Tag Archives: ablation

Matters of the Heart, Part 25

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This Friday is supposed to be the day. Hopefully it will be Ben’s last heart procedure for some time.

It’s been a long five weeks since the last one…you know, when he was supposed to get his new upgraded pacemaker. And didn’t.

Although he received a double ablation in preparation for the new pacemaker, these last few weeks haven’t been all that easy. There have continued to be problems, which are still going on even as I write this.

It actually began the night he came home from the ablation. Walking up the stairs that night the shortness of breath was back. And his heart rate was up to 90, although it was at 70 when we left the hospital. His weight was up to 171 and it had had been 167 when we were at the hospital. How did all that fluid that come back so quickly???? And his fingers were so swollen he couldn’t get his ring back on. And it hadn’t been like that at the hospital. The on-call PA said it was all normal and if it weren’t any better the next day to let them know.

And it was ok. UntilFriday morning when his Kardia app told him he was back in Afib….

It was back and forth like that for the next week, but he was at least able to go to work. He was terribly tired when he got home, but he did it.

Then on a Saturday 20 days after the procedure he got in the pool for the first time and tried to swim. He only went 1/4 of the length and was so short of breath we thought we were going to have to help get him out.

We went to an early dinner and when we got home he leaned over to pet the dogs and got extremely dizzy and lightheaded. We took his BP several times and it was 66/46!

Fortunately when we called the doctor’s office the PA on duty was his doctor’s PA, who knew all about his case. She emphasized his heart was still adjusting to the ablation and since his heart rate was fine, we shouldn’t panic. (Right!!) She told us to cut back on two of his meds because they tended to lower blood pressure. And to eat some salty food! Salt on a low sodium diet?

But we fixed him some salty popcorn which helped and his BP was up to 83/77 when we went to bed. The next morning it was normal.

It’s been back and forth like this for the last two weeks. He’s very tired when he gets home from work and still has to take a nap. The shortness of breath hasn’t gone away, and some days is worse than others. He still gets swelling in his abdomen even though he’s on double doses of fluid pills. His feet are swollen off and on.

Fortunately his heart rate has stayed fairly constant, with no signs of Afib. That’s a positive.

And of course with all of this going on, even though he’s been told by the doctor’s assistant that the new upgraded pacemaker will take care of all of this, he’s still not sure it will. And I don’t blame him.

There’s just been so much….

So this Friday is the day. So far. And hopefully the beginning of a calm period in our lives. A time to

start going places again without worrying if he’ll get too tired to enjoy himself. A time to only take his vital signs once a day instead of four. A time to be able to lift his granddaughters and our little dogs without shortness of breath.

Thank you for sharing this journey with us. And may there only be one or two more chapters of updates about heart surgeries and other cardiac procedures!

Stay tuned for Matters of the Heart, Part 26.

Matters of the Heart, Part 7

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By now you’ve determined that once a heart begins having problems, it’s likely to continue as you get older. Especially if that heart was damaged by illness or other problems.

But these heart issues also affect our emotions, as well as our physical bodies. It’s stressful, not only on the person actually experiencing the problems, but family and friends. It can change the course of your entire lives. It certainly has ours.

And it’s continuing to do so, and most likely will continue to do so for some time.

After the ablation procedure Ben had to take it easy for several days. He couldn’t pick up our yorkies, or our granddaughter. He couldn’t go back to work until the following week. He was told he’d probably be tired, and some of the new meds could have side effects such as making him tired, upsetting his stomach, severe headaches, dizziness, etc. But he had to keep taking them to prevent infection, and to help his heart heal from the surgery had been done.

And he experienced every one of those side effects. Of course. Which truly made him discouraged. “I went from one problem to another!”

The procedure had taken place on a Tuesday, with him coming home Wednesday morning. He stayed home taking it easy until Saturday, when he just felt like he needed to get out for awhile.

So we went to one of our favorite little artisan pizza restaurants which is only about 10 minutes from the house. We always sit at the bar so we can talk to their employees, plus we also get quicker service as well.

We had just gotten our drinks when it happened.

Ben suddenly got quiet, and his face went from a smile to grimace of pain. I asked him if he was all right, expecting his usual? “I’m fine.” Instead, he said no, as he held his right arm with excruciating pain shooting thru it. And slowly starting leaning to his right……

Not again….!!!

“Do you need to go to the hospital?!”

When he quickly agreed I knew this was worse than serious.

He didn’t want to wait for an ambulance, and since the hospital was almost just across the street, I hurriedly helped him out and got him in the car. We’d been happy when we’d parked that we actually found a space directly in front of the restaurant; now I was more than grateful for that, because we didn’t have to go far to get him to the car, and I didn’t have time to ask for help!

I drove as quickly as I could to get him to the ER, telling him the whole time “Stay with me! Stay with me! We’re almost there!” And if a police officer had tried to stop me, well we’d have just had a police escort to the ER and I’d deal with it later! And fortunately I hit no red lights and traffic was light.

In five minutes I’d pulled up to the hospital, hit the flashers, and ran into the ER like a crazy person yelling my husband was having a heart attack and pointed to where my car was. I’m sure the staff is used to such things, and they had him in a wheelchair and in a room quicker than I could imagine. Thankfully. And yes, I did have enough presence of mind to move the car.

When I got back inside it was a flashback of those several years previously with all the wires and machines being quickly hooked up to him, just in case. His heart rhythms looked good, at least to me, and I’d seen a lot of them over the years!

He said his pain was starting to go away, and the nurse said his EKG was normal. Thank goodness! After a lot of tests, which of course took forever to come back, they couldn’t really find anything wrong. Speculations included a TIA, or mini-stroke, angina attack (which he’s never had, or at least not yet), a pinched nerve in his neck, etc.

But the main thing they attributed it to was possibly an after-effect of the ablation procedure. Yes we knew there could be after-effects, but this one hadn’t been mentioned.

Suggested follow up visits to his primary care doctor, his cardiologist, and later a neurologist, didn’t really shed any more light on the incident, so quite possibly it could have been a result of the ablation. As the surgeon reminded us at that follow up visit, his heart had been traumatized with the procedure and was still in the initial stages of healing. That was why he would be on several antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds to prevent infections. And it would be about 6 months before we’d really know how successful the procedure was.

It was a waiting game. Some days he’d feel good, others not so much. But his regular checkups with his cardiologist were good, and six months later we thought we’d finally passed the finish line, and things would be good. No more a-fib, no more flutter. His pacemaker was working fine, and his last echocardiogram in October showed no problems.

We thought we were home free for awhile….

More to come in Matters of the Heart, Part 8, to be published March 25.

Don’t miss the previous stories in this series:
Matters of the Heart, Part 1
Matters of the Heart, Part 2
Matters of the Heart, Part 3
Matters of the Heart, Part 4
Matters of the Heart, Part 5
Matters of the Heart, Part 6