Aubrey's Heart

Hi this is Aubrey's family, we have decided to fundraise as Aubrey had a series of unforunate events that has caused her to be out of work for at least three weeks. She had a pacemaker put in that had caused very scary complications (Pericardial Effusion) which caused her to end up in the emegency room unexpectadly and admitted for 5 days. As she has been in and out surgeries, the recovery process has been extended. Aubrey wrote a full story below on what has happened.

We wish this process too be as stress free as possible. Anything helps as we are unsure when she will be able to fully make it back to work. Thank You!

Here’s what happened:

I’ve been getting dizzy since I was like in 6th grade no one ever diagnosed me with anything. I went to my neurologist about my arms falling asleep all the time and dizzy so they sent me to cardiology. I wore the monitor and did a million test and everything came up fine except that my heart was skipping 3 beats in a row frequently and that’s when I was having dizzy episodes . My top and bottom chamber don’t communicate so i needed a pace maker. I got it done on June 19th, started feeling an heartburn feeling in my chest which then went to my back and hurt to lay down, yawn, walk, stand so I went to the ER 2 days after surgery and was there for 8.5 hours got 6 tests done. They saw some fluid around my heart and said that can happen during surgery and gave me an inflammatory medication and sent me on my way. I got a call from my surgeon on Sunday the 25th saying he wants to look at it himself bc it’s possible the wire is poking my heart. So Tuesday I had my appointment to see him and they gave me to another dr there instead of him. I talked to the lady told her he wanted to talk to me about the wires she brushed it off basically said I’m fine and didn’t allow me to talk to him. I was feeling a little better for the appointment so I was like whatever. Asked if it got worse again what to do and she said it won’t get worse and sent me on my way. I started to feel the pain again not being able to walk, breathe, stand up all that as the day went on. The next day thankfully Travis took the day off I had the day off anyways and we were shopping and I felt it all so intensely. I decided to call the cardiologist and ask what I should do she said to go to urgent care asap in the capital cardiology so I did the guy said he doesn’t know anything about pace makers so they called my surgeon he said to get a echo so I did they immediately called the ambulance and showed me the scan I had a massive amount of fluid around my heart it looked insane so I got to the hospital and went into the er from the ambulance. My parents and travis were there I was in so much pain. After a bit I started getting light headed and nauseous. I told them and then everything went black I freaked out bc I couldn’t see I knew I was like in a fainting episode so I told them I can’t see, hit the emergency nurse button bc I couldn’t really talk then someone turned it off I went back and eyes rolled back I had a seizure my blood pressure dropped to 40/ something I turned white lips blue was soaked with sweat they rushed me into another room got me stable then rushed me to surgery. My blood pressure was too low to put me out so while awake they put a tube into my chest and vacuumed the BLOOD from the sack of my heart. Turns out one of the leads screws poked a hole in my heart. They pulled out an amount of a soda can out of the sack. I was legit screaming in pain bc I was awake felt like they were drilling into me (Kinda did) then they put a tube in my chest to drain the blood for a few days. Then they sent me to a room. Not being able to walk stand up. They poked me with needles constantly. Injecting a bunch of medicines lots of IV stuff, constants tests. Got no sleep bc they were coming in every hour or so do something to me. Thursday I was said to get a cat scan and something else then said I would get my surgery at 9 or 10 pm meaning I can’t eat all day. I was also told not to the day before as well so all I had was breakfast before I ended up at the drs. 10pm comes and then say I’m not getting it till 1 or 2 now but I can eat now which makes no sense bc the gap I need of not eating would be too less of time. So I ate a little and drank a little. 2am comes and I ask what’s going on they said idk the surgeon isn’t even here he left idk when he’s coming back he didn’t tell anyone so I wait then they say 3:30am so I’m waiting till then then they said there’s people ahead of me now so I wait they said 6:30-7 . Then at 5 the surgeon comes in says he’s gonna get to me “hopefully today” so I snapped a little so he kinda tried to rush it more. They got me in around 1pm Friday. They decided to move both leads bc they didn’t know which one was poking, removes the tube and go in and cut a “window” in the sack so the blood can escape into my body. They put a new tube in that goes into some big box that sits on the floor to suck out more blood. I got to my room like 10 pm I was in so much pain they had me on fetenal morphine and oxy. The whole time in the hospital till Saturday morning I was on morphine and oxy still was in pain. Saturday I was in so much pain I couldn’t move talk anything for a bit then started to loosen up. Around 2 in my bed they took the tube out of my chest and sewed me up completely awake again no lidocaine or anything it was horrible. Then basically was just in pain not being able to move hard to use the bathroom bc of getting up. I couldn’t even prop myself up or reposition without pain. Sunday they looked at my echos and saw there was no more fluid so they sent me home not even have walked yet. Then they sent my meds to cvs Troy 4th st as I asked and it was closed so I called to have them switch it to another one when I got there they said 4th st already filled it so I can’t get it unless I pay full. So I payed for my pain killers and had to stand and walk for the first time and it was way too much for me seeing I haven’t walked more than 5 steps to the bathroom.

The hospital stuff was absolute torture but I got to see how loved I really am. My family and friends were there supporting me whether by visiting or FaceTiming even praying text just feel super thankful for the people in my life.