Details of my recent ablation/Micro-Maze

November 17, 2005

I would like to update the group with my previous AFIB experience following

into notes on a Micro-Maze that I had done on Friday, November 11.

November 2004: Diagnosed AFIB with cardio myopathy in my young 30's, most

likely cause is sackie virus. I remember the instance when a stranger on

a bus standing next to me gave me a virus that matches pictures of the

sackie virus. In the ER room with heart rate at 120bpm lying down and

coughing up blood, hospitalized a week. Coreg & other meds were used to slow

my heart rate back down to 60bpm.

December 2004: Doctors initially decide to take a medication approach to

fixing the AFIB. Coreg, Lasix, Zestril, Lanoxin, Warfarin (Coumadin). EKG

tests on random days show some days in NSR, some days out of NSR. My heart

is getting smaller due to medications so the myopathy is improving but AFIB

does not seem to be going away.

January 2005: Still bouts of AFIB, so cardioversion is performed.

Cardioversion converted me to NSR for 2 straight weeks. Doctor decides to

put me on Pacerone/Amiodarone. Slowly but surely, back into AFIB. It took

about a month for AFIB to increase daily until I was more often in AFIB than

not.

February 2005: Noticed side effects of the Pacerone only a month into taking

it: shortness of breath, extensive fatigue, headache, dizziness, blurred

vision, fever, hallucinations. I was pulled from Pacerone and moved over to

Sotalol/Betapace. Symptoms from Pacerone disappeared within a week.

Feb - August 2005: Spent my time hoping for a medication miracle to cure my

AFIB, it never came.

September 2005: Talked to a local doctor, Dr. Dudley Hudspeth, about the

" Micro-Maze " procedure to cure AFIB. Was told it's the same as the

Mini-Maze. This Dr. was amazing and sat down with us to explain the

operation and what was involved. My wife and I both got a very positive

feeling from talking to him. After giving it some thought my final analysis

was that AFIB and Sotalol run me down into the ground & make me 1/2 of the

man I can be every single day. I'm going to take my chances on a cure to

live a normal life again. Thank you to everyone in this community who gave

me such tremendous information, it helped make this decision that much

easier. My wife and I were never afraid of this operation. We scheduled the

procedure for November, 2005.

November 2005: I had an ablation (Micro-Maze/Mini-Maze) procedure:

- A week prior to the operation I had to stop all Coumadin.

- The hospital staff at Banner Baywood was fantastic, the nurses came in and

talked with me prior to the operation and were very nice people.

- I was wheeled into the Operating Room still fully awake, which was a

little freaky. It was a full room with a heart/lung machine on hand just in

case.

- I was put under within 2 minutes of being moved onto the surgery table.

- A breathing tube was shoved down my throat.

- 3 incisions were made on the right side of my chest.

- One of my lungs was deflated to get tools over from the right side of the

chest to the heart.

All I can remember when I woke up was a family member saying " You're out,

you made it " and then the most intense pain I've ever experienced in my

entire life that lasted for about 20 minutes. I kept mumbling 'pain, pain,

pain' until the nurse gave me more pain meds, and I was out like a light for

another 4 hours. That's when the hard part really started. I woke up on

oxygen and could not breathe, I was literally struggling for air. There was

a chest tube inserted up into my lung area to clear out excess fluids that

were floating around from the operation and every time I would try to take a

breath in my lungs would bump up against it. I had a huge needle in my neck

that was there to serve me emergency blood and medications if necessary. I

also had a catheter in my urinary tract draining my bladder of fluids

continuously. With all the tubes and wires it was hard, if not impossible,

to move around. So I lied on my back. I could barely talk because of the

damage done to my throat from the tube. I couldn't eat or drink anything for

24 hours after the operation, if I tried I would get violently ill. But the

catch 22 is if I took any pain medications without food, I would get

violently ill. So I was violently ill.

It was a day and a half after the operation that they pulled the tube out of

my back that went into my lungs, and my ability to breathe was cured almost

instantly after that. That's probably the most painful thing I can imagine

from the whole operation, the tube being pulled out of your back while

you're awake. The good news is that it only took 5 seconds to get it out, 5

painful seconds. Then the needle in my neck and the catheter in my urinary

tract came out. The next couple of days weren't as bad with pain, but I

still struggled to breathe and to get my lungs back to full capacity.

72 hours after the operation I was able to eat and drink normally without

being sick, I was able to briefly get up and stand or walk a little, and was

finally able to shower on my own. I stopped taking pain medications on my

own choice. As long as I didn't move around a lot, I felt ok. The only thing

that really hurt the most was my throat where the breathing tube had been

inserted. The hospital had been feeding me stuff like chicken breast and

Salisbury steak while on pain meds so I didn't feel them tearing up my

throat on the way down. But they did. If I had been on a soup and soft diet

the entire time I probably wouldn't have a sore throat by now.

It's now been 6 days and at home I'm just trying to return to normal energy

levels. I've been sleeping a lot, 16 hours a day. I've had to eat only soup

and oatmeal because of the damage to my throat, which is still sore. My left

leg is still numb (from what, I don't know?). Every single day I go in and

out of AFIB at least 4 times, so I'm constantly sweating. Before the

operation I would usually be in AFIB for a couple of days, out a day, but

now it's like my body is battling against itself all day long. It's very

unusual to always be cold and clammy. Most of the pain is gone as long as I

don't make a sudden movement. Sleeping is the only hard part, I used to like

to lay down on my right side. Now I've got stitches there and it hurts like

hell to lay on it.

I'm told that I won't know the full results of the operation for up to 8

weeks after the surgery. I've got monthly visits scheduled with the Dr. to

do an EKG and do some checks. I'm very much looking forward to these results

and feel optimistic about this being a successful operation. When I'm not

overwhelmed by the recovery from the operation, my energy levels are

amazing. Even though I'm still jumping into AFIB now and then I don't think

I've been NSR this much for months.

If anyone is about to get or is considering a mini-maze go ahead and ask

some questions, I'll see what I can do to respond.

When I find out the final results, whether this cured me and I'm off of the

medications, or not - I will post a final update.

November 17, 2005

WOW. I'm more than a little taken aback by your experience. I'm not

sure precisely what you had done though - an ablation AND the mini-

maze? I would've thought haveing the mini-maze made an ablation

redundant? Or is the mini-maze considered an ablation? Did your

doctors say all this pain and recovery was normal for the procedure?

Are you back on coumadin? Is needing to deflate the lung and put a

chest tube in a standard part of doing the mini-maze?

Nonetheless, it's good to hear you're positive about the operation

being a success! I hope it is, and I hope your continued recovery is

painless and in sinus. Thank you so much for sharing your

experience, it's so helpful to know what someone actually goes

through during these precedures. I'd send you a warm hug, but don't

want to hurt you so I'll send my best thoughts & wishes instead!

Take care,

Kathleen

>

> I would like to update the group with my previous AFIB experience

following

> into notes on a Micro-Maze that I had done on Friday, November 11.

November 17, 2005

The terms ablation and mini-maze and also micro-maze were all used to

describe the same operation that I had. It's really hard to get to the facts

on this particular surgery because it's so new and there are so many

different people trying to market the same thing under their own brand name.

To me they all talk about the same thing, which is burning, slicing or

freezing the heart to cure AFIB.

The doctor was awesome when he was talking to me about this. He kept telling

me 'this isn't like going to get your hair cut' and he was right. They call

it minimally invasive surgery, but that's over simplification. I can still

feel the path through my chest where the tools went from right to left, it's

pretty creepy. The great news is that it's 6 days later and I'm really not

in a lot of pain anymore, and don't need any pain meds. Most of the pain was

in the first day and a half and a lot of it was caused by the chest tube.

I'm on all of the same meds, including Coumadin. As the weeks pass and as we

see that the operation was a success they will then consider taking me off

of the medications little by little. It all depends on my heart staying in

NSR.

I was told that a lung is deflated for everyone who has the operation. I'm

really not sure. I've read the same on my own research into the topic.

Thank you for the wishes, I really appreciate it. My wife and daughter both

tried to give me hugs the day I came home and I was pretty grouchy with

them, a little more than I should have been. Then the dog tried to jump on

me, he was elated to see me after 4 days. All I know is it hurts pretty bad

when someone rubs against your stitches.

_____

From: AFIBsupport [mailto:AFIBsupport ] On

Behalf Of kthlnsm

Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 10:19 AM

To: AFIBsupport

Subject: Re: Details of my recent ablation/Micro-Maze

WOW. I'm more than a little taken aback by your experience. I'm not

sure precisely what you had done though - an ablation AND the mini-

maze? I would've thought haveing the mini-maze made an ablation

redundant? Or is the mini-maze considered an ablation? Did your

doctors say all this pain and recovery was normal for the procedure?

Are you back on coumadin? Is needing to deflate the lung and put a

chest tube in a standard part of doing the mini-maze?

Nonetheless, it's good to hear you're positive about the operation

being a success! I hope it is, and I hope your continued recovery is

painless and in sinus. Thank you so much for sharing your

experience, it's so helpful to know what someone actually goes

through during these precedures. I'd send you a warm hug, but don't

want to hurt you so I'll send my best thoughts & wishes instead!

Take care,

Kathleen

>

> I would like to update the group with my previous AFIB experience

following

> into notes on a Micro-Maze that I had done on Friday, November 11.

Web Page - http://www.afibsupport.com

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Nothing in this message should be considered as medical advice, or should be

acted upon without consultation with one's physician.

November 17, 2005

Andre,

I appreciate that you took time & effort to describe your events.

ly, you cured me of entering any operating room voluntarily.

Thanks for the candor,

LJ

November 17, 2005

See: http://tinyurl.com/7lnzk

for an article by the Dr. who performed the micromaze.

>

> WOW. I'm more than a little taken aback by your experience. I'm

not

> sure precisely what you had done though - an ablation AND the mini-

> maze? I would've thought haveing the mini-maze made an ablation

> redundant? Or is the mini-maze considered an ablation? Did your

> doctors say all this pain and recovery was normal for the

procedure?

> Are you back on coumadin? Is needing to deflate the lung and put

a

> chest tube in a standard part of doing the mini-maze?

>

> Nonetheless, it's good to hear you're positive about the operation

> being a success! I hope it is, and I hope your continued recovery

is

> painless and in sinus. Thank you so much for sharing your

> experience, it's so helpful to know what someone actually goes

> through during these precedures. I'd send you a warm hug, but

don't

> want to hurt you so I'll send my best thoughts & wishes instead!

>

> Take care,

> Kathleen

November 17, 2005

It reminds me my open heart surgery 11 years ago, i was 33 then, everything

sounded simple, but after that i was in pain for weeks, well as the old saying

" No pain, No gain " . Hang in there, you will be fine.

Alfred

Andre wrote: