Hey all,

Thank you all so much for the kind and thoughtful replies. I had my ablation on 9/26 for AFib and SVT. Not everything went to plan, but I'm home now and resting. Below is a recap of my experience.

I reported to the hospital a little earlier than my 10am timeslot. Everything moved pretty quick, I went from admissions to the Cath Lab waiting area. I changed into a Johnny and was hooked up to our favorite electrodes. As the nursing staff was getting me ready, my chest and groin area was shaved.. that was a first. I was asked a million questions about my health history, family history, etc. The staff was wonderful. As I was getting interviewed, my girlfriend was allowed to come into the room and seat beside me. Soon after, the Doctor performing the procedure entered the room also and greeted me and talked to me for a bit as did the anesthesiologist.

Soon after I was told it was go time. I said a quick prayer with my girlfriend and was wheeled into the lab itself. My first remark was "This is it where it all goes down, huh?", to which the anesthesiologist replied "This is where the magic happens.". The 2 nurses got me ready. I was informed of the process, I would be mildly sedated to a "twilight state" where they would attempt to ablate for SVT first. They noted I may wake during this but would not feel any pain. They noted I'd then go to sleep for the AFIb ablation. They were also performing an EP study on my heart.

I was administered the first sedative and fell asleep. Shortly after I woke up feeling my heart beating fast. I felt very relaxed and no anxiety or worries. I became so awake I began looking around the room. The anesthesiologist asked if I was doing alright, I remarked I was. Soon after, he asked if I was ready to "go to sleep", I said I was. That's the last I remembered until I woke up in the recovery room.

I was very out of it, felt nauseous and a good amount of anxiety. I spoke with the nurse and she gave me some anti nausea meds. I noticed my mouth felt very dry. I later learned this is normal as a breathing tube was used during my experience. My girlfriend joined me shortly after. I honestly felt so out of it, I could not keep up with conversation. My Dr. stopped by to check in with me and explained in great detail to my girlfriend how everything went. He could not ablate for SVT as he could not get my heart to go into SVT. They used a fair amount of epinephrine which the nurse noted was likely the cause of my anxiety. I was given an Ativan to relax. The nurse and attending staff were wonderful. After a few hours, I was cleared to go home or stay if I wanted to. I chose to go home. Moving was very ginger, and I was helped to my feet to test walking. The nurse stayed with me the entire time until they felt I was stable. She explained to me that ablating for AFib and SVT in the same process requires a lot of drugs and drugs to counteract other drugs. She stated I had a heavy drug load and that I would not feel great for a little while. My overpowering thought was how dry my mouth was. I was told I'd no longer have to take flecanaide or diltiazem, but I was asked to stay on eliquis. My plan was to take my bedtime dose when I got home.

My GF and I drove home, I tried to sleep but felt awake.. like sleeping with a 120bpm heart rate. It was when I got home that things went of course. I looked down and saw my sweatpants had a lot of blood in the groin region. I looked down and the right incision point (they made 2 due to the different ablations) had been bleeding and I never noticed. My GF is an RN and attempted to apply pressure but the bleeding wouldn't stop. We called the on-call cardiologist and made the decision to go to a local urgent care facility.. the hospital that performed the surgery is an hour away and urgent care was 15 minutes away.

I arrived at urgent care and was the center of attention. I suddenly had 6 people around me undressing me, taking blood, ekg and tending to the wound. One of the nurses noted this very thing had happened to her just a few months prior. She applied 20 minutes of pressure to the incision then applied sandbags and wrapped the area tight with a blanket. After a period of time, they re-dressed the wound and note the bleeding had stopped. They kept the pressure with the sandbags on the area and I was being held for observation. The tending doctor saw me, noted he couldn't believe I was staying on eliquis after the ablation and was rather gruff. He stated since another hospital gave guidance he didn't agree with, he thought I should go back there. I was ordered an ambulance to transport me back to the original hospital where surgery occurred.

At 240am, my ride arrived. The ambulance staff were wonderful but it was not a pleasant journey. I had to pee, the aforementioned dry mouth was driving me crazy and I was worried for what the future held. After an hour, I arrived at the hospital and was place in a room. The EMT staff were gracious enough to find me a urinal to pee. I was placed in a room where a nurse checked my incisions, noted they looked good. Later the tending doctor, cardiology follow and another nurse all did the same. I was in the the emergency department and they muse have been busy. I was drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot due to the dry mouth, and while I didn't see a nurse or doctor for hours, the PCT was wonderful and did what she could to take care of me. Around 11am the ED resident noted that cardiology feels I can go home. As I was being discharged, the EP who performed my surgery called in to check on me and ask how I was doing. He noted that there was a larger incision and a smaller one and the larger one he normally "clamps" twice but did not feel I needed 2 clamps. This may have been the reason for the bleeding. My girlfriend drove me home and I've been here since.

Both incision areas are bruised, normal, and feel sore, again normal. I had some anxiety last night trying to rest with a heightened heart rate and felt pretty tired yesterday and today. I kept the dressings on an extra day due to the complications and hope to finally shower and take them off today. My understanding is that AFib ablation is more straight forward than SVT and trying to do both at once added extra drugs, work, incisions and risk of complications. My doctor called me again today to check in with me and give the greenlight to shower and remove the incision dressings.

Sorry for the novel. This community has given me so much and I feel obliged to give back. I'm glad to answer any questions anyone may have on my experience. If you're reading this in the future and are nervous given my situation, please keep in mind my situation is an outlier and not the norm. Also I should note, even though the complication arose, I would do. the procedure again if I had to.