McHale,

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of Dr. Natale. I had an initial consultation with him earlier this year (in Austin) and felt so at ease with him. He made me and my husband feel very comfortable and he didn't come across as hurried or rushed. He spent time answering our questions.I definitely feel he is the right doctor for me when the time comes to make the ablation decision.

Best wishes and thank you for sharing your ablation experience.

Are there any communication challenges with him? I know English is not his first language.

OMG! Awesome! So you didn't have all the nervousness of that night before, where you cannot sleep cuz you are worried...WONDERFUL! Now, if that wasn't a sign that this was the right thing, nothing is! Hopefully another good outcome for the amazing Dr. Natale...if you go on stopafib today, one of the entries was by a woman who had an ablation done by him...senior moment here...I think she said she was in her 6th year? Forgive me, I read it this morning..but, I think anyone would be hard pressed to find any negative stuff about your guy. Congrats, and hope u r another example of a perfect outcome for this guy.

Bill

Excellent, McHale!! Certainly better to get it done sooner rather than later. You didn' thave to fast before it though?

Did you have general or conscious sedation?

He's located in NY , right?

Did you get cryo or RF?

Rest up and congratst on your NSR!!

Awesome! Sounds like it went very well. Keep us posted on your progress.
Sending healing thoughts your way.

So glad all went well McHale. That was kind of like a "pop" ablation. That sure takes the night before jitters out of the mix.

Rest up and please let us know how you are doing.

Hi,
Dr Natale was able to find a lot of additional hotspot activity that basically shut down my afib around the coronary sinus. He also ablated around the superior vena cava and all four PV's. He found no activity in my LAA as he sees more and more repeat ablations needed with activity in the appendage. Thank God I had none in that area.
I didn't much much fibrosis and my LA was only mildly enlarged.
He uses GA as he likes to have the body paralyzed and he controls respiration and burns at the bottom of your breath for more precise and controlled lesions.

No he is not hard to understand at all.
Yes he's at St Luke's in New York one week every month.
Cyro is for less experienced operators with a catheter and the lesions may not be as durable. Dr Natale has performed close to 10,000 ablations.

SteveR,
Yes it was a POP ablation. I was actually elated!
I was smiling all the way into the EP lab!
One interesting piece of unexpected positive news he gave me if the ablation is a success I can come off the Xarelto. Dr Reddy at Mt Sinai told me the same thing. Dr Steinberg former director at St Lukes told me no way.
Hey if the afib is "cured" than Chads score should not matter anymore! As soon as afin rears it's ugly head then I can restart Xarelto.Let's see how this plays out. I believe you also had a TIA?
I'm doing pretty well at day 3 with still some minor headaches, sore throat and sinus pressure from the anesthesia.

I'm happy for you McHale!

petey

McHale, that anesthesia is powerful stuff. It took me about 3 days to get my head clear after the ablation. I hadn't realized that memory problems can occur for days afterward. I told my wife if I do this again to please take my cell phone away from me. I called a bunch of people the night of my ablation and don't remember too much about the conversations. I was so happy it was over (and somewhat comfortably numb) that I had to tell somebody. :-)

Did they have you on a ventilator during the procedure? My throat was sore but it could have been from the TEE or the ventilator, maybe both.

I did have a TIA, which is why my EP wants me on the Pradaxa for an "undetermined" amount of time. Might be two years or longer. It's a wait-and-see if my Afib stays in check before a decision to stop anticoagulation can be made. It's my understanding that having a TIA keeps your CHAD score high, even if it's the only factor. It's been almost 2 years since the TIA and it was most likely caused by my Afib and certainly not helped by no anticoagulation medication other than aspirin. The choice for aspirin only was a bad choice on my part. If I had been on Pradaxa or Warfarin I pretty certain that I would not have had the TIA and I would be off the Pradaxa right now. Classic would-a, could-a.

Next Friday is my one year anniversary. The year has flown by and strangely enough Afib doesn't enter my mind much at all. It stayed on my mind around the clock for nearly two decades. Normal sinus rhythm has not only made me feel brand new but also liberated me from the day-to-day/night-to-night mental grip that Afib had on me.

You'll feel much better in a week or so, take it slow and don't bum out if you have some episodes in the coming weeks. I had a few but at three months out they were gone and haven't returned.

Steve

Thanks Petey! So glad I got this behind me heart is ticking like an Omega Swiss watch!

Steve,
Yes that anesthesia knocked my socks off for days. I felt great most of Saturday but probably did too much and Saturday evening got a very bad sinus headache and sinus pleasure came back along with anxiety and a low grade fever at 1.07. They should have used more Milk of Amnesia....aka Propofol as I don't think leaves you with such a wicked hangover. No big deal because today a week later and Im starting to feel good. My heart beat just feels much more in synch since the ablation very calm and peaceful.

They had a ventilator tube down my throat to control my breathing so Natale can have a more controlled burn at the bottom of my breath. I also had a temperature probe inserted to protect against esophageal damage. Not sure they did a TEE I doubt it since I've been on Xarelto for 10 months. I had a very sore throat till today neck pain too and ran a slight fever the first few days. Some chest discomfort too that is now beginning to dissipate.

As for the TIA Dr Natale gave me hope that I can off the blood thinner after a year of monitoring and vigilant self monitoring.
The beauty of Pradaxa Eliquis or Xarelto is the fast onset that I mentioned can always be started when in doubt. Couldn't do that with warfarin in the past! He agreed! I also have the AliveCor monitor which works great for an instant snapshot EKG.
If I had know about Xarelto last Labor day weekend I could have started that as a PIP because I was afraid I was going to stroke out!
Could of should of would of I guess like you said!

One year Congratulations is in order
"Drinks for all my Friends"
Oh crap we can't do that either.........
I can't believe how peaceful I am that I did it and hopefully first time is a charm and I can put all this behind me. I was tired of waiting of the ever more frequent attacks. NSR feels so wonderful!

Best,
McHale

Petey,
About your spaghetti remark...have you been to Little Italy in B'more? Valeggis (sp?) ? I haven't been down there in probably 15 years, but I know that back in the day some of the restuarants in Little Italy were rated higher than Italian restuarants even in San Fran and THE city, as youse guys from up North refer to it. I tried sending you an email offline, but couldn't...and couldn't send one on that other thread, considering I am the ONE guy who loves a certain Dr. C, and I was afraid! My guy was getting CREAMED!

Anyway, MD is more about dem crabs and Natty boh, hon!

Bill

Valleggia... I'll check it out.

Good to hear! All the best moving forward. :)

Congrats, Steve on one year NSR!!

McHale, I was taken off Pradaxa after 6 mos post ablation. I loved getting off of it. I hope you can too!

keep the great recovery up!!