Two Week Countdown

(Posted to Facebook notes 9/1/2001)

There are a lot of funny (not funny ha-ha, but funny odd) things I've learned being sick. Here are two:

1.) Being sick, I crave and appreciate messages of support and well-wishes...even though I sometimes can't bring myself to put together a response of any kind, let alone a response that communicates enough gratitude. I owe a proper thank you to many people.

2.) The second thing I've learned, is that it's really hard to keep track of who, and in what forum, I have properly updated friends and family. I feel like I'm talking about myself all of the time. At church on Sunday I avoided many conversations because I was certain that my poor roommate had heard it all enough times and I was surely driving her crazy!

My parents were asked last night, "What's the deal with Kimi", and I realized that although I feel like I've rehearsed my update one thousand times, I hadn't posted anything new to Facebook. So, here it is:

I have had the Cardiac MRI and have met with the infamous Dr. Chun Hwang. It is clear that I need to have Cardiac Ablation (catheters are inserted into my heart, and areas that are causing the abnormal rhythm are burned) (p.s. I know it sounds absolutely crazy, and you might be thinking that I'm confused or making this up, but it is for real and there is a very high success rate...for about 10 years).

My procedure is scheduled for September 15 with Dr. Hwang (a huge blessing). As it is considered an exploratory procedure, it can take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. During that time, in addition tho the Ablation, my doctor will perform a number of tests to assess the full condition and health of my heart. I am hopeful that he will be able to address all concerns at that time, but there is a chance that he may find something that will need to be treated at another time. I will stay one night in the hospital for observation following the procedure.

I am very much looking forward to no longer feeling my heart slam around in my chest, but I have been prepped that the first days following are slow moving, and I will need to be very careful with the catheter insertion spots (groin and neck) and that I may feel some significant discomfort in my chest...ya know, cause they're gonna burn up my heart!

But it should only be a few weeks until I'm feeling freaking fantastic. Feeling better than I have felt in a really long time in fact! And with this delayed summer, I'm hoping to get at least one more tennis game in before Salt Lake City turns arctic for the year.