So....this is a long story but I'm going to put the point right up front. Be prepared to be your own advocate after your surgery! I had my sleeve surgery on 03 December. 04 was a bit rough but that night I was finally making peace with my sleeve when at about 0130 in the morning I slipped into atrial fibrillation...which means the heart is not beating correctly. The atria, which squeeze the blood away from the heart were fluttering and my heart rate was fluctuating between 120-200...normal is a range, but generally under 90.

I was quickly moved out of my room on a floor that has had extra training in bariatric surgery care and moved to the cardiac unit. I wasn't in pain or uncomfortable at all...in fact my surgery healing has been amazing! However, the cardiac nurses required a lot of education about what I could and could not have/eat/drink. The hospital is not prepared to feed a new bariatric patient. The only "protein drink" they had was Ensure which was over 350 calories for only 11 g protein. Then they started bringing the pills. I don't know about you, but it has been drilled into me NO PILLS! So I refused to take them until the surgeon gave his ok which he eventually did. THEN, the put me on nothing by mouth, meaning no water, no nothing until they did a procedure where they tried to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm. This whole time I'm only allowed to go to the bathroom otherwise I had to be in bed...so much for walk, walk, walk.

Conversion attempts failed and they discharged my on the 6th still in Afib but with what we thought was a controlled heart rate. Best.Shower.Ever was how I would describe getting home!

Unfortunately because the heart medications were run through the same IV, I developed cellulitis and by Sunday evening my forearm was hot, swollen and the redness was moving up my arm....so back to the ER we went....here in my hometown which is 75 miles away from the hospital I had my surgery. The local ER folks FLIPPED OUT because my heart rate was 190 when I showed up....and by midnight I had been transported back to the hospital in Tucson.

Now I was a bariatric patient with cardiac complications on a general medicine floor...kind of like the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer. The staff here were competent, but definitely not the A-team I experienced on the cardiac floor. So back to the same old thing, only in bed and to the bathroom....spend all day Monday waiting for a cardiac consult that never came. Didn't see a dr after 0700...very frustrating. At one point they brought me 2 horse pills to take and when I said I couldn't the nurse asked "Why not?" It took everything I had not to unload on her..."Um...let see because my stomach is the size of a sharpie....let's start there". Then she came back a couple of hours later with 7 pills at once...she was not my favorite as she never did get my situation.

Tuesday morning the surgical fellow came by and I kind of unburdened myself to him...I was frustrated that no one was talking/consulting with me. I had been in Afib for over 4 days now, still had a heart rate that spiked every time I walked the 6 steps to the bathroom and was worried they were going to discharge me still in Afib again. I told him my "island of misfit toys" analogy and he agreed. He also got my surgeon involved (Dr. Galvani is head of surgery at UofA) and by 0900 I had 3 doctor visits! When I told the internal medicine doctor that I was still spking up as high as 205, she had no idea....not a real confidence builder in the staff of the floor. She agreed though that they wouldn't send me home with an unstable heart rate...which is all I wanted to hear.

At about 1130 Tuesday morning as fast as it started, my heart converted on its own back to normal sinus rhythm. YAY! A few quick laps around to ward to make sure it wasn't joking around and I was being processed to leave the hospital!!!!!

So upshot is I'm on a ton of new medications, including a blood thinner and will remain on them for at least 3 months. They think it was all caused by the fluids/electrolytes/stress of surgery but want to make sure.

I'm home, eating my plain yogurt and I couldn't be happier! I'll post later about what my husband brought to the hospital to help me stay close to being on my plan. Cheers! Beth