"I don't have the best news..."

My doctor came into the room this morning and shared with me that my irregular heart beats returned at midnight. My second ablation procedure wasn't successful after all.

I felt sad, frustrated, fearful, nervous... It was the second time for the procedure, a re-do; it was supposed to be a success. Was this second ablation for nothing?

Prof Tan sat down by my bedside and took time to explain everything clearly, going through the different considerations he had to take.

1. Difficulty of the procedure

- Extra pathways (at birth) can be found at different parts of the heart, and mine happens to be at a relatively tricky position

- What makes it even harder is that my heart continues to beat/move as the doctor tries to aim the catheter at the extra pathway; the doctor has to make sure that the powered catheter doesn't hit the good parts of the heart (which can cause even more riskier complications)

2. Minimal level of risk

- Taking into account the above difficulties, Prof Tan did his best to damage my extra pathway at the least level of risk

- He could have powered the catheters at a higher amount of watts, but the trade-off was that he'll be doing it at higher risks (eg burning a hole in my heart), which would have dire consequences in terms of complications... And Prof Tan was not willing to do that "to a young heart"

3. Two options, moving forward

a) Going for a third ablation- which he advised against, due to the above reasons

b) Continue with my medicine, and hopefully with given time, the function of my heart will improve. Another plus point to consider is that the damages from the two ablations would have gotten rid of the palpitations completely (an earlier problem which I had during chemotherapy)

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In essence, the ablation was to improve my lower than average function of the heart (measured by LVEF). This could have been caused by my Wolffe-Parkinson-White syndrome, and/or the negative impacts of chemotherapy. We went ahead with the procedure, thinking it would at least eliminate one of the reasons for my low heart function.

But my extra pathway has been so stubborn- even with two ablation procedures, it just did not budge (and even if it did, it was only for a few hours). With it being so stubborn, as well as the addition of the increased risks in getting it ablated the third time... we decided against it. We would be patient, and I would continue to take my medicine and we'll see how it goes.

Prof Tan said that he had a patient who took 2 years to increase her heart function (and hers was really bad, at around 10%; they even considered doing a heart transplant). Mine's hovering around 40-45%, while the normal range is from 50-60%. It's just a bit more to go!

It is not the best news after everything, but God is still good. With no more palpitations, and with more time- I have faith that my heart will be strong again.