Morning Update

This morning we were called and told that we could arrive at the hospital early as the first ablation was postponed. We arrived to Beaumont around 9:45am and they whisked him away the minute we got upstairs. They had to do procedure prep which included some shaving of his fur (i mean chest). His parents (Bonnie & Fred) and I are here today and were able to go back and see him prior to him being taken back.

He was hooked up to all of the monitors and was experiencing atrial flutter and a very high heart rate. Which I think is good in the sense that they can already see the issues he has been experiencing before they go in.

Dr. Wong came in to talk to us before the procedure and explained everything very nicely for Sam's parents and I. Dr. Wong showed us the heart monitor and how the lines were showing his atrial flutter which is like a dog chasing his tail (all I could think about was Baxter and how he LOVES to chase his tail daily).  Atrial fibrillation feeds into atrial flutter - so with that said they are going to do his procedure in a few parts. First they are going to go in and correct the atrial flutter. This will correct the fast heart rate and most of his day-to-day symptoms. The success rate of correcting this today is 95%. However, correcting his atrial fibrillation success rate is only 50-60% the first time. More than likely a second ablation is needed to fully correct the fibrillation. Commonly the second ablation will show flutter in the left upper chamber instead of the right (where his current issues are isolated to) and the success rate jumps up to 80-90%.

After the atrial flutter is corrected and they are working on the atrial fibrillation they can tell if they are correcting it by looking for extra signals through the catheter. These signals can't be seen on an EKG and are easy for the doctors to see through normal signals.

They ordered a TEE test prior to the procedure to ensure there were no blood clots around his heart since he has been off of the pradaxa since Tuesday. The doctors assistant (Scott) came in and told us that the TEE was clear and they were starting the ablation process. It will take between 4-6 hours and he will come back and give us updates throughout. Stay tuned...