Day 1 - Post Ablation

Late last night and into this morning Sam and I were rehashing what Dr. Wong told us and going through all of Sam's aches and pains from being on the table for so long. The first thing to really bug him was his arms. His arms were extended and tied down during the procedure making them incredibly sore for him. I would periodically get up and try and massage them to keep them from cramping up. Sam had to lay flat all night in order for his groin to start to heal up before he was able to sit up or walk. 

Sam's nurse would come in every hour and check his catheter site for swelling, make sure a hematoma didn't start to form and checked his blood to see if his level had dropped below 190 in order for the tubes to be removed. He was able to get them removed at 3:45am. A few nurses came in to do this and after the tubes came out the charge nurse had to apply pressure on his groin for 30 minutes to ensure the 3 small holes would clot. However, since Sam was placed back on his blood thinner medication right after he woke up it wasn't that easy for the sites to clot. At 4:30am the nurse was able to alleviate her pressure (her fingers were numb) and place a sandbag on Sam's groin (sounds so great right?). The sand bag had to stay on for at least an hour and then he wasn't able to get up or move his bed until 8:30am.  Needless to say there wasn't much sleeping during all of this as they had to do constant vital checks and incision area checks. I finally fell asleep in my upright hospital chair in the most ridiculous position at about 6am - I think I was annoyed there was nothing going on with Facebook and had run out of things to do. Sam & I both got about an hour of sleep (it felt pretty amazing). 

Just before Sam was able to get out of bed I ran downstairs for some much needed Starbucks and got him some fruit and breakfast items from Papa Joe's. At 8:30am his nurse came in and he was FINALLY able to get out of bed and stretch - he was mad at the midnight nurse for not even letting him move just a pinch. Once he got to finally walk a bit he felt a lot of pressure off of his chest and started to feel a little better. BUT since he was flat on his back from 11:30am 5/31 to 8:30am 6/1 his right butt check was blessed with a sore from not being able to move. This currently hurts Sam more than his groin and made making him comfortable a real challenge.

We got home around 4pm and spent about an hour trying to find the right pillows and positions on the couch for Sam to be comfortable. He finally fell asleep after all of the adjusting and I was able to sneak in a few winks as well. We were told by the discharge nurse that tomorrow will be the peak of his pain - he will start to feel a burning sensation in his chest from the ablations and overall feel like he played in traffic. He isn't allowed to drive until Sunday and isn't allowed to lift anything over 10lbs for a few days. I on the other hand have been building muscle by assisting him up and down.

We have switched sides of the bed to make it easier for Sam to get in/out. His incision sites are occasionally leaking so I have been changing his bandages frequently. Its really difficult when he is on blood thinners and they want these small holes to clot but he has to keep moving... sigh. 

I am currently listening to him snoring so I am going to try and get some sleep before he needs help with something in the middle of the night. Good Night!!

Post Ablation Update

I am not even sure where to begin... I can start with neither of us anticipated what today turned out to be. We arrived at the hospital just after 9:30am and Sam went back for his surgery around 11:30am. It was supposed to be 4-6 hours but turned into 9+ hours of surgery. The staff was fabulous and came out and gave us updates every 1-1.5 hours. Dr. Wong himself even came out around 3pm after he had finished the right side of Sam's heart. Needless to say today has been longer than his open heart surgery was in November. It was just as stressful and I felt less prepared.

They went into the right side of his heart first to correct the atrial flutter that he was currently in. The Dr was successful in ablating part of the circuitry on the right side of his heart. He then continued the ablation until he formed an electrical block around the right side. They look for spaces within his heart (kinda like a where's waldo) and once they find them all they ablate, recheck and repeat.

Then things got tricky... what should have taken 30 seconds for the catheter to get from the right side of the heart over to the left side took 40 minutes!! Sam's heart is still very enlarged which made it difficult for them to go around his atrium along with his veins being very small. (common due to his surgery still being fresh and from the arrhythmia issues he has been having). Dr. Wong tried to use x-rays and other devices to see inside to assist in guiding his instruments however, they didn't give him the clear images he was hoping for. They did however see that his heart is contorted - this could be from being so enlarged or from the trauma of his open heart surgery in November. As Dr. Wong described it to us "I was lost with no map and had a foggy window".... scary to think about when you are talking to someone that was dealing with your husbands heart! Basically when guiding the catheter from the right to the left side he was completely blind and hoping for the best. If he went too far one way he would have made a hole in his heart, if he went too far the other way he would have gone into his aorta and thankfully he went just the right way and got through to the left side. 

Now that they finally made it to the left side....They checked his veins to see if they were the "triggers" for his atrial fibrillation and they all checked out normal. They did however find multiple "hot spots" on the back of his left atrium. Whenever they went over these areas his heart went "CRAZY". Dr. Wong was able to ablate all of the hot spots and also build fences around his veins in hopes he created blockages around them for the future. 

Both atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation can cause your heart to enlarge or stay enlarged until those rhythm issues are fixed. Dr. Wong said 1/3 of heart valve surgery patients have to undergo ablation surgeries. We are hoping in Sam's case over the next three months his heart will finally start to shrink in size and fix its contortion.

After we finally got to speak to Dr. Wong - Bonnie, David (a close family friend) and I headed down for some much needed food making phone calls/texts along the way. We were told Sam wouldn't be awake for at least an hour or so however, my cell phone rang in the elevator on the way up to his room and his little groggy voice was calling me from his room to see if we left him - I don't know if he will remember this later. 

Sam is in pain and still laying flat - we are hoping his catheter tubes can come out of his groin in the next few hours. I am hunkering down for a long night at the hospital in another uncomfortable hospital chair. 

Happiness is hanging out together ... even if its in the hospital on our anniversary :)

(I got the below figurine for Sam and gave it to him in his room after his surgery)

We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers - they mean so much to us. I will keep you all updated tomorrow!