Hi friends,
Thanks for the card, wishes, thoughts, prayers and hugs. Here's an update:
My ablation was yesterday (Thursday March 1) at Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara, CA. I can say that I was looking forward to getting this event behind me and had researched much about the procedure, my doctors and their practices. Being well informed made me aware of the risks, but also gave me a good confidence in my ablation because I heard a lot of good answers about how my ablation was going to be performed. The basic strategy was that a PVI (Pulmonary vein isolation) would occur as a matter of practice for paroxsysmal A-Fib. The numbers prove this to be a good starting point for a good result. Other areas would also be checked and additional ablation would occur if indicated. In all, six sites were ablated in my case and both right and left atria had ablated areas. The main complication for me at this time, is a high level of chest pain. I am taking vicodin which helps a bit. If I bend or lay down or breath any more than very
shallow, the pain level is pretty strong. I am told this is not unusual, given the extent of my ablations and the possibility of inflamed tissue.
I hope this will abate over the next week as I'm told it should.
The TEE was not required but they did perform an "INTRACARDIAC ultrasound" to check for any suspicious appearances of clotting. This was the largest of the five cathers used. I had three punctures in my right groin and two in my left groin.
I checked in at 8:30 am and was flat on my back from late morning until 2:00 AM TODAY. After my ablation I had to lay flat and then after pulling out the sheathes from the punctures at 7:00 pm I had to continue to lay flat until 2:00 AM. As each sheath was removed, 15 minutes of pressure was applied so this uncomfortable process took more than one hour. I did not sleep nor could I due to the pain coming from my back. I did have a towel under my lower back for support but this alone was not enough to help overcome my sciatica
and lower back pain. Even after two vicodins and 30mg of restoril I was still unable to sleep due to the pain.
I think we no longer need waterboarding if we can give ablations to people lol! The good news was that after I was able to reposition at 2:00 AM my back pain dissapated, leaving me only with the chest pain. I did have some throat pain due to the temperature probe which
was put down my throat into the esophagus. The purpose of this was to help reduce likelyhood of fistula by monitoring the temperature in the esophagus. My throat pain didn't last too long because I ate jello and drank water to keep it moist. The Stereotaxis system was used
for portions of the procedure with those magnetic cathers designed for it, other parts are done using manually operated catheters. Steretaxis is not a complete system for all ablations, rather it is a
tool to help with many parts of it. 50W thermocool catheters were used, mostly at 25-40 watts of power. I'm a lot more comfortable having a good ablation with lower power settings than with high powered catheters that can cause more damage if improperly used.
I was very happy with the staff at Kaiser, they provided me with great service and support, no matter what I asked for. I had a private room which included a convertable chair/bed for my wife to sleep in and I was glad she was there with me in recovery.
I don't remember anything my EP Dr told me after the procedure (I was still groggy) so I don't have all details yet but the assistants were extremely helpful in answering my many many questions. I think we had nearly a 1 hour discussion before I signed the consent form. The
consent form did indicate the option for teaching but I amended that part with their agreement and they told me their plan was that only the staff we already agreed upon would be participating in my ablation. They had one fellow Dr. there but he would only be observing.
I'm having someone drive us home tomorrow (I'm at a hotel near the hospital tonight).
My main concern at this point is the level of chest pain. I haven't slept hardly at all for two nights, maybe tonight will be the night for it.
Someone here posted about bringing an IPod. I don't have one, but I did bring my nook tablet with a set of headphones. The internet access in the hospital worked great so I was able to listed to music and watch Netflix movies from my bed while passing the time. It was great having my wife there to help assist me with things like that.
Thanks again everyone for being on my support team!.