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What to expect post-op SVT ablation surgery
OK, I am gettin ready to have ablation surgery for SVT. What should I expect post-op? I am seriously freaking out about this. I have never had SVT until 9 months ago when I took Sudafed. My doctor says that I was born with SVT and that the Sudafed just triggered it. Does anyone have any words of wisdom?
Had my ablation at Penn Presbyterian on May 23rd. Have been in and out of rythym since september of 2010...a result of undiagnosed sleep apnea. Stayed in rhythm till december of 2011 Had a cardioversion. All was good for two moths then wham. An arguement with my husband sent me right back into rapid unrythmic heartbeats. My cardiologist sent me to a well-known EP in hopes I would qualify for the procedure.
We got there at the prescribed time. They did an INR and my coumadin lvel was 1.8 so he decided to do a TEE to see of there were any clots in my heart. The op room was frigid. I got into the op room at12 ish and never came out until 8:30 pm. My body felt like it was hit by a truck from being frozen on the table for all those hours. Mythroat was the real victim fromthe TEE and the esophogeal tube. Even my teeth hurt. Still! I am not feeling bad if i am sitting doing nothing but moving around makes me winded and then anxiety kicks in making me worse. I am hoping to get energy back and not be breathless real soon. Have felt some occasional lightheadedness. And have an irritating cough - especia.ly when sleeping or
trying to. Can anyone tell me when im goingto feel like a functioning person again? My main complaint is that no one tells you how you're going to feel afterward and what to expect. Im even afraid to take my pulse in case its still weird. I understand only 80% are successful and am afraid i'll be in the 20%ers. Is thisbreath problem normal after the op?
We got there at the prescribed time. They did an INR and my coumadin lvel was 1.8 so he decided to do a TEE to see of there were any clots in my heart. The op room was frigid. I got into the op room at12 ish and never came out until 8:30 pm. My body felt like it was hit by a truck from being frozen on the table for all those hours. Mythroat was the real victim fromthe TEE and the esophogeal tube. Even my teeth hurt. Still! I am not feeling bad if i am sitting doing nothing but moving around makes me winded and then anxiety kicks in making me worse. I am hoping to get energy back and not be breathless real soon. Have felt some occasional lightheadedness. And have an irritating cough - especia.ly when sleeping or
trying to. Can anyone tell me when im goingto feel like a functioning person again? My main complaint is that no one tells you how you're going to feel afterward and what to expect. Im even afraid to take my pulse in case its still weird. I understand only 80% are successful and am afraid i'll be in the 20%ers. Is thisbreath problem normal after the op?
Had my ablation at Penn Presbyterian on May 23rd. Have been in and out of rythym since september of 2010...a result of undiagnosed sleep apnea. Stayed in rhythm till december of 2011 Had a cardioversion. All was good for two moths then wham. An arguement with my husband sent me right back into rapid unrythmic heartbeats. My cardiologist sent me to a well-known EP in hopes I would qualify for the procedure.
We got there at the prescribed time. They did an INR and my coumadin lvel was 1.8 so he decided to do a TEE to see of there were any clots in my heart. The op room was frigid. I got into theop room at12 ish and never came out until 8:30 pm. My body felt like it was hit by a truck.
We got there at the prescribed time. They did an INR and my coumadin lvel was 1.8 so he decided to do a TEE to see of there were any clots in my heart. The op room was frigid. I got into theop room at12 ish and never came out until 8:30 pm. My body felt like it was hit by a truck.
On perhaps 5-10 occasions during the first 36 years of my life, I had what I now realize where episodes of SVT – extremely fast heartbeat and dizziness when trying to stand. Without knowing what the problem was, I simply kneeled down and held my breath and the symptoms went away.
The symptoms started again while I was on vacation in July 2011, specifically, while I was swimming in the ocean. This time the symptoms continued all day. An EKG measured one episode at 250bpm. I could always stop the episodes by holding my breath (rather than bearing down), but a few seconds or minutes later they would start again. They lasted for months in this manner and then, suddenly, went away for a month or so. I had an ablation procedure scheduled in March 2012. But the doctor’s office called to reschedule the night before. Because my symptoms had gone away at that time, I took this an excuse to put off the procedure indefinitely.
My symptoms returned the next time I went swimming in the ocean in April 2012. On some days in this later series of episodes, my symptoms would go away completely. But more often than not, I had symptoms all day. And this time, unlike previously, the rapid heat beat kept me awake at night. Sometimes the rapid beating was fast and powerful and I sweated profusely. Sometimes it was lighter and merely annoying. I didn’t measure my heart rate then, but still it was fast enough to keep me awake.
Ultimately, the lack of sleep is what forced me to have a catheter ablation yesterday, May 25, 2012. I didn't want to do it. I thought I could just avoid swimming in the ocean. But the doctor told me that while the trigger now is swimming, it could easy be something else in the future.
I arrived at the hospital at 9:00 for what was scheduled to be a 10:00 procedure. The procedure before mine, however, took longer than expected and my procedure didn’t start until 12:30. I waited hooked up to an IV. I was told not to eat or drink anything from midnight before the procedure, so I didn’t expect to have to use the restroom. But the IV necessitated three or four restroom trips. This was not an easy thing to do while wearing only a hospital gown and toting an IV station. Asking the nurse the turn down the drip helped a little, but I should have thought to schedule my procedure first so there would be no delay.
When the time came, I walked into a cold room with overhanging instruments and a bank of computer monitors. The room was so cold, I was told, because the cold temperature helped some of the equipment. Once I laid down, a team of technicians and assistants in masks and gowns moved quickly, strapping me down, fitting me with various monitors, shaving, wrapping and otherwise preparing me for the procedure. The last thing I remember is the anesthesiologist asking me what sort of music I wanted to listen to.
The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room around three hours after my procedure started. I had a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat - I think mostly due to the constant air conditioning required to give the room positive pressure which wards off any drifting bacteria. I also had a headache, but I was told that that was normal.
The doctor came in a few minutes after I woke up and told me she had the found the problem. There was an aberrant bit of tissue on the left side of my heart which created a short circuit in the normal electrical impulses. There is a more technical description of this, but that’s the general idea. I was afraid that because I didn’t have symptoms for a day or so before, they would not be able to find the problem – but they were able to activate the problem pathway. They had to go through the wall between the right and left sides of my heart, but that presented no special problem either.
The only complication was that one of the groin entry sites continued to bleed after recovery. A nurse had to press hard against the incision for 15 minutes. He apologized for the pain in advance – and it did hurt – but it was bearable and after 15 minutes the problem was fixed.
I went home at 7:30pm on the same day with four large bandages and covered in green dye – which I think was some sort of antibacterial treatment placed around the incision sites. I was told to be a couch potato for the next two days, after which time I can take up some light walking and chores. I can jog in a week. I feel perfectly fine right now; the restrictions are to ensure that the incision sites don’t start bleeding again.
My heart has not raced since the procedure. I was told to expect that I would occasionally feel as if I were going to go into SVT again but it would stop there – at the initial feeling with no actual SVT. That has happened a few times. But otherwise, I don’t even notice the beating of my heart anymore.
The worst part of the entire process was the anticipation, fear of the unknown, walking into that cold, strange room and surrendering all control over what happens to me. People with more experience as patients are probably used to this. But it was new to me. In any event, there was no need to worry. I have nothing but the highest praise for the professionals – from the doctors to the technicians to the admissions personnel – who played a role in the procedure. It still seems like magic: I went to sleep and when I woke up my heart problems were fixed. I can’t begin to imagine all of the medical science and technology that went into making the procedure so routine
The day before the procedure the hospital’s financial consultant called me to go over billing and insurance matters. The total cost was about $27,000.00. While that doesn’t seem like too high a price to fix a man’s heart, I’m thankful that my insurance covered most of it.
The symptoms started again while I was on vacation in July 2011, specifically, while I was swimming in the ocean. This time the symptoms continued all day. An EKG measured one episode at 250bpm. I could always stop the episodes by holding my breath (rather than bearing down), but a few seconds or minutes later they would start again. They lasted for months in this manner and then, suddenly, went away for a month or so. I had an ablation procedure scheduled in March 2012. But the doctor’s office called to reschedule the night before. Because my symptoms had gone away at that time, I took this an excuse to put off the procedure indefinitely.
My symptoms returned the next time I went swimming in the ocean in April 2012. On some days in this later series of episodes, my symptoms would go away completely. But more often than not, I had symptoms all day. And this time, unlike previously, the rapid heat beat kept me awake at night. Sometimes the rapid beating was fast and powerful and I sweated profusely. Sometimes it was lighter and merely annoying. I didn’t measure my heart rate then, but still it was fast enough to keep me awake.
Ultimately, the lack of sleep is what forced me to have a catheter ablation yesterday, May 25, 2012. I didn't want to do it. I thought I could just avoid swimming in the ocean. But the doctor told me that while the trigger now is swimming, it could easy be something else in the future.
I arrived at the hospital at 9:00 for what was scheduled to be a 10:00 procedure. The procedure before mine, however, took longer than expected and my procedure didn’t start until 12:30. I waited hooked up to an IV. I was told not to eat or drink anything from midnight before the procedure, so I didn’t expect to have to use the restroom. But the IV necessitated three or four restroom trips. This was not an easy thing to do while wearing only a hospital gown and toting an IV station. Asking the nurse the turn down the drip helped a little, but I should have thought to schedule my procedure first so there would be no delay.
When the time came, I walked into a cold room with overhanging instruments and a bank of computer monitors. The room was so cold, I was told, because the cold temperature helped some of the equipment. Once I laid down, a team of technicians and assistants in masks and gowns moved quickly, strapping me down, fitting me with various monitors, shaving, wrapping and otherwise preparing me for the procedure. The last thing I remember is the anesthesiologist asking me what sort of music I wanted to listen to.
The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room around three hours after my procedure started. I had a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat - I think mostly due to the constant air conditioning required to give the room positive pressure which wards off any drifting bacteria. I also had a headache, but I was told that that was normal.
The doctor came in a few minutes after I woke up and told me she had the found the problem. There was an aberrant bit of tissue on the left side of my heart which created a short circuit in the normal electrical impulses. There is a more technical description of this, but that’s the general idea. I was afraid that because I didn’t have symptoms for a day or so before, they would not be able to find the problem – but they were able to activate the problem pathway. They had to go through the wall between the right and left sides of my heart, but that presented no special problem either.
The only complication was that one of the groin entry sites continued to bleed after recovery. A nurse had to press hard against the incision for 15 minutes. He apologized for the pain in advance – and it did hurt – but it was bearable and after 15 minutes the problem was fixed.
I went home at 7:30pm on the same day with four large bandages and covered in green dye – which I think was some sort of antibacterial treatment placed around the incision sites. I was told to be a couch potato for the next two days, after which time I can take up some light walking and chores. I can jog in a week. I feel perfectly fine right now; the restrictions are to ensure that the incision sites don’t start bleeding again.
My heart has not raced since the procedure. I was told to expect that I would occasionally feel as if I were going to go into SVT again but it would stop there – at the initial feeling with no actual SVT. That has happened a few times. But otherwise, I don’t even notice the beating of my heart anymore.
The worst part of the entire process was the anticipation, fear of the unknown, walking into that cold, strange room and surrendering all control over what happens to me. People with more experience as patients are probably used to this. But it was new to me. In any event, there was no need to worry. I have nothing but the highest praise for the professionals – from the doctors to the technicians to the admissions personnel – who played a role in the procedure. It still seems like magic: I went to sleep and when I woke up my heart problems were fixed. I can’t begin to imagine all of the medical science and technology that went into making the procedure so routine
The day before the procedure the hospital’s financial consultant called me to go over billing and insurance matters. The total cost was about $27,000.00. While that doesn’t seem like too high a price to fix a man’s heart, I’m thankful that my insurance covered most of it.
Yes I have the same symptoms. I had an episode that lasted one hour a couple months ago and I was very exhausted for a week as well. I have also heard that the ablation is a very productive procedure from my cardiologist and am considering it but I am pretty nervous.
Update: called facility and was told that some post-op episodes were common as heart heals and to give it a few weeks but also to log events for MD f/u visit.
Hi Folks:
Lotsa varying info here. I had RFA yesterday with 6 burn sites. I had a 20+ year history of events that had escalated recently and caused me to stop flying as a precaution. (I'm 61 and in good shape.) My procedure was at Emory in Atlanta GA and I have to say that after 10 other various surgeries, this was by far the most "pleasant" experience I ever had for ANY medical procedure. The staff, techs, facility and MD couldn't have been nicer. I went in at 10 and was on my way home at 4:00. Meds used were Versed and Fentanel (sp?) and were just fine. No real pain or discomfort today (little groin soreness, some very slight chest pain but not needing any pain meds.) Only hitch was waking up last night with a brief event of SVT. I first tried to walk it off which didn't help and then used inversion technique noted below which stopped it immediatley. Not sure if that is common post-op for awhile and will check with MD today.
A tip I can pass along: while the Valsalva maneuver, oculocardiac reflex (pressing on eyes) and carotid reflex (pressing on carotid sinus in neck) can slow or reverese an event, I found the best method for me was an inversion table typically used for low back pain. If I could get on it within a few minutes of event starting, it stopped it 95% of the time.
Lotsa varying info here. I had RFA yesterday with 6 burn sites. I had a 20+ year history of events that had escalated recently and caused me to stop flying as a precaution. (I'm 61 and in good shape.) My procedure was at Emory in Atlanta GA and I have to say that after 10 other various surgeries, this was by far the most "pleasant" experience I ever had for ANY medical procedure. The staff, techs, facility and MD couldn't have been nicer. I went in at 10 and was on my way home at 4:00. Meds used were Versed and Fentanel (sp?) and were just fine. No real pain or discomfort today (little groin soreness, some very slight chest pain but not needing any pain meds.) Only hitch was waking up last night with a brief event of SVT. I first tried to walk it off which didn't help and then used inversion technique noted below which stopped it immediatley. Not sure if that is common post-op for awhile and will check with MD today.
A tip I can pass along: while the Valsalva maneuver, oculocardiac reflex (pressing on eyes) and carotid reflex (pressing on carotid sinus in neck) can slow or reverese an event, I found the best method for me was an inversion table typically used for low back pain. If I could get on it within a few minutes of event starting, it stopped it 95% of the time.
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