Many of you know me from my somewhat obsessive hockey tweets over on Twitter.(@Subdiva) If that is the case, then you probably know that last Monday evening while many of us were watching the Preds game, a very scary situation was happening over in Dallas when Rich Peverley collapsed on the bench from a cardiac condition.
In an eerie coincidence, this same day was the anniversary of our son’s first cardiac procedure four years ago.
Now I’m not a doctor, and I don’t know any more about Peverley’s condition than what has already been reported so I have no idea if the diagnosis is the same as our son’s, but it does have similarities in that they both suffered from an arrhythmia and both had to be ablated to correct it more than once.
Our son was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, an electrical anomaly of the heart that was asymptomatic until he was 14 years old. One day, he complained of his heart racing suddenly at rest which we all thought would end up to be nothing since he was in no pain, and the episodes were short and infrequent. But after weeks of testing with EKG’s, Echocardiograms, and a heart monitor, we were all shocked to learn that he had a silent ticking time bomb in his chest that required a 5-6 hour cardiac procedure to save his life.
My point in re-telling this story now is a reminder that our children will suffer from sniffles and stomachaches, but then there are other things that we as parents need to investigate further. When something feels “off,” it may be easy to dismiss first, but you and your child should always keep an honest conversation open about what signs their bodies are trying to tell them.
Our son’s second surgery was three days before we moved to Nashville, and I am happy to report that he is healthy and cleared for all activities.
Especially hockey.
©2014 Tracey Henry
Dishing From Others