Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

Beth had her heart surgery today. (In case you missed it - why she needed surgery)

While she knew it was coming up and scheduled time off work to do it, she was a little unsure about going through with it today. Make that a lot unsure, but she went. Once we got there, she did really well. All the nurses and the doctor were really friendly and supportive, doing their best to put her at ease.

The hardest part was probably getting the IV in because they couldn't find her vein. The procedure itself went really well and was over relatively quickly. Then she had to stay in bed, on her back, for 4 hours before she could get up and move around. While she was still sleepy from the anesthetic, it wasn't too bad, but she got pretty uncomfortable after a while. Finally, she tried eating (grilled cheese) and then about 6:00 they got her out of bed to walk around the hall. Once the nurse determined that she wasn't bleeding from the catheter insertion, she was good to go home.

She's sort of sore and tired, and she's supposed to take it easy for a couple days but should be back to regular activity by Friday. And, she shouldn't have any more of those racing heart episodes. That should be a relief, because they were happening more frequently.

Here's an article about the hospital and the procedure. If she had to have a procedure like this, then this was the place to have it done. Her doctor is the Dr. Chapman mentioned.

3 comments:

  1. Wow..I'm glad to here she is doing okay. That's a bit scary on the ole' worry factor. Take care and let us know how she's doing.

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  2. Poor thing! I'll be keeping your family in my thoughts & prayers! Keep us updated!

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  3. Glad to hear everything went well. How is she doing now?

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