Heart ablation has backfired.
- Thread starter john-e89
- Start date
North West Surrey
Really sorry to hear this OP.
Let's hope the medics can get it all sorted, but it sounds like a long process!
Worst of all you can't get to enjoy your Z4!
But I guess you'll still be posting those dubious jokes in the "On the light side" thread.
Anyway it is good to see you are still being positive about things - wishing you all the best for the holiday period.
Let's hope the medics can get it all sorted, but it sounds like a long process!
Worst of all you can't get to enjoy your Z4!
But I guess you'll still be posting those dubious jokes in the "On the light side" thread.
Anyway it is good to see you are still being positive about things - wishing you all the best for the holiday period.
Not boring at all! That's life sometimes - it's refreshing to read the way you're facing it. Modern medicine can be amazing and your surgeon sounds open and approachable. With the right efforts you will get to the end of this - all the very best and keep us informed
Thank you so much guys, very kind of you to post such nice thoughts.
Mark and Darren I will definately give you a shout if needs be, cheers chaps.
Mr PT, don't be put off my friend, you would have to have the cryoablation not the normal heat type, and it's mega rare with the cryo type. I understand your trepidation though.
Mark and Darren I will definately give you a shout if needs be, cheers chaps.
Mr PT, don't be put off my friend, you would have to have the cryoablation not the normal heat type, and it's mega rare with the cryo type. I understand your trepidation though.
Your positive mood is to be admired 
Time to find some hobbies that you can do whilst at home?
'Sitting around' is basically how students spend 3 years during a degree - i had a great time!
Gaming, reading, learning - i suspect, from your post, you are the type of personality that can see a silver lining and take advantage of your situation Perhaps you could even start brewing beer?
Best of luck for the recovery.
Time to find some hobbies that you can do whilst at home?
'Sitting around' is basically how students spend 3 years during a degree - i had a great time!
Gaming, reading, learning - i suspect, from your post, you are the type of personality that can see a silver lining and take advantage of your situation
Perhaps you could even start brewing beer? Best of luck for the recovery.
jimmybell said:Your positive mood is to be admired
Time to find some hobbies that you can do whilst at home?
'Sitting around' is basically how students spend 3 years during a degree - i had a great time!
Gaming, reading, learning - i suspect, from your post, you are the type of personality that can see a silver lining and take advantage of your situation
Best of luck for the recovery.
Thanks jimmybell, nice post.
It's tempting to get acquainted to the sofa and Jeremy Kyle... :lol:
It's a hell of a knock back TBH after I've lost this year as well with various other bowel stuff etc, which is now sorted thankfully, and it looks like most of next year is a write off already, however, it's given me the final push to hang my building boots up and look to something else, I may well do my part P theory to go into electrics, or maybe look at doing something specialised in just one area, in a way it's a great opportunity, it forces my hand, it'll be restrictive as I need oxygen 24/7 but we'll get around that, (As long as we can mend the paralysed nerve eventually..) Very very disappointing in that I'd hoped to get my fitness levels back next year but hey ho, it's just on hold for a while. It's difficult to say without sounding like a wannabe martyr or something but thinking of others with real problems really does put it into perspective. Lauren on the Zedward thread prime example, that girl has had a hell of bad run, would any of us want to be in her shoes? So we keep positive.
JustCruzin
Member
My dear John, if we had half the spirit and determination you have we would all be saints.
Wishing you the speediest of recoveries.
You take care friend.
Arif
Wishing you the speediest of recoveries.
You take care friend.
Arif
Mad Professor
Active member
Sorry to hear about your travails with the NHS .Hospitals are dangerous places .
You may wish to know that in the stop AF trial 29 out of 259 procedures (11.2%) were associated with phrenic nerve palsy as determined by radiographic screening; 25 of these had resolved by 12 months.
What i would say is that a raised hemidiaphragm on its own should not cause hypoxia unless there is an associated unlerlying lung problem like COPD, pneumonia or pulmonary emboli .
We often see patients with raised hemi-D who may be a bit breathless when lying flat but are otherwise fine .And if it doesnt resolve on its own you can always consider daiphragmatic pacing .
The simplest way for your physician to assess the impact of the raised hemiD is to measure your vital lung capacity lying and standing to see what the difference is . As for your fast heart rate that's easily sorted with a beta-blocker +/- a rate limiting calcium channel blocker [eg diltiazem] or perhaps ibavridine .I
m sure your cardiologist will know all about this as well as anti-coagulation if you have flipped back in AF
Get well soon -BTW im not a cardiologist .
Ref is below FYI:
Packer DL1, Kowal RC, Wheelan KR, Irwin JM, Champagne J, Guerra PG, Dubuc M, Reddy V, Nelson L, Holcomb RG, Lehmann JW, Ruskin JN; STOP AF Cryoablation Investigators.
J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013 Apr 23;61(16):1713-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2012.11.064. Epub 2013 Mar 21.
Cryoballoon ablation of pulmonary veins for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: first results of the North American Arctic Front (STOP AF) pivotal trial.
You may wish to know that in the stop AF trial 29 out of 259 procedures (11.2%) were associated with phrenic nerve palsy as determined by radiographic screening; 25 of these had resolved by 12 months.
What i would say is that a raised hemidiaphragm on its own should not cause hypoxia unless there is an associated unlerlying lung problem like COPD, pneumonia or pulmonary emboli .
We often see patients with raised hemi-D who may be a bit breathless when lying flat but are otherwise fine .And if it doesnt resolve on its own you can always consider daiphragmatic pacing .
The simplest way for your physician to assess the impact of the raised hemiD is to measure your vital lung capacity lying and standing to see what the difference is . As for your fast heart rate that's easily sorted with a beta-blocker +/- a rate limiting calcium channel blocker [eg diltiazem] or perhaps ibavridine .I
m sure your cardiologist will know all about this as well as anti-coagulation if you have flipped back in AF
Get well soon -BTW im not a cardiologist .
Ref is below FYI:
Packer DL1, Kowal RC, Wheelan KR, Irwin JM, Champagne J, Guerra PG, Dubuc M, Reddy V, Nelson L, Holcomb RG, Lehmann JW, Ruskin JN; STOP AF Cryoablation Investigators.
J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013 Apr 23;61(16):1713-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2012.11.064. Epub 2013 Mar 21.
Cryoballoon ablation of pulmonary veins for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: first results of the North American Arctic Front (STOP AF) pivotal trial.
ronk said:
No it's static Ronk, on oxygen I'm fairly ok but off it 30 mins is the maximum before I'm gasping. What I can't understand is you can apparently live on one lung and breathe fairly normally unless you're doing excercise and at the moment I'm running on one lung but I can't cope without oxygen. There are two phrenic nerves, one for each side of the diaphram, my right one is paralysed, the left ok, maybe having one frozen affects the other side a bit, but I don't know I'm guessing, which is silly. Hopefully there'll be some answers when I see the cardiologist in January.
Thanks for the kind post Havard
Mad Professor said:
Interesting post thank you.
I don't have COPD, we've looked at the heart and surrounding arteries with ultra sound, x-rays and dyes. I've read about the diaphragmatic pacing, sounds a good option if the nerve doesn't right itself. Not wanting to sound overly dramatic but without oxygen I'm really struggling, the chest feels very compacted with stabbing pains front and back. Beta blockers do drop the heart rate but it's still around 75 bpm which is too high for me, normally 55. Yes I've been on warfarin for a year now along with statins.
As you say I'm hoping it'll right itself without any interference.
Mad Professor
Active member
So i would want to know if your oxygen sauration is falling singificantly off oxygen -ie aside from you're being breathless off oxygen .As for your heart rate , 75/min sounds reasonable for resting heart rate .If you want it lower then its either increase in the dose of beta-blocker [if your blood pressure will tolerate that ] or adding in either diltiazem or ibavridine to improve rate control .Have to say it sounds to me albiet over the interweb that something else is going on aside from a raised hemi-D.
Mad Professor said:
Yes Oxygen saturation levels drop significantly off oxygen, they hover around 85-87 as far as I know from what I could see in hospital, TBH i didn't take too much notice as I felt very unwell, I'm not sure what they were in the 4wks post op before going into hospital, GP takes a reading and doesn't say anything, I should have asked. I want to buy a sensor to monitor it properly myself. Your last sentence is quite telling, it's what is rumbling in the back of my mind also, the extent to which I struggle is not fitting with a raised hemi-d to my mind from what I've read. Any further thoughts you might have please do let me know either here or a PM, until I see the surgeon I'm a bit in the dark.
Mad Professor
Active member
well my first port of call would be to exclude a pulmonary embolism -small to medium sized emboli are best best detected as a mistmatch between blood perfusion (Q) which is impaired along with normal ventlilation (V) on nuclear imaging with a radiolabelled scan -ie a V/Q scan .Larger emboli are best imaged on CT pulmonary angiogram . A simple blood test called a D dimer will be raised in most cases where there is a signifcant blood clot in the lung ,as well as a simple breathing test called the signle breath diffusion (DLCO) -in your case the DLCO would need to be corrected for your raised left hemiD -ie the KCO. ie a low KCO and a riased D -dimer would point to the need to for either a V/Q or CT angio .Finally you need to get your lying and standing vital capacity measured -simple thing to do which takes 5 min .
A oygen sat finger probe is about 20 quid off amazon -basically you want to keep your oxygen level >92% on room air .Also you reallly want a proper card carrying pulmonologist to look into this definitely not a surgeon and probably not a cardiologist .As your GP to refer you to the relevant person to look into this properly .
A oygen sat finger probe is about 20 quid off amazon -basically you want to keep your oxygen level >92% on room air .Also you reallly want a proper card carrying pulmonologist to look into this definitely not a surgeon and probably not a cardiologist .As your GP to refer you to the relevant person to look into this properly .