Fund in Memory of Andrea Thomas

I was diagnosed in October or November 2010 with Long QT Syndrome type 2. I was 18 and studying to take the asvab to join the military when someone reached out to my mom telling her about Long QT being genetically inherited on my real dad’s side of the family so she immediately setup and appointment in Atlanta because that’s where the other ones had already been tested for Long QT. We went down for an appointment on a Tuesday and my EKG came back normal but I found out that EKGs came comeback as a normal or abnormal it changes from time to time. It took about a week and a half for the results to come back and they came back showing I have Long QT Syndrome type 2. We immediately got an appointment setup and I was back in Atlanta where I was started on 40 mg of a beta blocker then they got the results from the heart monitor showing my heart rate was staying above 180 most of the time so they increased the dose to 60 mg which helped me a lot. Myself, my mom, family, and few friends had never even heard of Long QT so my mom and me started doing research and I started carrying around the medication list of drugs to avoid which I still give to every new doctor and I have the app on my phone.

On Wednesday November 2, 2011 the day after I had my first yearly appointment I woke up later than normally because I was really tired and thought I had been working to much then I went in the bathroom to do something and the next thing I knew my mom was standing over me and kept saying my name which brought me back. It took me over 30 minutes to get ready to leave the house to go to the ER where one of the doctors said you have whiplash and nothing is wrong with you which we knew wasn’t true because my flood pressure was really low both numbers in the double digits and my heart rate was really low so we immediately called my doctor and I am very thankful to have been wearing a heart monitor so we went straight to the doctors office in Atlanta which was three and half hours away from where I lived at the time so they told us to go eat lunch because it’s take about an hour to get the results back then when got back we should’ve knew something was wrong when they kept saying that they were trying to call us but we had a different area code and they weren’t putting the number in correctly. We wasn’t in the lobby no time when the nurse practitioner called us back and told me that my Long QT had reversed into Vaso Vaso so when I passed out and kept almost passing out it was because my heart had actually quit beating at times and was beating to slow which they told my mom she takes me to the hospital or I was going by ambulance because I wasn’t leaving Atlanta without surgery. The next part that came was the waiting part which I hated especially not knowing the time of my surgery or anything. On Thursday November 3, 2011 I had emergency surgery and had a pacemaker implanted. They had to watch my heart overnight to decide if I only needed the pacemaker or if I needed the pacemaker and defibrillator both. They said the defibrillator would work against my heart. My heart rate is anywhere from 60-180 beats per minute. Both of these things were life changing but it opened my eyes to see things in another perspective way. I haven’t had any problems since I had my pacemaker put in and I’m so thankful for that. I had the best support system during the whole process and I still have them in my corner. My mom missed over a weeks worth of work to be with me and my aunt, my grandparents, and one of my cousins all drove down to see me the day I was admitted to the hospital and brought us some other clothes and phone charges then my grandparents drove back the day of my surgery. I wouldn’t have made it very far without my support system. There are a lot of people who that don’t know what Long QT Syndrome is and I was one of them till I was diagnosed in 2010.