Anybody had a heart "ablation" done?

[S10xGN]

I have "atrial fibrillation" (AT) and I'm looking at getting this done within the next month or so and was wondering what your experience was like? For those that don't know, it's a corrective laser procedure that zaps an area of nerves in the heart that cause a second, abnormal heartbeat. Sometimes my heart rate runs 220 BPM, sometimes it's completely normal, and it can be very irregular at anytime (sometimes stopping for up to 5 seconds ) before starting up again.

TIA!

 

[buickpower]

I have WPW syndrome, which means my heart has an accessory nerve bundle that causes the a-v node to short circuit. Like you, sometimes out of the blue it would beat well over 200bpm at rest. I had a heart catherization to determine if it would go into fibrilation. What ended up happening was they put the electrode catheter into my heart and gave it a jolt of electricity to see if it would fibrilate. It did not, so I did not end up getting the nerve bundle ablated because the doctor said it was non life-threatening. I was awake but rather sedated during this process, and felt zero pain. I am told the ablation part of it doesn't hurt all that much, but that they sometimes have to go in through your other leg or your neck ocassionally. My doctor told me that in my case ablation was not necessary but i could have it done later if I wanted too or if it started to happen with annoying frequency.

 

[JOHNDEEREGN]

Russ

Check your email.

Ty

 

[S10xGN]

Well gents, it appears I'm cured! Got 'er done Monday and came home today. I can actually feel a pulse in my wrist now (well, I could before but you really had to hunt for it). Outside of a little chest pain when "deep breathing" and two femoral arteries that look like overcooked hotdogs, you'd never know it was done. Found out they had inserted six (instrument) sheaths between the 2 arteries and the procedure took 4 hours. The guy scheduled before me took 6 1/2 hours! St. Lukes hospital (Houston, TX) is awesome once your there, but getting there is definitely a blood pressure booster. The dreaded "self-injections" of heparin weren't as bad as I'd anticipated either...

 

[JOHNDEEREGN]

Great news Russ!!!!

Thats awesome. Keep me posted!!!!

Ty

Probably kinda nice not having any skipping beats isnt it!!

 

[S10xGN]

Yes, nice to feel a real pulse. I'll sit here and check it and the wife gets all nervous: "What's wrong, is it doing it again?" No, I'm just feeling what a real pulse feels like!

 

[87grandnat]

good for you man, glad to hear your ok!!!

 

[V6RACER]

My wife just had that done couple of weeks ago and everything has been fine ever since. Twice in the months before she woke up during the middle of the night and her heart was beating over 200bpms. So far so good.