. The Cardiologist explained that the right side of my heart has become enlarged and that he wants to do further testing, to see the hole better in my septum.
OVERLOAD. Okay, trying to digest this all. Today I learned a lesson to never go to a cardiologist appointment alone, the news was overwhelming and hard to retain. The Cardiologist ordered me to have a TEE or Trans-esphogeal Echocardiogram done the following week. This procedure was to be done at St Peters Hospital, I would be partially sedated as they would put a probe down my throat and take ultrasound images of my heart behind my esophagus. Woah. Okay, I can deal with a minor procedure. This is starting to sound very intimidating. My appointment was for 7:30am the procedure was at 9am I would be home by noon.
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