Cardiac Ablation?

[marissa]

Has anyone had one? I need to have one done and am looking for information.

[stingsharkruns]

DH had it done in 2007. He has/had supraventriculartachycardia (SVT). What is that you want to know?

Here is a link to the Ablation page from the Surgeon that did his procedure. www.flheart.org/heart-arrhythmia


some background on DH: He's had SVT since he was a kid (elem school). Never had insurance to have it taken care of. Didn't effect his quality of life until 2006/2007. The "attacks" started getting more frequent and more intense.

(By attack I mean; his heart would race [200+BPM] and this would go on for several minutes. He blacked out once or twice. Vomited after it stopped racing. He could usually bear down and make it stop, but sometimes it didn't work and he would just have to let it run it's course)

The final straw was it happened one day while he was at work when he was 40ft in the air. He had to walk down the cement plant, while having an attack and lay on the ground. He told someone to call 911.. That was the first time that he was actually scared, he says. Prior to this he had actually seen a cardiologist who put him on a holter moniter, but was never able to catch the "attack" on the monitor. He was put on anothe rmonitor and we were finally able to get an attack on the monitor. He had surgery about 2.5mths later.

He hasn't had an attack since. He doesn't take any medication. Nothing about his life changed except he doesn't have the attacks anymore

[smsm24]

DH had one for WPW last year it was day surgery and he was fine the next day - he had it done on Thursday abd was back at work on Monday abd back on the bike within 2 weeks. He never had symptoms before but they found it on an ekg and he says that he notices the difference now that it's fixed.

[stingsharkruns]

Oh, I think DH went back to work after a week (i think). But his job is very physical so that could be why.

[marissa]

I am calling the doctor who my cardiologist said to set it up with on Monday. He told me to set it up on Friday afternoon. I am having SVTs as well and they are really scary! I feel like I'm having a heart attack and it's happening regularly! I joke and tell everyone that I have a stressful job. I am a stay at home mom of 4 boys and 3 of them have autism.

[stingsharkruns]

Jun 16, 2012 16:56:20 GMT -5 marissa said:

I am calling the doctor who my cardiologist said to set it up with on Monday. He told me to set it up on Friday afternoon. I am having SVTs as well and they are really scary! I feel like I'm having a heart attack and it's happening regularly! I joke and tell everyone that I have a stressful job. I am a stay at home mom of 4 boys and 3 of them have autism.

Good Luck!

MH said that caffeine and really hot days would trigger his attacks.. The day we caught the attack we were in the Bahamas. He was diving for lobster when it started. I was asleep on the boat; he jumped on the boat and told me to find the monitor bc he was having an attack. THAT was scary!! It lasted for a long time and we were out on the boat.

[marissa]

I have noticed that soda is a trigger. I have experimented with how much is safe for me and noticed I can handle 1 a day and I've been drinking a lot of lemonade and water lately. I NEED something to help me with my energy since I'm falling asleep more quickly lately. I used to go to sleep around 1 am and was up for the day around 7 but now I'm usually down by 9:30/10:15.

I have too much to get done and am not able to get done what I need. This has really slowed everything down lately. My house looks like a mess, the kids are eating a lot more quick, easy meals, etc. I usually do everything home made since my youngest son has an allergy to soy. It is still home made but it is really easy meals lately. I've not been able to read and do my book reviews for my magazine and I'm trying to get some things pulled for the advocacy group I'm VP of and I can't.

I tried meds and they aren't able to control everything and I'm having crappy side effects from them. I had dry mouth/thirst/cough, heart flutters, and zero sex drive. They are switching me to a new med until the surgery. Mine are lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I can't parent when they happen.

[stingsharkruns]

Jun 16, 2012 20:55:02 GMT -5 marissa said:

I have noticed that soda is a trigger. I have experimented with how much is safe for me and noticed I can handle 1 a day and I've been drinking a lot of lemonade and water lately. I NEED something to help me with my energy since I'm falling asleep more quickly lately. I used to go to sleep around 1 am and was up for the day around 7 but now I'm usually down by 9:30/10:15.

I have too much to get done and am not able to get done what I need. This has really slowed everything down lately. My house looks like a mess, the kids are eating a lot more quick, easy meals, etc. I usually do everything home made since my youngest son has an allergy to soy. It is still home made but it is really easy meals lately. I've not been able to read and do my book reviews for my magazine and I'm trying to get some things pulled for the advocacy group I'm VP of and I can't.

I tried meds and they aren't able to control everything and I'm having crappy side effects from them. I had dry mouth/thirst/cough, heart flutters, and zero sex drive. They are switching me to a new med until the surgery. Mine are lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I can't parent when they happen.

WOW! That is a really long time to have an elevated HR. DHs last 5-10 minutes.

Well Good Luck with everything! I hope you are able to get a scheduled quickly & get some relief.


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[seventeen]

My dad also had SVT and had an ablation a couple years ago. He had a few days of recovery and was back to work.

[amyb2332]

I had an ablation in 2005. I started noticing the SVT about a year prior. I was diagnosed and we tried to control / prevent with medicine. It worked for a while but then got quite bad. I finally decided to have the ablation after an attack at work that ended with my mom having to come pick me up and me being wheeled out to the parking lot.

The ablation though was very smooth. I went in on a Friday. We had been told the procedure could take a while because they would need to pinpoint the exact spot causing the SVT. However, by that point my heart rhythm was pretty much always going up down up down (with the severe attack through in every week or so) mine was easy to pinpoint. So I had a pretty short procedure!

I will add that I did have to stay overnight (it was supposed to be outpatient). I recovered for about 4 hours and was fine (although I was just laying down and mostly sleeping) but when they started to prep me to leave I kept fainting. So I stayed over night and went home the next day. I think I went back to work on Monday but still didn't feel great and only worked a half day. I went back to work full days on Tuesday or Wednesday (I can't remember which now)

Overall, it was a really good decision for me. No impact on my life at all for 7 years now except that I no longer have the attacks! The procedure itself was very pain-free for me (I don't think I ever even filled the pain prescription they gave me). The one weird side affect (effect?) was a sort of itchy feeling like you get when you have a scab, except this was inside my chest on my heart. But that just lasted for a few weeks or so post-procedure. My doctor told me that was normal.

Good luck!