Home After Ablation

• by scadnama
• 2008-11-27 04:11:07
• General Posting
• 930 views
• 2 comments

Hello everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating!

I am happy to report that my ablation went well and that I am home from the hospital. My doctor was able to completely ablate my sinus node to the point where there was no atrial activity without the pacemaker. It's a little scary to think about, but that is what he was shooting for. He was very happy with the procedure and is sure that I will be back to normal very soon.
The procedure itself was a little more difficult than the last three that I have had. It took nearly four hours and I woke up a few times in terrible pain. I could feel them burning inside and it was terribly uncomfortable. I even squirrmed around a couple of times because of the pain and my doctor got a little upset with me. I remember him telling me that I had to be still, and then the anasthesiologist would pump be full of drugs, and back to happy land I would go!
I am sore beyond belief today, but otherwise feel pretty good.
I do have a question though. Since I was brought out of surgery, my face and neck have been very swollen. The nurses noticed and gave me Benadryl just in case it was an allergic reaction to something, but it didn't seem to help at all. I asked my doctor about it before discharge, and he said that they had to give me a lot more fluid than usual so that was the cause.
I have now been out of surgery for more than 48 hours and I am still really swollen. I would have thought that if it were fluid, it would have gone down some by now. My face and neck are so swollen that it is uncomfortable to open my mouth to eat, and it is even uncomfortable to breathe at times. Anyone have any idea what may be going on?
Thanks to everyone for your support, thoughts, and prayers. I really appreciate you all!

Amanda