Shane's Road to Recovery Needs You

I'm Shane and last week my life changed drastically. I was at work when I started having chest pains and my heart rate was off the charts. Thankfully, I was able to get to the ER where they confirmed I was in V-tachycardia. I was shocked to reset my heart, and admitted to the hospital. The best EMS team in the world transported me to the Heart Center at Fairview Southdale where I underwent an angiogram to look for blockages and an EP study to look at the electrical behavior in my heart. The angiogram didn't find blockages (which is good!), but during the EP study, they were able to trigger the bad arrhythmia in the lower chambers of my heart. I was shocked again to reset my heart rhythms.

The doctors immediately suggested I move forward with an ICD (pacemaker/defibrillator) implant as a life saving device. During the implantation, I again went into the bad heart rhythm and had to be shocked a third time to reset. Third time's the charm, I guess! After a second procedure to place the leads correctly in my heart, I was finally discharged.

Unfortunately, life is going to be different going forward. And, while I hate asking for help, I am going to be out of work for at least two months and likely can't drive for six weeks while they monitor my heart to make sure I'm not going back into arrhythmia. The last thing we want is for me to get shocked while I'm driving! After the recovery period, my job won't look the same. No jackhammers for me! Hopefully we'll get some clearer guidance when I meet with the device team over the next month.