Thread by @robertanglen

The lasting impact of #COVID19.
My wife, Tami Anglen, is recovering from a minor heart attack this week, a result of cardiac arrhythmia.
An angry THREAD/ 1

Tami is an Intensive care nurse. For months, she treated COVID patients day in and day out. In October, she caught the virus. She was sick for about three weeks, but the after affects lingered. Trouble catching her breath, elevated heart rate, exhaustion./ 2

About a month ago she noticed her heart was beating irregularly. Then two weeks ago, she went into SVT (no, not a new Dodge supercharger). It’s a rapid, uncontrollable heart rate that for her was about 240 beats per minute./ 3

What did Tami do? Well, she went ahead and drove to work. But instead of letting her check in, they checked her in to the ER. It took medicine to drive her heart rate down./ 4

There was no explanation for the “event” (a term that really should be reserved for alien encounters). Like a board game, Tami didn’t pass Go, she went directly to the cardiologist. / 5

That brings us to Monday, and a scheduled stress test, a fancy way of describing exercise while surrounded by medical techs and wired to monitors like an outtake from a Cronenberg film. Nine minutes in, she went into V-tach (no, still not an experimental Mopar engine)./ 6

V-tach is ventricular tachycardia, known to us mortals as a heart attack. As soon as she stopped running, her heart went back to normal./ 7

That earned her a trip to the cardiac cath lab on Thursday (not ecactly like winning a game show cruise — Hey, Monty, can I pick Door No. 2)./ 8

The catheterization could go two ways. They could get in there and find a standard blockage built on years of bad eating, which means a stent and a new diet; or they could find nothing, which is a bigger problem./ 9

The cardiologist told us we should root for the burgers and fries. But alas, her plumbing was fine. The issue was her wiring (these are terms used by medical professionals and in no way reflect my biases)./ 10

A few hours later, we were meeting with an electrophysiologist. He said there were two issues with her heart./ 11

The SVT is a result of an electrical loop that has developed in the upper chamber of her heart; the v-tach was caused by a PVC in the lower chamber of heart. PVC (not plastic sprinkler pipe) refers to premature beats, which stack up to cause a heart attack./ 12

The doctor says both issues are likely a direct result of COVID exposure; he suspects the virus caused scar tissue on the upper and lower chambers of the heart./ 13

While the doc is talking, I’m speed reading medical abstracts on COVID and arrhythmia. There are plenty of early studies showing a correlation. And the doc acknowledged he is seeing COVID patients presenting months later with cardiac issues./ 14

In other words, COVID can screw up your heart./ 15

One of my best qualities is focused rage. Ride with me. I’m thinking how messed up it is that Tami gave up her health to treat patients who resented her, denied the disease existed even as it killed them./ 16

There are, of course, plenty of patients who took precautions and got sick anyway and thanked healthcare workers for saving their lives. But I’m raging here./ 17

I’m also thinking, cynically, how the hospital where she works would take no responsibility for her COVID exposure — and it now gets to collect a hefty fee on the backend for some seriously expensive and possibly long term treatment./ 18

Come on, we all know where and how Tami caught this bitch./ 19

I’m also aware that we are lucky, because there is a long list of healthcare professionals and hospital workers who gave everything so that others might live. If you know their names, say them ... with reverence./ 20

As for Tami, we know the prognosis is good. The doc said there’s no risk of fatality. But it won’t be fun. It starts with an MRI and a heart monitor. It could be treated with medicine or she might need ablation surgery./ 21

Ablation is a fancy term for jamming a microscopic soldering iron up through your groin and burning off pieces of your heart like an unemployed iron worker turned backyard artisan. It’s a complicated and exacting process with no guarantee./ 22

The idea is to burn away the electrical fibers that are misfiring./ 23

Remember, Tami is one of the lucky ones. She is strong and committed. And if given a choice, I believe she would walk right back into a COVID unit./ 24

In fact, she already does. Every day. End of rant. End of THREAD. /25