Man, if I had only known what awaited me after writing my last post. And that ending line, "Busted lip and all, I still have a feeling things are looking up"! Talk about jinxing myself.
Let me explain. After writing that post, I then traveled up to Rabat and began a whirlwind of slightly terrifying medical tests. I started by going in to see the Peace Corps medical staff (PCMOs) and doing a quick history and explanation of what I was doing when I fainted and discussing possible causes. They ruled out all the normal stuff like dehydration, stress, low blood sugar, etc. and because this is Peace Corps and the last thing they need is a volunteer passing out in the bled (backwoods... minus the woods) and getting run over by a donkey, they decided they better test me for all the not normal stuff. So then began a "fun" few days of getting wires strapped in all sorts of places to see if I had epilepsy, seizures, or a brain tumor, blood clots in my legs or lungs, or some kind of funky heart condition. All of the first two came up completely negative, but oh that last one.
The cardiologist had me do an EKG/sonogram/something that showed him my heart (I am such a bad health volunteer) and saw/heard that I have premature heart beats. No cause for worry there, however, again because this is Peace Corps and liability is key, they decided I should wear a heart monitor for 24 hours to see if anything else might come up. I turned that back into the cardiologist last Thursday and then waited around for the results. Because Monday was a holiday (another l3id!?), I didn't find anything out until Wednesday. It turns out they found something else besides the premature heart beats. I also have a condition called SVT (supraventricular tachycardia). From what I understand from the PCMO's rather detailed explanation and wikipedia, it basically means every once in awhile (in my case a couple of times a day) the top half of my heart gets a funny signal and decides it's going to beat super fast and make me do fun stuff like faceplant into my bathroom floor. The condition isn't fatal or anything, but it does make being a Peace Corps Volunteer a little tricky. Untreated there's the chance I will faint again and maybe, actually get run over by a donkey.
So then we talked about treatments. Basically there's two ways to go: medicine or surgery. The meds are beta blockers and seem to pretty much just suck. They make working out near impossible, you can't drink on them, and they're a rest of your life kind of deal. The surgery comes in two forms. One that involves radiation and another that involves freezing a bit of your heart. They both work in the same basic way (snaking a tube up my vein and into my heart and killing the funny bit that keeps beating super fast), however the radiation treatment has a slightly higher chance of complications (like needing a pacemaker or open heart surgery) but it's permanent. The freezing treatment allows doctors to play around until they're sure they've got the right spot and then freeze that tissue, but it has a small chance of impermanence, which means another surgery. So those are my treatment options.
When I first talked it over with the PCMOs in Rabat, there was the hope that they'd maybe put me on the beta blockers and see how I do, but still let me continue service and then revisit surgery once I officially COS'd (closed my service) in May 2013. I just found out today that is not going to work for Peace Corps Washington; they won't let a volunteer continue service if they're on beta blockers. Because the surgery can't be performed in Morocco, my options are now to be medevaced (this gives me 45 days to start whichever treatment they decide and recover to Peace Corps' satisfaction) to DC or Bristol or to be medically separated (completely ending my service). Tomorrow I find out which one I'm getting and which treatment Peace Corps Washington is going to advocate. But no matter what it looks like I'm leaving Morocco. Inchallah (god willing) it will only be for a few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment