Irene,

Our prayers will now switch from praying for a successful operation to
praying for a speedy and full recovery. We are hoping to see you in our
travels this skating season.

Godspeed,
Jeff & Ruthie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Irene Postma" <speedskating@...>
To: "Skate" <Speed_skating@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 4:56 AM
Subject: [Skate] Report from my ablation


> Dear all
>
> Thanks for your thoughts and wishes. I was aware of the fact that many
> people were thinking about me between 9 and 11 on Friday... and twenty
> minutes to nine they told me somebody else went first and I was to wait
> till
> after ten o'clock.
> It was 12.30 that they came to get me. But the operation itself lasted
> twice
> as long as expected, and I wasn't back until 17.00 (while somebody dear to
> me had been waiting there for three hours! He said 'with so many people
> praying, the person who was before you must have had a very succesful
> operation')
>
> Before the operation the doctor (a different one from those I had seen
> before) told me that they were going to operate the flutter (which they
> had
> informed me about), but he had also seen on my ECG that I sometimes also
> had
> fibrillation (which is different, irregular and more severe).
> During the operation they had to put me asleep twice to reset my heart
> with
> an electric shock (cardioversion), and also inject some medicine with
> similar effect. They were concerned that my atrium very easily started to
> fibrillate, and they couldn't get a good signal for the first hour or so
> of
> the operation. They made a 'very nice line' between the hollow vein and
> heart valve, and they couldn't test the effect right away because of my
> fibrillating heart. So that is when I needed a second cardioversion.
>
> After breakfast the next morning I had to stay while others left the
> hospital because my heart was irregular AGAIN! and that shouldn't be the
> case with a successful operation. The medicine I took didn't solve it
> within
> three hours, so again I had to refrain from eating after breakfast or
> drinking, and then because it was Saturday they had only one cardiologist
> and one anaesthetist and they should have time for me at the same time
> somewhere after two o'clock.
> I had a headache from so little to eat or drink, and the bad sleep in
> hospital, and the cardiologist didn't come until a quarter past five. But
> a
> half hour before that I noticed that my heart had become quiet again by
> itself (at four it was still very fast -110 or so-, but it was half that
> pace at a quarter to five, so I asked for an extra ECG. Then after a short
> talk to the cardiologist (yet another one) and inspection of my wound they
> let me go.
> I can't walk fast because of the wound, but that seems to be healing
> neatly.
>
> But the fact is that I have no idea if there will not be any fibrillation
> any more. This could be a result of the hard work in my heart during the
> ablation. So the ablation itself did the trick to the flutter, they tell
> me,
> but the question is if that is all or if my problem is more complicated.
> All I can do is recover (they told me I should be able to drive today, but
> I'm far too tired for that) and then hope for the best.
>
> Thanks again for your thoughts and words.
>
> --
> Irene P.
> Publisher/Editor Speedskating World
>
> o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
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> o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
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