My 2nd Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation - Personal Experience

round two oblation catheter going in for my second round got this really cool hairnet it's free complimentary with the surgery think about it can't wait to do it again hi this is a video about catheter ablation I just did my second catheter ablation uh for atrial fit atrial fibrillation U had my first one done four years ago and had a video up on it actually and it came back recently and I had good insurance so I got it fixed again and I just want to put this video out there so people whove had it done who might be having it done again or who are thinking of getting it done because they're having arhythmia I just want you to have this resource because I think they're valuable um I just had my second one done on Tuesday it's Friday still have a little bandage it could probably come off soon um basically entry points when they put the catheters enter through your through your neck and then you're both of your femoral arteries and you're groin and this last time they did quite a number on my U you know areas that were problems after they uh got the arhythmia going and induced it I had a couple problem spots and they really did a number on it so you know for the surgery what I had for my experience was I had quite a bit of pressure in my chest um following the posttop it's gone down significantly since then uh but I know the first night and this might freak people out that's why I wanted to share this is there just was a lot of pressure you know they went in there and did a lot of scarring and you know there's going to be inflammation there's going to be swelling after that so don't freak out it's okay to go to sleep i' maybe sleep a little bit elev ated if not no big deal whatever is comfortable um but yeah you'll have quite a bit of pressure maybe you won't some people don't but I did and you know it's gone down significantly each day since then I'm feeling pretty good today still don't want to strain uh still taking it pretty easy just walking no lifting I try not to bend over too much the first couple days taking a deep breath was tough um yeah and now I'm just on blood thinners I'm on praxa with fide and um coaches for the inflammation around the heart I believe and I took a little bit of Advil the first few days just because it was pretty intense the first the day after it's gone down quite a bit since then um but yeah so a little bit about me I had this done almost four years ago as a month shy and I was an athlete and I was having issues you know uh mine were after drinking though you know they say a lot of athletes can get this and you know I grown up doing all sorts of different sports from soccer to martial arts to football uh and a playing football as a punter for a while and my first episode happened after night of going out and ripping it and living in caned at the time and I woke up the next morning and I had a really bad arhythmia at the time I was rehabbing I had a torn up shoulder so I had too much time my hands was just not using it wisely but um it had a pretty intense arhythmia checked myself into the ER they gave me a IV drip just a standard IV uh saline bag I believe and a kick back in sinus rhythm after a short period of time and then I had you know a couple other instances where since then over the years I had a couple episodes of aib that would kick in mostly due to partying and drinking specifically overdrinking alcohol is definitely a trigger for me I have a glass of wine I my heart skips a beat almost instantly it's crazy uh so if you're out there and you're having problems and you drink might be time to give it up I know I'm thinking about I'm pretty sure I'm done you know I there's no real need for it for me to be having any drinks anymore this second time getting the ablation done it's just you know i' like to give myself a clean slate but let me get back to this so anyways I I kept having more episodes and then finally uh 2009 was my first one 200 was my last significant one that I went to the ER for and I probably had three or four er visits for aib and I've been lucky they clicked in with you know the IV bag and um and then they last time the IV bag didn't work so they went to cardiov me and the doctor was all too happy to do yeah yeah just you know just cardio no big deal so what does that mean you know just just like it's just that easy you're just going to give me the juice but so they patched me up they put a couple pads on you one in the front one in the back and then they put you on a light sedative for cardio version and they'll you don't really remember it I vaguely remember when the electricity hit it lifts you off the table but that didn't work I got hit three times the max voltage it didn't work I just left pissed off still an aib went home went to bed woke up in sinus rhythm and so at that point I just was over it I was just tired of dealing with it it was becoming a nuisance and I just I had good insurance at the time from playing football and I just knew I had to take care of it so I went to a UCLA arhythmia Center uh at the time I was seeing Dr shiff kimar and Dr vasi Who is my doctor now she is my gatekeeper of all things arhythmia and went in met with them they explain to me the effects of alcohol on arhythmia there's some crazy scientific term for what happens when you drink alcohol and what it does to your veins and how it can create a a rhythmia you know a very uh I'm losing the words right now just very Rhythm a rich environment and so anyways I was still not really listening to Lifestyle you know choices the time I've always drank a lot of coffee too not not really an energy drink guy but I've always drank a lot of coffee I've always exercised intensely ate really healthy but exercise intensely and then drinking and coffee were probably my vice drinking only like on the weekends though more of a binge kind of guy and uh got the first procedure done 2011 March and I had some success for a while but moved to Vegas was a bartender not not the best decision lifestyle wise for trying to get over an arhythmia I know and got comfortable I got kind of comfortable thinking it was just going to be gone there's really only a 66% like 2/3 percentage uh chance of it you know working the first time around and if you have the dation done again like I did of that percentage there's another 2/3 percentage that works and I got kind of comfortable fell in some old bad habits I was working a lot was high stress wasn't sleeping a lot and you know fell into the thing of drinking two bottles of red wine at night after a long work day you know you think I was atalian with all the espresso and red wine I drank but started having some more episodes in last year or so like 2013 up to uh 2014 probably up till recently where I wasn't drinking wasn't doing anything just having a little bit of coffee and but I'd work out and at night at night I would just have like you know these horrible Mis beats and if obviously you've had them so you're here it's like somebody's grabbing your leg every time you try to take a step you know I can feel my heart when it's out of rhythm I can feel when it's in sinus rhythm I can tell and there's nothing worse than having especially if you get up there far enough to where you're having several 100 a day you know or how many who however you know and it's in your subconscious and you're sitting there trying to go through your day and you're you're you're constantly having a mbeat and it sucks okay I was just interrupted by a phone call sorry about that but it's the worst man you're sitting there and you're trying to go through your day and you get all these Mis beats and those cause anxiety over time they they just it's like compounding interest it's horrible um second phone call in a row so anyhow you get those beats it's just a hitch in your Giddy Up it sucks those cause anxiety and they just build up over time it's like that Edgar Allen Poe story where the the heart's beating underneath the you know underneath the floorboards it's just it's so freaking ominous and it shakes you a little bit you know even even if you have a pretty good you know sense of self and you're not overly paranoid after time it can shake you so if you're here you're obviously thinking about it and my thing is if you're thinking about getting it done and you're having more and more episodes there's no medication it's probably going to help you I mean you definitely one thing I'm going to look at for myself personally is lifestyle choices I'm going to look at my caffeine intake if I have to cut out coffee maybe I need to go on more of an alkaline diet I'm going to really research it and I'll post whatever I find obviously on my channel um might take me a little bit uh and going look at all the you know naturopathic ways of healing the body that I can to make sure I don't have this issue anymore because that that's one thing I want to make sure that doesn't happen again is that it's for my lifestyle decisions so um but yeah so the fleen ey was an option to take but after to help control the arhythmia but after you know a year it's only 30% effective I believe and can cause dizziness once you up the dosage who wants to walk around dizzy on pills that's no way to go about life so if you're thinking about getting it done just do it you know I talked to a girlfriend of mine she had a much more dangerous I think it was svts that she had and she had like passed out once and I just told her Hey get it done she was having thousands a day and I think she's having a ton of success with it right now so just find a good doctor that you trust that can explain it to you you know hopefully have good good insurance and just go get it done you're going to go in for the procedure um basically what you can expect is you'll go in in the morning and they'll set up your IV that might be the worst of it then they'll hit you with some meds you'll talk for two seconds like you're going to talk for 10 minutes and you'll be out and the next thing you know you're going to wake up in recovery if you're smart like me and you're a guy you tell the you tell the nurse to take your citer the one catheter that I don't want to think about the one that goes in the groin not the ones that they go into snake your heart with uh to have them take that out before you wake up just the thought and you know then it's just recovery I mean you might have some pressure in your chest um yeah there are some small percentages of things happening there always is for any surgery um you're going to be on blood thinners for three months afterwards while you're healing you may have some arhythmia after the surgery just while you're healing um that's normal until it's completely healed up I think that can be from 3 to 6 months until you really can tell if the surgery worked um but my doctor gave me some fle andine to help control those extra beats um from the scarring while it's healing and that's about it you stay the night I think the worst part for me is I I don't do well with anesthesia so I was a little woozy trying not to puke this time the first time I puked really bad and blew my femoral patch is open so that caused a little panic but um yeah you basically you know spend the night in the hospital and you eat some Jello and you know you get out in the morning anyways if you have any questions uh please leave a a comment below I try to check this page I might take me a little bit of time to get back to you but just leave any questions any comments um about what what you have any questions love to answer and you know help you out any way that I can that's why I posted this video so good luck with everything I hope you get back to sinus rhythm and uh you know living life worry free okay

Channel: Eddie Johnson

Views: 39,326

Keywords: catheter ablation, atrial fibrillation, afib, athlete, arrythmia, how to fix arrythmia, how to fix afib

Id: 6zxO5Rd4IhQ

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2016