Clif's Fluttering Heart

Say a little prayer for Clif tonight. He is spending his second night in the hospital. His heart rhythm is more like a galloping horse with a broken leg than any kind of beat. Maybe you could call it Jazz music. He's feeling fine, so you know what kind of patient he is. The nurses don't quite know what to do with him.

Three years ago this coming January he ended up in the ER. It was a crazy time. He had just returned from a trade show and was feeling awful. We had brought premature triplets home from the NICU a few weeks earlier. We were running on no sleep and it was cold and flu season.

I assumed that he was all germy from the flight. His doctor said to be safe and go to the ER. It turns out his heart rate was about 180. He was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation. He went through a few cardioversions, lots of medicine, and a heart ablation. It took a while but he got straightened out. His rhythm was so steady that the doctors took him off of the majority of his meds.

This past Monday he had a flare up. Something disturbed the rhythm in his heart. By Tuesday his heart rate was about 140. He got an appointment with the cardiologist for Wednesday morning and was sent straight to the ER to get his heart rate down. The meds worked pretty quickly, but the rhythm didn't go back on it's own.

After monitoring him overnight, they decided to try other meds or another conversion to get him in rhythm. After being in a-fib for 48 hours, though, they check (with a TEE -transesophageal echocardiogram) for a blood clot. He had one. So he's still there tonight being monitored. He'll have to be on blood thinner for a month before they shock his heart back into rhythm.

We're really hoping that he can come home tomorrow as it's the triplets' third birthday. We've canceled the party for Saturday, but it would be nice for their Daddy to be home for their big day.