Post Austin !!

Back to Idaho now from my very first ablation (persistent Afib) experience at the hands of the inimitable Dr. Natalie.
This was a combined "two day" office consultation then procedure. In his own words mine was an extensive, difficult ablation
(me being in persistent Afib with a "severely" enlarged LA). He had to isolate my LAA (not, as I understood, usually resorted
to in a first ablation), alas likely dooming me to be on OACs permanently. No hitches in recovery and I have been in NSR for
over a week now post-Op. Quite the experience to see the well trained team in action at St. David's. One senses the shear volume
of procedures being handled there (4 EP Labs in constant use !).
I would like to thank the wonderful support provided by this forum.... taking a lot of the scare and uncertainly out of getting this far.
In particular my thanks to Shannon for his generous comments and conversations on my individual case: definitely have the sense that
Natalie was worth the wait/travel !

Great to hear IDBill, I just returned from St Davids too! Wish I had known you were there this past week What day was your ablation?

I was in the EP-Lab with Dr Natale most of each day this past Monday and Tuesday, donning the smock scrubs plus lead vest & apron watching close up as Dr Natale performed his usual magic with a handful of several challenging cases two of which were from our forum too! He did 4 ABLs each day this past week.

They average 20 cases a day there now in the original cardio hospital wing with 4 EP-Labs suite ( it’s actually 5 Labs with the 5th a Hybrid EP-Lab & Surgical suite combination) and they could do more were if it were not due to the limitation of not yet having enough full staff crews to man even more ablations a day

A slow day there is 14 to 15 cases which exceeds the max out put of any other ablation center in the world.

The all new wing at St Davids containing the brand new state-of-the-art Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute’s Electrophysiology Center at St Davids was dedicated last Tuesday evening while I was fortunately there in attendance. This will have a full 7 EP-Labs (Starting with 6 EP-Labs in the next few weeks and adding a 7th EP-Lab added next year). The halls are much wider and ceilings significant taller throughout this space-age EP center and the EP-Labs and gear look like something out of Star Trek!

And you are not doomed to requiring lifelong OAC drug. An LAA Occlusion/Ligation will very likely be a good option for you after your 6 month Follow Up TEE.

Send me your Ablation Report and will review it with you if you wish.

Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2019 03:07AM by Shannon.

Glad to hear all is well. Will be making the trip mid July.