2nd Day Post 1st Ablation

[dave152248]

Finally had my 1st ablation done yesterday 10th feb 2022 at Basildon Hospital wasn't as scary as I thought. During the op I was awake and slightly sedated, very little pain whilst performing the ablation. Stayed in overnight for observation and got checked out 8:30 this morning. NHS staff and Dr Tan absolutely amazing.

How i'm feeling today.

Slightly light headed with headaches for the last 12 hours. No pain in heart and nice regular beats

I know it's very early days but so far so good.

Nothing to fear for others looking for the same procedure

Dave

[Teresa156]

Hi Dave,I’m so pleased for you 😊 I was wondering how you’d got on…it sounds like it went really well. Sounds like the hospital were really good. Fingers crossed for you for a speedy recovery.

ALl the best - and keep us updated.

Teresa

[dave152248 in reply to Teresa156]

Hi Teresa,

I feel fine apart from getting a few headaches. My heart feels really relaxed with no jumping or skipping. I no its early days but fingers crossed it stays like this.

[Dodie117]

Hi Dave. Great news and hope your recovery is successful. I’m sure you’ve read all the guidance on here about taking it easy and not undoing all the good work the ablation will hopefully do. I had my one and only in 2013 and still free of AF. Complete rest for a couple of weeks even if you are dying to get going. Then light duties and gentle walks for another few weeks. It took 5 months for all my bumps and odd beats to disappear and almost a year for resting heartbeat to return to normal levels. So be prepared and good luck ☘️☘️

[dave152248 in reply to Dodie117]

Thanks for the feedback. So happy your back to normal 👍

[Fortescue]

Hooray, that's great news! Do take it easy though as everyone here advises, slow and steady like the ticker!

[dave152248 in reply to Fortescue]

😀👍

[Spitfire1863]

Good news Dave. I had my first ablation last summer at age 58 and heart rate has been fine since although I do take regular meds for the AF as my ablation was for atrial flutter. I also got the headaches at first then quite uncomfortable breathing for a few days but soon disappeared. Took about 2 weeks for me to feel “normal “ again but back to five a side footy now with no side effects. I get the occasional blip for a second or 2 then back to normal. Hope all goes well with your recovery.

[dave152248 in reply to Spitfire1863]

Thanks for the feedback. The only thing i'm getting is headaches about 3/4 times a day, no problem with breathing So happy it's worked for you. Good luck

[Spitfire1863 in reply to dave152248]

My pleasure. Headaches lasted 3-4 days and were quite severe but breathing difficulty lasted for a few days after that. Hopefully you’ll be unaffected and recover quickly.

[Hidden]

Hi Dave,

[dave152248 in reply to Hidden]

Hi

[Hidden]

Hi Dave,

That is good news, I am pleased for you.

Basildon is my local hospital so it’s good to see positive feedback on the hospital, the Cardiothoracic Centre where I assume you had the procedure done is one of the best in the country.

Can I ask you how long you had to wait for the procedure.

[dave152248 in reply to Hidden]

Yes it was done by Dr Stuart Tan at Basildon Cardiothoracic Centre. Staff were absolutely amazing. If I was offered the ablation at Southend I would of refused it. Unfortunately southend hospital has been under funded and become a bit of a dump. So please I was offered basildon

[dave152248 in reply to dave152248]

Believe it or not I was offered the ablation on the NHS within 8 weeks of being assessed by Dr Tan

[dave152248 in reply to dave152248]

I was told the NHS waiting list was up to 6 months but it only took 8 weeks

[Hidden in reply to dave152248]

Hi dave,

Thank you for the information.

8 weeks is really surprising, even up to 6 months with the present backlog in the nhs is better than I thought.

[dave152248 in reply to Hidden]

I was offered the abations privately by Dr Tan at a cost of 20K or to wait upto 6 months on the NHS. But when you have to consider you may need a 2nd one is not cheap so I opted to wait, well I glad I did. They did 3 ablations on the same day as my one, so there pushing them through by the looks of things

[Hidden]

Hi Dave,

You certainly made the right decision, that’s a lot of money.

I had a look at Dr Tan’s profile, he only works at Basildon on nhs and private patients and like many other doctors has no reviews.

I did find on BUPA that he has carried out between 5-50 ablations this year at Basildon.

I had a cardioversion privately at the Cardiothoracic Centre a couple of weeks ago under my health insurance but was not overly impressed with my consultant so good to have a positive review of a doctor from one of his patients.

I’m really just looking ahead at worse possible case as while my procedure was successful the failure rate of slipping back into A- fib is around 7 in 10 in the first year.

So if I do revert back to A-fib then I assume another cardioversion and if that doesn’t succeed then the next step would be an ablation.

With a 6 month nhs wait for an ablation I would think the wait time for a cardioversion would be much shorter and therefore if I do need further treatment I shall be inclined to use the nhs.

Thank you for the information you have provided, that has helped a lot.

[dave152248 in reply to Hidden]

Good luck and i hope all works out ok for you. We all want our quality of life back