Acting up

Days 422 to 428.

A farm in South Africa

I have been in South Africa for the last few weeks for my mum's funeral. To say it has been stressful is an understatement.

There has been a lot of arrangements to make. Just to get here, I had to move my Infliximab infusion forward so that I could travel soon enough to make the funeral. I had to get clearance from my cardiologist to travel. I had to apply for and collect an emergency passport for my son. I had to book flights and find travel insurance that covers my pre-existing conditions. I had to find entertainment for a four-year old for 24 hours of flying and airport transits.

And then came the funeral arrangements itself, although I was quite happy to finally be here and help my family out properly. I am in awe of my brother and everything that he has done.

What really surprised me was the amount of work after the funeral to tidy up my mum's affairs.

I have been feeling really tense and I have been for my heart to catch up with my mind. I would have been extremely surprised if there had not been any heart troubles.

Event #1

The first few days everything was fine. I started to relax a little and enjoy family time.

On the morning of July 26th at around 9 am I was standing in my dad's study, talking to him. I started feeling really dizzy and very hot. I tried not to show how dizzy, as I didn't want to scare my dad. I had to sit down on the floor though.

It was confirmed to me as an arrhythmia when my ICD paced me with 6 pulses. My heart rhythm normalised as per usual after the pacing.

ECG after ICD pacing

My dad was really worried. My mum had just died from cardiac arrest, and now I was having heart problems too.

I made an appointment with a GP in the closest town for that same day. It was a really interesting appointment. The doctor spoke only Afrikaans, and all my knowledge about my condition is in English. He was also hard of hearing. He did do a 12-lead ECG and didn't see any need to do anything more urgent.

My dad was put a bit at ease.

Event #2

I headed to Cape Town to spend some time with my husband's family on July 28th.

We went out for supper to Spur. Spur is a well known restaurant chain in South Africa which is really popular for parents with young children. It was definitely a unique experience for my son with his cousins. It was definitely an evening of creating lovely memories.

Halfway through the evening while sitting at the table with my family I felt dizzy and hot again. This felt worse than the first time. It lasted a lot longer before the pacing started and I was able to take an ECG on my Fitbit while it happened.

ECG during arrhythmia

It was definitely some type of ventricular tachycardia. After what felt like forever, but was probably something like 30 seconds my ICD paced me out of the arrhythmia with 9 pulses.

I did not tell anyone that this was happening. I didn't want to draw the attention and take away from the evening.

I did tell my mother-in-law when we got home that night. But with my heart normalised again I didn't do anything else.