Pre-Op before the Ablation

Pre-Op Appointment

This past Monday, December 3rd I had an appointment to visit the University of Ottawa Heart Institute to meet with the nurse and the anesthetist.

Also I met a research assistant that is working with a principal researcher that wanted me to participate in a research study that is a randomized clinical trial for finding out if doing a double ablation. Since this is a random study or blind study I will not know IF I am in the group that has the ablation x2. I won't know until the study is complete which for my participation is a year, but the study is a year from my participation, but there is a large candidate pool and from the information I was provided this is across the country and the UOHI has about 150 potential participants. Of those it will depend on which group they are on.

So I'm all for science and decided to be one of the test subjects so this is either going to be beneficial or status quo and I won't know until the study is complete.

I felt by participating that I could help improve on patients that have Atrial Fibrillation like myself have a higher success rate of not having a repeat procedure which may or may not be required. It all depends if the doctors get it on the first try. In my case, I was already told that this could come back when I get older, but in the meantime I feel like I have more to do in my running and activities to be hindered by a faulty ticker.

Now onto the actual appointment as most of the time I was actually waiting, but before the waiting let me add that Ottawa drivers when there is a bit of snow, rain or anything out of the ordinary the 417 grinds to a crawl and giving yourself extra time sometimes isn't helpful I was about 5 or 7 minutes late for my appointment, but the waiting room was already full of patients. I figured that using the PaybyPhone app on my phone so I can extend my time at the UOHI easily which is a great option. But before I sat in the waiting room I was sent to get blood work done. So off to another waiting room and then to get two vials of blood drawn. Then back to the original waiting room to wait my turn. My appointment was 9:15a. It was about 10a by now. After say another 20 mins I was called into an exam room where I then waited another 10 mins and then I met the research associate representing the study to fill out my consent and go through my medical history to see if I qualify to participate. After we signed the documents it was another wait for the nurse. I think by the time I saw her it was another 15 mins and then she popped her head in and said she didn't forget me, but she's waiting to hear back from the triage nurse on whether I need an echocardiogram or not. It turns out that they will use and ultrasound in the procedure so I'm good. So Lori, the nurse, began to take my vitals and all my medical history and background on how I came to the Heart Institute. If you've been reading my blog up to now it's been a very quick journey.

Lori explained to me in great detail on the actual procedure and my mind was blown at how much information there was. The books they give you are a far cry from a nurse explaining to me the very intricate details of an Ablation. So to all you nurses I give you 🙌 huge kudos for putting up with patients like me. Of course I'm left speechless as there's so much information to digest that I hope that what she has told me will go by the book.

Meanwhile as we were chatting my meter had expired AND I still had not seen the anesthetist yet. I tried to use the app to extend, BUT due to City of Ottawa regulations two hours was the max! So like a gamblin' man I rolled the dice and waited and hoped I wouldn't be dinged for a ticket.

After several minutes I met Peter the retired anesthetist.

He went through my stats and asked me if I'd been under before. I told him my lovely vomiting incidents when I had my broken leg as a kid and my tonsils out. Very nauseating. His reply...we have better drugs now! 😄

He would take all my information and basically checking if I had any dentures or dental work which I did as there's a chance something may happen if they stick a breathing tube down my throat.

Otherwise I'm going to have a long nap with lots of tubes and wires everywhere and thank goodness I'll be out like a light.

So overall I'm in perfect health and unless an emergency happens the day off I can't get bumped.

So this will probably be my last post for now until I recover. Thanks for following the blog so far. I hope to turn this into more awareness and my road to recovery as I begin my journey into my running and seeing how this Afib Asian will benefit over the next year once the Ablation is done!