Just back from my cyoablation at the London Bridge yesterday. Fortunately it was a very positive experience. Preformed by Prof. Schilling who appears to be one of the best. He was super quick and I was only under on GA for just over an hour. Had a stiff back and very soar throat in recovery but sorted quickly with codeine. No pain or bruising so far at the entry site. BPM was up a bit over night but I had an entirely clear ECG in the morning. Also had a stress perfussion MRI in the morning just to check there was nothing else going on.
All in all a fairly costly day but my NHS Health trust wouldn't fund an alblation at this stage. I was unwilling to go down the drugs route so decided to stump up the cash. Not really fair I guess but it does seem that going private gets you to where you want to be faster.
Early days of course but I'm hopeful that I may have caught it early enough to have a positive outcome. Many thanks to all the past ablation posters who helped my make a decision.
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Runskicycler
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That's wonderful news. I had remembered you saying your procedure was this week, so pleased it all went well for you. Did you have a general anesthetic. Would you mind me asking how much the final cost was.
Yes I did have a GA. The approach seemed to be that they had the GA so fine tuned that it was very similar to sedation with the advantage of having the TOE while you are asleep. They also checked some of the plumbing to make sure there no other problems. I recovered vey quickly and traveled back to Cumbria the next day with no issues. Cost was 15k. Like I said I wouldn't have got this done on the NHS without trying the drugs first but I know that I couldn't do the things I wanted to do in the hills on drugs so I guess you could say it was a lifestyle choice to go direct for ablation. Without wanting to sound flippant about the money many of us spend that amount on an average car so it's a question of priorities and for me getting my previous life back was the most import thing. who knows how it will all pan out in the end but I thing I have a reasonable hope of progress now.
Is that a fixed price RSC? When I asked many years ago, I think the EP said problem is if something goes wrong, then they have to call in another surgeon and you can run up one hell of a bill. Clearly that hasn't happened to you and would be rare in any case.
Also, what happens if the ablation doesn't work. Having to have a repeat is fairly normal, do you have to pay again?
I had my first ablation private (insurance), and the second one under NHS.
Yes you do run the risk of running up a bill but I suppose that's soemthing you have to consider. Like you say the risk seems fairly small in my case. If I need a redo I'll have to pay again but I guess I could switch to the NHS. I'll cross that bridge if I need to.
Yes you do run the risk of running up a bill but I suppose that's soemthing you have to consider. Like you say the risk seems fairly small in my case. If I need a redo I'll have to pay again but I guess I could switch to the NHS. I'll cross that bridge if I need to.
I enquired about private with 2 EP's and £15K seems the average charge. Also I checked the situation if complications develop and it seemed to avoid further cost you are wheeled out of your private room into the NHS Emergency system…..the detail would need checking and of course you will need to have your private procedure in an NHS hospital, which I understand is quite common.
All the best on your road to recovery, take it easy for the first 3 months. I started back on the bike after 12 weeks and I have now done 3 cyclo cross races and it feels great so no doupt you will be living up to you forum name soon too.
Many thanks Elbows. I followed your posts on here from the day one. Alway very interested to hear about you previous training and your road to recovery. Im inspired that you are back doing cyclocross. No issues I pressume? What kind of BPM are you getting to during the race compared to your pre AF racing?
Hi Runskicycler, no issues to date touch wood. I'm on the rollers most nights and my resting rate is around 46 bpm. Not quite down to my past competition 38bpm but good. My max so far is around 150.bpm but I have not really pushed it yet. Mark Earley who performed the rf procedure said life's for living and told me I could compete again after
my 3 month review. So hopefully you too will be up on those hills again with a fine retuned engine.
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