Ablation number three (JAN 2022)

Ablation Numero Tre (JAN 2022)

So, for the third time, it was off to Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.  Papworth is great, it is one of the UK’s premier heart and lung hospitals and the care is exemplary. A few years ago, it moved from ramshackle premises at the village of Papworth Everard, where is had started as a TB sanatorium in the 1920s, to a brand new, spaceship-like building next to the Big Teaching Hospital (Addenbrookes).

I had to be there at 7 am (7am!) and was seen before 8 am by Dr Joao, a Portuguese EP, who was lovely and explained everything, including all the safety features they have in place to make the ablation as safe as possible. Then my EP, Dr M came to see me too and we had a nice chat during which he invited me to call him by his first name!  Not sure about that, seems way too informal, I may try ‘Dr First Name’ as a compromise!

At about 8.15 am I was taken down to the Cath Lab, where a gamut of lovely medics introduced themselves to me, while I made them laugh by complaining about how cold the defib pads often are.  The equipment they have in those Cath Labs is something else, I wished I could have taken a picture of it.  The anaesthetist made me laugh by saying the reason it took so many years for them to move to their new building was because they had to save up for all that kit!

After a bit of prodding around in the back of my hand (ouch!) he began injecting me with the anaesthetic which really made my hand hurt.  He said that was its usual side-effect and I remember commenting that I’d had the anaesthetic which makes you taste peppermint and the one that makes your arm go stone cold, but never that one before ……. zzzzzzzzzz

Like with my last DCCV, once again I did not remember getting sleepy, but I woke up in a fog in the recovery room with a kindly nurse, asking how I was.  It’s odd as the hearing comes back before the vision.  Usually, I am desperate to wake up and try to fight to do so as soon as possible, but this time (Third time lucky?) I decided just to go with the flow.  Horror of horrors though, I needed to urinate.  I was given a ‘bed pan’ but I just couldn’t go properly while lying flat – I managed a meagre few drops!  My first ever bed pan experience!

I was taken back to the ward at about 1.10 pm, so I was in the Cath Lab about four hours (Ablation one just 1.5 hours, Ablation two SIX hours).  It seemed to take ages to come round this time and I was necking fluid replacement drink as fast as I could.  As usual, the worse bit is having the stitches taken out (they did it while I was still unconscious for Ablation 2) especially as there was also a rather large looking drain!  Yes, that hurt, but only while she did it.

I was rather alarmed when they said I could go at 3 pm (!) but luckily my husband was on his way home from work and barely got home when it was time to head out and drive back to Cambridge. So, I finally left about 4 pm. 

This is the worse I have felt during the first week.  The other two times I was surprised how good I felt and then I usually decline.  Hopefully it will be the other way round this time.  I have had a feeling like a rock sat on my diaphragm and a bloated abdomen, but the Papworth Arrythmia nurses said that is nothing to worry about.  I’m also wiped out with tiredness.  By the time I manage a shower it’s all I can do to eat breakfast and then lie down again. On the plus side, the groin insertion site is much less painful and I could walk normally already from about day 4.

I have spent the first week either sitting and knitting or reading or sleeping.  I ache all over, but that’s from sitting too much when I am used to being active. Last time it was nearly four months before I stopped feeling so weak and tired, I hope it will be less this time.  And, of course, I expect I will be off work for months as I am a fitness class instructor.

 

A typical Cath Lab. Many pieces of bleeping equipment were fixed to me, there were wires absolutely everywhere!