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!