Skin allergies following ablation procedure - Cardio stickers and ECG stickers

[pottypete1]

Good morning all

You may remember that I posted a couple of weeks ago on this subject.

As some of you will also know I had an ablation last week the longest procedure I have every had lasting circa 6 ½ hours.

I had had severe urticaria on 3 previous occasions which in one case lasted 5 months and was so bad it kept me awake many a night and on one occasion I had to stand up all night as I could not let my skin touch anything. The only respite I had was ice cold showers and baths which I did not think was doing my recuperation from an ablation a lot of good - both the shock and the lack of sleep.

In advance of this most recent ablation I wrote letters to the hospital drawing their attention to my severe skin condition very clear and photos of my skin that my wife had taken following the various procedures.

So as you can image I approached my ablation last week with a degree of trepidation.

I needn't have worried!!

I cannot speak highly enough of the anaesthetist, the cardiologist and the theatre staff. They spent a significant time in conference prior to to commencing the procedure to establish a method that would lead to an acceptable outcome.

They decided on the following solution.

I was given Piriton and steroids intravenously. I think the steroids came after the procedure.

In addition they sprayed a product called "OPSITE" made by Smith & Nephew onto my skin in all the places where they knew they would have to apply cables and pads prior to sticking to pads onto me.

After the ablation the nurses were instructed to wash the glues from my body as soon as the need for them was removed.

Finally instructions were also given to the ward to not put me on telemetry or any other form of heart monitor which would have required long term skintacs. (I know this will not be possible for everyone) Because they could not centrally monitor my health in these critical hours they were instructed to carry out observations manually and more regularly. At one stage when I was handed over from one team to another this did cause a minor disagreement as it was out of the ordinary but lucky the sister who handed me over was not one to be argued with.

Now 7 days on I can confidently tell you all that this routine was a resounding success.

I hope that this information will be of value to others who I know have suffered to a greater or lesser degree than me.

The photo I am attaching shows my chest 2 days after the ablation. Last time I had probably 10 of these and they all itched very badly. This time, whilst it does look very angry it only itched for 36 hours.

Hope you find this interesting.

Pete

[jeanjeannie50]

Crumbs, can see what you mean about your allergy!

[pottypete1 in reply to jeanjeannie50]

On the previous occasions it was on about 6-8 locations and then moved around my body for months the first time and weeks the last time.

This is why I am so very pleased and impressed with the medical team that were in charge of my care last week.

Pete

[irene75359]

Really interesting, and your allergy seems much worse than mine. I developed huge blisters under the dressing adhesive after an op and the skin peeled away when the plaster was removed. But it wasn't that painful and didn't take long to heal.