Hello, everyone! We have come to the post that I'm probably the most emotional about: the ablation post. Last time, I explained my third episode of SVT and the visit to my electrophysiologist. I was pretty upset but knew that it was time to discuss an ablation. My doctor explained the procedure and he told me all the risks, which include needing a blood transfusion, puncturing my lung which would result in a scar from where they put a tube in the side of my torso, damage to the aortic valve and needing open heart surgery to place a stent in, damage to another pathway resulting in placement of a pacemaker, and death. My doctor has done over 1700 procedures and never lost a patient and only one (back in the 90s) needed a blood transfusion. The ablation has a 98-99% success rate and although it is invasive, the risks are generally low. So I know I'm in good hands. I really like him and appreciate his honesty and laying it all out there for me to know.
His nurse reassured me that people of all ages have come in and the ablation is a cure. I won't need medication and I won't be making trips to the ER to stop the SVT from happening because it won't. Now on occasion, people do need more than one ablation. The person in my husband's family had one done twice, but it has been 17 years since her second ablation and she hasn't had any issues since the second one. My hope is that my extra pathway is an easy one to zap and that will be that.
Tomorrow is the big day. The procedure will take 2 to 4 hours and I'll stay overnight at the hospital. I'm very nervous and scared, but I'm also really hopeful and I know that this is the right decision. I am a crazy person and wrote letters to Nick and the kids, my mom, and his mom that I have set aside just in case something goes wrong. Because you never know and I would hate for things to be left unsaid. Nick and the kids are obviously my whole world and I don't want to leave them, but I know that I need to have this ablation. I know I'm going to be an absolute mess in the morning and I probably won't sleep tonight at all. I really really hope everything goes well and I have a really awesome update post-ablation to give y'all with details of the process and recovery. Obviously if there isn't a blog post after today (other than a book review scheduled in May), something happened. But I don't foresee that happening. I really do think that it will be a successful procedure with a relatively easy recovery and I will be back to share the rest of my story and, of course, continue to blog about food (on my food blog), planner stuff, books, and everything else. I may start up doing occasional life posts. I do really miss sharing that stuff and I like looking back on old pictures and posts about different life stuff. It's a nice memory keeping type thing, right?!
This concludes the pre-ablation part of my SVT story. Stay tuned for post-ablation posts :)
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