In a Medical Limbo... and my next Cardiac Biopsy

Since my diagnosis of IGCM (Idiopathic giant cell myocarditis) on February 14th, I have been back to my cardiologist for echocardiograms on Feb 21 and Feb 28. The good news was that my heart function was still strong and that I had not progressed into a worse condition. It appears that the drugs and medical regimen I was following were beneficial. The more negative side was that I was having some side effects associated with all the steroids and other drugs.

On March 13th I went into Emory Clinic for a cardiac biopsy. Dr. Smith did a local anesthetic on my neck, inserted a snake-like device into my jugular vein that he moved into the right ventricle, and then gathered small samples of heart tissue from my heart. While I was resting afterwards, my heart decided after about an hour to start having spontaneous tachycardia events (up to 155 bpm) that would occur for about 45 seconds and then resolve on their own. This would happen every few minutes. They decided this was not good, and so I was again admitted to the hospital--this time Emory University Hospital--for observation. They wired me up with EKG telemetry and began monitoring my heart rhythm. Over the next few days they found runs of Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) up to 21 in length, started me on a beta-blocker (Coreg), and began upping the dose to regulate my heart and the possible PVCs. PVCs can be dangerous because if they don't resolve I can go into ventricular fibrillation (this is where blood is no longer being pumped by the heart), and go into cardiac arrest. However, after a few days of observation, a new prescription of Coreg, and knowledge that I do have an ICD device now monitoring my heart, they discharged me from the hospital on March 16. The ironic part is that the cardiac biopsy results came back inconclusive--all 3 samples had essentially scar tissue only and no clear indication whether the IGCM was better, worse, the same, or whatever.