Mike's Ablation - play by play

[Michael47]

Ok- So here's how my ablation went down...the whole story.
I was scheduled for Wed at 6:30 am check-in at Loyola University Hospital in Chicago. I woke up at 5:00 and my heart was racing. I was at 130/bpm when I awoke. (maybe I was stressed) As I sat up and started to get dressed my heart went even faster. I told my wife I was in SVT and maybe I needed an ambulance. She said NO. You'll be fine, we're going to Loyola. Get dressed.
So...I got dressed. And my heart rate slowed down. Still really high but the fact that it went down made me think I could handle it. Drove to the hospital. I was real quiet. Thinking about everything, pain, mortality, stroke, you name it.
When we arrived another man was there checking in about 75 years old named Joe. I went into the prep room and put on the gown. A doctor came in about 10 minutes later to answer any questions I had. Shook my hand – crushed it, then crushed my wife’s hand. I said "pretty safe procedure?" he said "oh yeah", "How many have you done?" " about 300" Then I said 'I really don't want a pacemaker, and I'll do everything to avoid a stroke" (Like I could do anything) he gave me the percentages and the scary news about complications etc. but backed it up with "verrrry rarely, harrrrdly ever and I should be fiiiine....sign here" Then he marked both sides of my groin with a sharpie 'X' and said - see you in there. Meanwhile a nurse sticks an IV in my left hand. My wife jokingly.asks for some pain meds for her hand
While I waited Joe was in the bed beside me behind the curtain. He had a pacemaker, defibrillator, angina, you name it, he had it, and I heard all about it.
About 15 minutes later. (these are long minutes) a nurse came in and said. "Ok Mike, get up" and we walked into the lab about 20 feet away. I'm looking around at the monitors and they tell me to get on the table. Start shaving a patch of hair off my chest and sticking every electrode imaginable on me and also some big patches.(defibrillator I later learned) Blood pressure on my right arm, IV in my left hand, they proceed to wrap me up. they take 2 foam pads and rest my arms in them and strap me around the chest. Can't move. Strap my legs too. Then I get the first dose of Versed and Fentenyl...feel a little light headed but no "la la land" I say " maybe I should have some more" nurse says " maybe a bit later" I'm totally coherent, asking a ton of questions. Doctor hand crusher walks in and says “you’re going to feel a bit of a bee sting as he sticks the needles in my right and left groin. It did hurt, big bees but not terrible at all.
He then fits me with the catheter tubes and I didn’t feel that at all. Two large x-ray devices were pointed at my chest and the nurses started ripping open a bunch of packages and dumping the catheters onto the table. They then said that they’d give me some more meds and they did. I felt a little more dizzy, but I told them I was still WIDE awake…I think they started getting annoyed because they told me that I needed to be conscious during the procedure in order for it to work. Dr. Crusher came back in and worked around my groin for about five minutes. I looked up on the monitor and saw the x-ray of my chest with three catheters in my heart. He looked down and asked if I was okay; I asked if those catheters were in me and he said, “yep.” I didn’t feel any pain or discomfort what so ever—not even any pressure. After he left and went into the adjacent, glass-enclosed room—I could see them working on me—he told me that they were going to start pacing me and that I should relax because everything that was going to happen was controlled. Moments later my heart rate shot up to what felt like 300 beats per minute, ridiculously fast. Then it stopped and I felt a big thump, followed by a normal pace. I could see the catheters in the monitors; I could see when they moved them. It felt like they paced different parts of my heart. Perhaps that’s not what really happened, but that’s what it felt like. Dr. Crusher came back in, and, through a speaker, Dr. Santucci, gave him coordinates for the placement of the catheters. So I started talking to Dr. Crusher: how am I doing; how’s it going? A nurse came up to me and told me to please not ask the doctor a lot of questions because he has to concentrate on what he’s doing. The doctor left to pace my heart again. The next thing I know is they are unwrapping me, wheeling me out of the room, and telling me the procedure was finished. Dr. Santucci told me that they got it. He told me they were able to induce the SVT, that there were two ablations, and they were successful. However, when they wheeled me out I was in a-fib. I converted to normal sinus rhythm about 20 minutes later. Apparently, I went into a-fib during the second ablation and they knocked me out, tried to cardio-vert me back to normal rhythm, but I stayed in a-fib and they let me convert on my own. That concerned me, but the nurse said that was not uncommon for them to have to use the defibrillator. The doctor felt very strongly that my SVT caused the a-fib because I had what he called atrial-flutter. Didn’t speak to him too much after that, and they decided to keep me overnight for precaution.
The procedure took almost 7 hours! I never noticed the time at all—it felt like 30-minutes in Mike time. I was told to lay still, not to move my legs or lift my head for 6 hours! I now totally agree that was the worst part of the procedure. The nurse told my wife " your husband sure talks allot"
My lower back was absolutely killing me. My wife was trying to massage my back and stick some towels at the small of my back to relieve the pressure. When they wheeled me up to my room, I was introduced to my roommate, yep…Joe. Nice guy. We talked a lot. The nurses stuck a holster monitor on me and I had the best turkey sandwich ever; I was so hungry. My heart felt calm. A few skips, but nothing alarming. I didn’t sleep a wink all night; I was put back on my beta-blocker for 30 days as a precautionary measure.  In the morning one of the doctors on the team stopped by and told me that everything went very well, that no blood-work was necessary, and that I could go home. I’m to see Santucci in one month and they’ll wean me off the BB then. I’ve been walking around like Tim Conway (old man from “The Carol Burnett Show”) for the last couple of days.
A couple of points:
Don’t eat a lot when you get home; I felt very woozy after eating. You need to ease back.
I do feel very tired.
My upper back and chest is sore, but I was told that was to be expected. And my groin is tender. (no pun intended)
No big heart bumps...just the odd skip.
In summary, I’m so glad I did it. The procedure confirmed some of the concerns I had pertaining to many of the incidents I had over the past couple of years. That it wasn’t all anxiety related and I wasn’t losing my mind.
Again, thank you to everyone on this site for helping me.
Mike

PS- Dr Crusher was actually  Dr. Shapirra. Nice guy really

[rosetoes]

Thanks for the blow by blow account....glad that all went well.  I don't think I would have liked being awake though....different hospitals, differents rules/methods.

Anyway your account of Dr. Crusher was humorus...rest and you'll be ready for golf very soon.

Take Care,
Rose

[pg1949]

Enjoyed reading your summary.  It brought back a lot of similar memories.  My husband was more scared than me, I think, and he was having the front desk call back to the lab about every hour.  I can remember hearing a phone ring and listening to the nurses telling him that everything was going along just fine.  Anyway, just wanted to wish you well.  It only took me a week and I was completely back to my self.  You'll be golfing before you know it.
Pam

[sueinns]

Thanks for the detailed run-down.  Mine was only two hours and I had two ablations as well.  I think the longer you are on the drugs, etc. the longer your recovery with respect to feeling tired, etc.  I only had two doses of drugs and was back doing light exercises two days post-procedure.  

Hmmm - it must be written somewhere that turkey sandwiches must be served afterwards.  That's what I had too.

Keep us posted on your recovery.

[ireneo]

Good job telling the story. Yep, the ride to the hospital is a quiet, scary time. My first ablation was similar in that I was just awake enough to watch the screen and see the 4 catheters floating around in my heart. Only it was surreal, more like watching the discovery channel, not my own heart. This isn't a competition but between all 3 of my ablations my heart was zapped 38 times. That's a lot of BBQ. But it was worth it. Laying flat is hard on the back. My last time they cranked up the head of my bed just a tiny bit and that made a world of difference. My lower body and groin were still pretty darn flat. And it must be routine to feed the patient a turkey sandwich when they're done. That's what I got too. Take care of yourself the next few days. You'll be dancing soon.

[dredg]

Thanks bud.  So you planning on going golfing soon just to show this thing who's boss? HAHA

My first episode was 1 yr ago from the 25th of this month.  I was 50lbs heavier, drank way too much, and in poor overall health (all at the age of 29).  I had a late night party with some of my friends.  I woke up to my heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, and my arms felt like they were being ripped out of their sockets.  I was rushed to he ER, by my wife, with a 180BPM and was administered adenosine which forced it to stop.  Cardiologist wanted me to stop drinking, exercise, and eat right to see if my health improved and the symptoms would lesson.  
I did that, lost 50lbs, and havent' had more than a 1/4 of a beer since that night.  
This last episode (2 weeks ago) I was battling a cold, coughed and my heart started up again.  This time it was a piece of cake.  Sure my heart was pumping away but no other symptoms. I just sat there for about 20 minutes drinking water and was able to stop it by bearing down.  I haven't been on any medications until this last episode.  I'm now taking flecainide which is a terrible drug, makes me pissy and tired.  Oh well it's only temporary.

So here I am waiting, waiting ,waiting.  I talked to my surgeon last Friday.  He graduated from Stanford where He learned all about ablations.  He's young (40) but has performed over 1000 ablations.  He works 4 days/week and 3 ablations/day so I'm pretty confident in him.  When he told me he did 3/day I asked him if he worked 24 hrs a day because these can last up to 8 hrs.  He says his average time is 1.5-3 hrs when dealing with WPW and SVT.  Guess Well see.....

Hope I get a Joe to talk my ear off before the procedure. funny stuff.

Get some rest and hope your can hit the golf course soon.

Brandon

[Michael47]

Hey Brandon,
I actually started with classic SVT my first episode. I was on the golf course and just finished a diet Coke and I hit my shot to the green and noticed a skipped beat or 2. Then when I got to the green it started racing really fast. I made the putt for birdie and told my buddy to call 911. The paramedics clocked me at 264 bpm. One of them said "wow" when he saw that and that scared me. But I flipped into Afib at the hospital and converted a few hours later on my own. I never had a specific incident again until I was...yep...golfing. This time in Houston last October, almost 2 years later. I drank a couple Propel waters. And about the 8th hole I felt the skipped beats, then it went reall fast again and I said "Sh*t, here it is again" And it quickly went into afib again. I corrected with meds in the hospital in about 2 hours Both times I was diagnosed as SVT. And my EP said it's probably SVT triggering afib. It's possible I could have both but he said he was able to induce it and ablate it as atrial flutter which has a tendency to flip.
One thing. my heart may have acted up many times over the past 2 years and I may have thought it was anxiety and nerves, but I now think some of it was electrical. Symptoms included racing heart, thumping heart, skipping beats, sometimes back to back each minute for a week, (but not when I went to bed...strange) Sometimes on and off each day. Then months with nothing at all. Never lightheaded, never passed out, no pain ever. Tolerated meds well. I was on 100mg Toprol XL once a day and a regiment aspirin. Never had an issue with the BB. (but I gained 50 pounds in 2 years, afraid to exercise)

Let me know if you need anything else. I'm rooting for ya Brandon.

Mike

[Momto3]

OMYGOSH!!  Great summary!!  Except for not being in lala land, my prep stuff and the stuff I can remember was almost identical.  6 - 7 hours for each procedure and I think 4 hours with the sandbag!  AND, I was starving too!!  Funny thing is....turkey sandwich ; )

All in all it sounds like everything went well and you'll be enjoying your family and not worrying about SVT!!!  

Your  story will help many others behind you!!  

Congrats Mike!!

P.S. I love the part about Dr. Crusher ; 0

Connie

[dredg]

Wow, sounds like things went well, other than a couple of hiccups.  

So not to get too personal but how often did you have symptoms?  Did you normally have atrial fib or was this the first?

Glad to hear your story, I'll be posting mine in about 3.5 weeks!