Aa
ablation
I am having my first ablation on December 4th. my doc gave me the low down but said that I wouldn't be put all the way out. Now im freaking out. what if i move does it hurt real bad im just really scared ill make them mess up can anyone explain mor e to me do they give u pain meds after the procedure i am a huge baby when it comes to pain.
I was like you and scared of having an EPS & ablation; even though I had other surgeries in the past. I put mine off a bit because I eeded to make sure one was warranted for my symptoms.
The meds they give you will leave you very happy, carefree & painfree - if you have pain or feel much let them know and they give you a bit more. They want you to be as relaxed as can be without knocking you out.
As with any surgery, there are risks and anything can happen. It's a decision I wish I had made sooner rather than later - I had malignant pvc's and could have died outside the hospital. I did have complications during surgery, but they took care of everything and I had no bruising on either leg or chest. After surgery they gave me a couple of shots for pain and nausea - the meds make me sick but that's because I hadn't eaten for 18 or so hours (surgery pushed back).
I went from over 54,000 pvc's to virtually none - which is amazing to think about. I had to have a cardiac cath & pacemaker/icd implanted a couple of days later due to my problems.
Good luck, and good thoughts
The meds they give you will leave you very happy, carefree & painfree - if you have pain or feel much let them know and they give you a bit more. They want you to be as relaxed as can be without knocking you out.
As with any surgery, there are risks and anything can happen. It's a decision I wish I had made sooner rather than later - I had malignant pvc's and could have died outside the hospital. I did have complications during surgery, but they took care of everything and I had no bruising on either leg or chest. After surgery they gave me a couple of shots for pain and nausea - the meds make me sick but that's because I hadn't eaten for 18 or so hours (surgery pushed back).
I went from over 54,000 pvc's to virtually none - which is amazing to think about. I had to have a cardiac cath & pacemaker/icd implanted a couple of days later due to my problems.
Good luck, and good thoughts
I had my ablation done on Nov 16, 2009. For me, the experience was rather easy. There was no pain before or after the procedure; the Dr. used my right leg/groin veins. I have had no pain at all in the area, just a lot of colorful bruising.
My procedure started at 2 and was done around 5. The hospital discharge was at 9:30pm that night. The drugs during the procedure did relax me, and I know that I napped a few times. I do remember a lot of the procedure, even watching the screens. However, I never felt any pain. I think the hardest part for me was keeping my leg still for 4 hours afterwords, but my mp3 player helped. I am now 6 days (22 Nov) from the procedure, and have resumed all normal activities. So far, everything is going well, and I guess you could say that I had a "good" experience.
I have a followup with my surgeon in late Dec., and another appt. with my regular cardiologist in Mar. They did do a "wound check" on Friday, and everything is healing well. Anyway, I can only speak for my experience, and say that I only experience a little soreness. Nothing I had to take anything for.
My procedure started at 2 and was done around 5. The hospital discharge was at 9:30pm that night. The drugs during the procedure did relax me, and I know that I napped a few times. I do remember a lot of the procedure, even watching the screens. However, I never felt any pain. I think the hardest part for me was keeping my leg still for 4 hours afterwords, but my mp3 player helped. I am now 6 days (22 Nov) from the procedure, and have resumed all normal activities. So far, everything is going well, and I guess you could say that I had a "good" experience.
I have a followup with my surgeon in late Dec., and another appt. with my regular cardiologist in Mar. They did do a "wound check" on Friday, and everything is healing well. Anyway, I can only speak for my experience, and say that I only experience a little soreness. Nothing I had to take anything for.
I've had one EP Study (about 8 years ago) and one ablation (just 2 1/2 months ago) and was VERY apprehensive, as well as skeptical, about having both procedures, yet they basically went just fine.
For the EP study, which took only a couple of hours, I was given Versed and fentanyl (like Ireneo) which is a very common drug combination for these procedures. Most people just float along and remember little, if any of their procedure and rarely report feeling pain with these two drugs. I did have some times where I could feel my heart racing, but I just wasn't worried about it and as soon as I would say to the docs something like, "Well, there it goes again..." they would put me out with more drugs. So I was occasionally aware of it when it was happening, but not worried or frightened about it. For that procedure, the catheters were put only in my neck, arms and clavicle areas, so there was no groin pain, although my neck was mildly sore for a few days afterward. For most people the versed/fentanyl combination really makes the procedure quite tolerable. Other than a little soreness in my neck, I had no other pain.
During the actual ablation, which was 6.5 hours long, at my request I was given an alternative and slightly different acting sedative called propofol as I am one of the rare patients who is not a big fan of the versed/fentanyl combo -- I just didn't care for it. I expected the propofol to be used as a "push" -- only when inserting the catheters, doing the actual ablative freezes, etc., as I was looking forward to being a part of what was happening with my body during the procedure. However, after a wonderful pre-op experience where everyone was so kind, very professional and constantly reassuring, they took me into the EP lab, put me on the table -- which had these wonderful, cushioned, soft and electronically WARMED snuggle pads that wrapped up around me to make me feel all warm, safe and "cocooned" (rather that using restraints) -- and they started running the propofol into my IV and that's the LAST thing I remember until I woke up on the way back to post-op. Within a few minutes after that, again at my request, I was back with my family in my private room with nurses checking on me, rubbing my back, feet, shoulders and neck. Right after the procedure I felt a bit like I had been hit by a mac truck, but I had no particular or specific pain in any part of my body -- just really tired and probably pretty wiped out from all the sedation plus the drugs they used (isoproteronal and adensosine) to make sure I had not hidden pathways and that they had fully ablated my accessory pathway. They gave me a mild benzodiazapine tranquilizer to help keep me calm and still (you generally have to lie still on your back for several hours after wards) and they did give me some fairly stong pain meds, which I'm not sure I needed, but which may have kept me more comfortable. I slept through most of that first day and went home late the next afternoon with only some mild soreness in my groin where the put the biggest catheters. The worst pain for me was the 5 seconds when they pulled out the urinary catheter -- and even that wasn't bad as it was all very quick, just a bit of a surprise as I had never had one before.
For some patients with specific types of arrhythmias, they can't give certain meds or too much sedation as it can interfere with the arrhythmia then they can't map and ablate it properly. Some facilities and docs have a particular way of doing things -- either using lots of meds or not using much sedation at all, and some base their medication approach on each patient and each case. Apparently my pathway was so obvious (I had already had an EP study earlier) and they knew it would take a long time since I requested cryo-ablation, and I had already discussed my preferences for proporol with my team, so they just decided keep me sedated and bascially "out" for the whole time. While I had asked for the propofol, I forgot to ask to be awake for some of it and one of my only regrets is that I missed most of it!
Be sure and let your docs and nurses know what your concerns are BEFORE your procedure so you can work things out with them, know what to expect and not be quite so worried. Remember, it's their job to keep you safe AND comfortable as well as treat your arrhythmia. Good luck and best wishes!
For the EP study, which took only a couple of hours, I was given Versed and fentanyl (like Ireneo) which is a very common drug combination for these procedures. Most people just float along and remember little, if any of their procedure and rarely report feeling pain with these two drugs. I did have some times where I could feel my heart racing, but I just wasn't worried about it and as soon as I would say to the docs something like, "Well, there it goes again..." they would put me out with more drugs. So I was occasionally aware of it when it was happening, but not worried or frightened about it. For that procedure, the catheters were put only in my neck, arms and clavicle areas, so there was no groin pain, although my neck was mildly sore for a few days afterward. For most people the versed/fentanyl combination really makes the procedure quite tolerable. Other than a little soreness in my neck, I had no other pain.
During the actual ablation, which was 6.5 hours long, at my request I was given an alternative and slightly different acting sedative called propofol as I am one of the rare patients who is not a big fan of the versed/fentanyl combo -- I just didn't care for it. I expected the propofol to be used as a "push" -- only when inserting the catheters, doing the actual ablative freezes, etc., as I was looking forward to being a part of what was happening with my body during the procedure. However, after a wonderful pre-op experience where everyone was so kind, very professional and constantly reassuring, they took me into the EP lab, put me on the table -- which had these wonderful, cushioned, soft and electronically WARMED snuggle pads that wrapped up around me to make me feel all warm, safe and "cocooned" (rather that using restraints) -- and they started running the propofol into my IV and that's the LAST thing I remember until I woke up on the way back to post-op. Within a few minutes after that, again at my request, I was back with my family in my private room with nurses checking on me, rubbing my back, feet, shoulders and neck. Right after the procedure I felt a bit like I had been hit by a mac truck, but I had no particular or specific pain in any part of my body -- just really tired and probably pretty wiped out from all the sedation plus the drugs they used (isoproteronal and adensosine) to make sure I had not hidden pathways and that they had fully ablated my accessory pathway. They gave me a mild benzodiazapine tranquilizer to help keep me calm and still (you generally have to lie still on your back for several hours after wards) and they did give me some fairly stong pain meds, which I'm not sure I needed, but which may have kept me more comfortable. I slept through most of that first day and went home late the next afternoon with only some mild soreness in my groin where the put the biggest catheters. The worst pain for me was the 5 seconds when they pulled out the urinary catheter -- and even that wasn't bad as it was all very quick, just a bit of a surprise as I had never had one before.
For some patients with specific types of arrhythmias, they can't give certain meds or too much sedation as it can interfere with the arrhythmia then they can't map and ablate it properly. Some facilities and docs have a particular way of doing things -- either using lots of meds or not using much sedation at all, and some base their medication approach on each patient and each case. Apparently my pathway was so obvious (I had already had an EP study earlier) and they knew it would take a long time since I requested cryo-ablation, and I had already discussed my preferences for proporol with my team, so they just decided keep me sedated and bascially "out" for the whole time. While I had asked for the propofol, I forgot to ask to be awake for some of it and one of my only regrets is that I missed most of it!
Be sure and let your docs and nurses know what your concerns are BEFORE your procedure so you can work things out with them, know what to expect and not be quite so worried. Remember, it's their job to keep you safe AND comfortable as well as treat your arrhythmia. Good luck and best wishes!
I've had 3 ablations and my experiences have been pretty much pain free. Initially they gave tiny little shots to numb the groin area where they inserted the catheters. Then they gave me Versed through my IV. That is wonderful stuff. I just floated away, kind of awake, kind of not. And after it was all over, my few fuzzy memories of what happened disappeared. During the ablation itself, they used fentanyl for any pain that might come.
They do use some soft restraints on the wrists and ankles but as I said, thanks to the happy drugs, I wasn't interested in moving around. I mostly dozed off. During the first ablation I was aware enough that I could feel my heart kick into tachycardia. But that's nothing new. That's why I was there.
Most likely your ablation will go just fine. They're not out to hurt you; they want to get it fixed.
They do use some soft restraints on the wrists and ankles but as I said, thanks to the happy drugs, I wasn't interested in moving around. I mostly dozed off. During the first ablation I was aware enough that I could feel my heart kick into tachycardia. But that's nothing new. That's why I was there.
Most likely your ablation will go just fine. They're not out to hurt you; they want to get it fixed.
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Let me get some help "rolling" even if I haven't had an ablation. I have had a couple of heart catheter exams (angiograms) that are not anything like an ablation can be time-wise, but they have some similarity. I did not find those exams painful.
I am (almost sure, check with your doctor) sure you will be given at least local anesthetic, as needed, and a relaxant - and I can say I've had relaxants that put me out.
Be sure, they know what they are doing and they would not leave you in pain and hope that you stay still.
I am (almost sure, check with your doctor) sure you will be given at least local anesthetic, as needed, and a relaxant - and I can say I've had relaxants that put me out.
Be sure, they know what they are doing and they would not leave you in pain and hope that you stay still.
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