I'll try to keep this update as short as possible, yet give you all complete info. Also, if there is a doctor in the house, I apologize if my understanding or interpretation of the events aren't perfect.

During the initial phase, (called an EP Study) under local anesthesia, a catheter was inserted into a vein in the groin area and guided up to the heart through the vein. They found, as expected an extra node on the heart (where pulses to trigger heart beats originate), howerver they determined it was not the cause of the arrhymthia. Under various stimulations it just didn't cause any extra heartbeats or fluttering. Approximately 20% of the population has extra nodes on their heart, without any problems or consequences.

They terminated the procedure at that point and after some recovery time proceeded to some high tech stress tests (called a tilt table test) to see if they could stimulate an arrhythmia in another way. During this test it was determined that her blood pressure is easily lowered and that can easily be a cause of arrhythmia. To put it shortly, when the heart senses inadequate blood supply it attempts to pump more, thereby causing the wildly beating of the heart.

So, they have determined if she can increase her blood pressure through diet (more salt intake, one of the few times doctors will recommend this), exercise (tone the leg muscles to keep the blood flowing better from the legs back up to the heart), or possibly medication (which we are going to try to avoid, if possible), the problems might be avoided in the future. This is apparently, not an uncommon problem and young people often grow out of it. She is still rather sore in the groin area from the catheter insertion, but that won't last long.

So, in summary, things could not have come out much better for her. I want to thank all you who kept her in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

Good for you folks, Dave. I've been through all those heart tests (Congestive Heart Failure, CHF), and I know how disturbing they can be. If you can avoid the meds, do so. They can really alter your lifestyle, to say the least. Again, congratulations on a good outcome. - Dan

Great News! Happy Thanksgiving!

[ 11-24-2002, 23:15: Message edited by: Nickudu ]

This is good news, thanks for the update.

Russ

Yes, very good news indeed!

Very happy to hear that!!!

Thanks for letting us know. Very happy to hear it.