Well, my ablation was yesterday and I gotta say, I 'm so glad to have it over and done with. I didn't see the doc to talk to him, or he talked to me when I was totally out of it. All I know is I showed up at 6AM, and got back to the room about 3-4 PM, so I'm guessing the procedure took about 5-6 hours?? I asked the doc who discharged me today, he didn't know either. Mind you, I was looking for the warm blankets. The put me on a table that was kinda outside the high tech room I think. By the time they wheeled me in, I think I was out of it.

when they were "shaving me" i told them my daughter said I get a free brazilian wax with this procedure. The nurse laughed and said it's more like a bikini. So who says there is no free lunch. Ha!

I don't recall much else. I did make it VERY clear to the anesthesiologist that during the colonoscopy conscious sedation I was wide awake and could feel and remember everything. She got the message that I didn't want to repeat that.

I do recall saying , "hurt, hurt, hurt!" I could feel it when they were burning my heart. the convos i recall with them had to do with pain. But it seems they did some revisions so that it wasn't painful after that.

I don't recall a "recovery room" but remember being in my room again. I felt extremely nauseous and was grabbing for anything that I might use for that purpose. I remember the nurse explaining something to me to read this and that. I kept dozing and she kept saying, are you listening to me? I really couldn't keep my eyes open.

Also, like Denikae I was quite dizzy and woozy getting up to go to the bathroom. So I had a nurse go with me to try to prevent faceplanting. I used the IV hook to steady myself like Denikae did.

Now I went in at 6AM and they didn't let me get up and walk around until 1:30AM!!! So i was flat on my back for about 19 1/2 hrs. Actually til about 2A because I fell asleep until then. Getting up after lying so long made me feel like an extremely old person. So my length of time spent on my back reminded me of Rick's experience. my back survived better than I expected. Sore, but manageable.

Now I DID wake up with chest discomfort like Rick which gradually turned into downright painful. I could only breathe shallowly and changing positions hurt, etc. so I talked to the fellow who discharged me and he said i have endocarditis from burning through the heart to the lining which is now inflammed and causing this pain. He prescribed Motrin 400 mg three times a day for 3 days. I told him I'm on pradaxa and can't take motrin. he prescribed Prilosec too. (I'm already on pepcid). He said that will cut down the inflammation. I was thinking Rick said his chest pain was less and less, but mine was getting more and more. he said 1/3 of the people have this and it should go away in 3 days with the motrin. I hope so. Quite painful. I know what Rick was referring to now.I was also running a temp of about 100 degrees.

I'm staying the night in Cleveland. They want us to hang around the first night to make sure things are ok.

Now the next 3 mos will tell. the waiting game as some of you have experienced.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for the encouragement to get me to this point. Special thanks to yogacat's kind words. You are all such a supportive group!!