Had persistent fast AFib since Nov 23, decided to go private route as my health was deteriorating. Echocardiogram Jan 24 showers severe mitral regurgitation, and ejection fraction 28%. Lots more drugs added to the cocktail and now under the care of both a cardiologist and an Electrophysiologist. Drugs worked well to stabilise me in the meantime.Ablation was booked for 16 March. it went well but I did have a lot of bleeding. Home same day.
5 days later, Friday, some painful swelling on my thigh, both a little bit near the entry point and a fist sized soft lump lower down on inside thigh. Phoned Arrhythmia nurse who said to come is so that she could listen to my blood vessels in the thigh.
Noisy thigh so sent to ultrasound, 3 Dr's turn up so alarm bells start to ring in my head. They could see a pseudoaneurysm and the vascular Dr was talking about admitting me. Eventually decision was made to send me to Interventional Radiology for a ultrasound sound guided thrombin infusion to attempt to clot the balloon like swelling of blood from my femoral artery.
Eventually sent home with instructions to rest for the weekend and come back Monday morning.
My heart felt neglected over the weekend, quick spikes of rapid HR Saturday and Sunday, then Sunday evening into fast AFib and stayed there. I phoned the arrhythmia nurse and asked to come to see her whilst I was at the hospital again.
Had another painful ultrasound guided thrombin infusion and told to come back Tuesday. Went down to cardiology where an ECG agreed with my Fitbit, told to up the Bisoprolol and Amiodarone added. Monday evening heart got to 190, then I went to bed, as I settled down some huge thumps as I fell asleep exhausted.
Tuesday woke in NSR (yippee), Arrhythmia advice was not to start the Amiodarone, back off to hospital for another ultrasound, pseudoaneurysm still active, vascular team came to do another ultrasound,put flat on back, nil by mouth for immediate admission and probable surgery. Sent for a CT scan which showed an arteriovenous fistula (where the vein and artery heal together bypassing the capillaries in the lower leg) hiding behind the pseudoaneurysm. It seems that my femoral artery was punctured during the catheter insertion and that the insertion point was below the branch where the artery was too narrow. This was done by a EP consultant. Private care in NHS hospital at weekend.
Sent to ward still on back and nil by mouth. Vascular Dr came to see me 8pm said not operating Tues night so could get up and eat. Had missed all the food so husband and I headed down to the cafe. But would be nil by mouth from midnight for surgery Wednesday. eventually settled down to rest, had been dozing for 15 mins when a porter arrived to take me to a different ward. Had to gather up my belongings, it was like Michael MacIntyre's midnight game show, woke the whole ward as they turned the lights on and made quite a bit of noise. Off to a vascular ward.
I got lucky and had a side room. Eventually went to theatre Wednesday afternoon. Having spent the morning on IV drip as I was dehydrated after an unnecessary day nil by mouth. Cut right up in groin, artery and vein repaired and patched with bovine vein, all stitched up and horrible pain on recovery. Lots of fentanyl needed. Back on ward after 2.5 hrs surgery and 2 hrs recovery.
Unable to eat due to dry mouth but managed lots of drinks and eventually yoghurt and banana. Still flat on back on a pulsating air mattress. My head was raised through the morning and a lovely HCA got me to my feet lunchtime Thursday. Catheter and wound drain in place. Consultant was pleased with my progress and said to remove all the plumbing!
Discharge was brought forward to Fri, I had to vacate my lovely room but staff understood my need to reduce stress due to the ablation and found a space in a storage room for my bed, no window and full of cupboards of stuff but relatively quiet. Ep consultant came to visit with apologies, spent quite a while with me. He's pretty amazed that my heart was still doing well, my resting HR is low 50's and my BP had returned to low end of normal.bim seeing him for follow up late April. No follow up for the vascular stuff at the moment but may get an appointment through the post. My discharge notes are missing all the outpatient stuff of the first 3 days so hopefully that will catch up too.
A gold star and Easter eggs to anyone who has got to the end of this! Has anyone ever experienced such bad. Luckily?
Post ablation
post ablation follow up experiences?
Atrial tachycardia since ablation.
24 Hours post ablation 
3 months post ablation
