An Ablation: Through The Storm
I am a week from my second cardiovascular procedure in 2 months, and although I honestly have had more than I can count prior to this, I never look forward to them because the recovery process is never pleasant. Yet, despite having gone through so many and knowing what to expect, especially with this next ablation and being familiar with that particular discomfort, I still don’t hesitate in having the procedure. Much like a captain of a ship who finds themselves trapped in a hurricane can do little but steer the vessel through and out of the storm, when it comes to cardiovascular disease (CVD), the only way out is often through the procedure or surgery, with the hope that something better may be waiting on the other side.
For most people familiar with cardiovascular procedures, an ablation does not seem like a big deal because it is a particularly common procedure for many people with atrial fibrillation (AFib). In this way, it’s like the elder brother of AFib treatments. While cardioversion shocks the heart back into a temporary functioning rhythm, an ablation burns away parts of the heart from within, so it cannot physically shudder into AFib in the first place.
The article, “What to Expect Before, During, & After Cardiac Ablation” on the University of Utah Health website describes how it is conducted in more detail. When one is unconscious, “your electrophysiologist inserts thin, flexible wires (catheters) into one of your blood vessels. They direct these catheters to your heart with the help of X-ray imaging. You will feel a little pressure when the electrophysiologist inserts the catheter. Most people don’t report feeling any pain” (University of Utah Health | University of Utah Health, 2021). In order to ensure this, the procedure is conducted with the utmost care. The electrophysiologist can use a mapping catheter at the beginning. “The mapping catheter locates the part of your heart sending irregular signals. It marks those areas on a 3D mapping system. Your electrophysiologist uses the mapping system to direct another catheter to specific areas of your heart. Then they use cold energy (cryoablation), heat (radiofrequency), or pulse field ablation (pulses of electrical signals) to create scar tissue (lesions) on your heart. These lesions disrupt the irregular electrical signals in your heart” (University of Utah Health | University of Utah Health, 2021). Mapping the site makes the process more efficient, effective, and easier to recover from in general.
For this type of procedure, the recovery process is relatively quick. “The evening of your procedure: You should start walking. 2–3 days: Avoid driving for at least 48 hours. You can usually return to office work in 2–3 days. You may need to wait longer if you have an active job. 7 days: Refrain from exercise, sex, and lifting anything heavier than 10 pounds. For reference, a gallon of milk is usually about 10 pounds” (University of Utah Health | University of Utah Health, 2021). All in all, it's a straightforward process to bounce back from as long as you follow the prescribed recovery rules and don’t overexert yourself.
However, from my last ablation, this is not always the case, as my recovery was somewhat more complicated. I had the catheter mapping and extensive ablation with 16 spots in my heart burned, and it took 3 weeks of struggling to walk again. For this reason, I am not looking forward to this next ablation.
I have had so many procedures that my last ablation, the tool they threaded through my groin and up through the veins into the heart, was, I discovered later, the same size they use for full-grown men. It didn’t help that my veins are so scarred from the other procedures over the years that they had narrowed. As a result, I woke up from it genuinely shrieking in pain, and it made the recovery from the last ablation particularly painful.
However, while this particular procedure was especially unpleasant, it is true that the older I get, the longer it takes for me to recover. This is a general trend I have noticed over the past few years, and it is not uncommon in recovery from medical procedures.
But even with this in mind and the fact that there will probably be pain or at least discomfort involved, others with CVD and I still have to go ahead and lie down on the table to have the anesthetic mask cover our faces as we drift off to an uncertain sleep.
So, if I were to give one bit of advice about getting through this? Don’t focus on the procedure or the pain… focus on why you’re doing it. Keep your mind’s eye on who or what you’re fighting for: friends, family, future… all of it is worth fighting for your next breath.
Growing up, I fought to keep my family from crying, and I hoped one day to travel and write. Now I am fighting for my future in Germany and my career in museology, writing, and helping others with CVD.
So, if you have CVD, it often comes with procedures both big and small, one of those being ablations, which are usually simple and easy to recover from. However, sometimes accidents occur, and procedures take longer, which is more common with age. But that should never stop you from having the procedure because, in most cases with CVD, it is the only way forward. So, keep your eyes ahead, and you can make it through that storm because that is all the procedure is. It is simply a storm in an open sea — see it through and sail ahead.
What do you think? Did you find this helpful? Can you relate?
Do you have a procedure coming up? What do you fight for?
Comment below.
Tune in next Monday and Friday for more! I will be writing more now that I’m finally feeling better, so I’m getting a new, more frequent schedule.
Keep ticking, everybody!
P.S. Are there any aspects of CVD health or pacemakers you’d like to know more about?
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Reference List:
University of Utah Health | University of Utah Health. (2021). What to Expect Before, During, & After Cardiac Ablation. [online] Available at: https://healthcare.utah.edu/cardiovascular/treatments/what-to-expect-cardiac-ablation.
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