Ablation Schedule

I was notified on 4/19/22 that Dr Natale approved me for my ablation. I am just curious if anybody was scheduled for their ablation recently and when was their initial approval.

Don’t want to bother Amy to ask if she has a ballpark estimate 3,4,5 months from approval date?

Quote
Geocappy
I was notified on 4/19/22 that Dr Natale approved me for my ablation. I am just curious if anybody was scheduled for their ablation recently and when was their initial approval.

Don’t want to bother Amy to ask if she has a ballpark estimate 3,4,5 months from approval date?

I'd follow up. I have a friend who just contacted them a couple of weeks ago and she is on the calendar for early Sept as well as on the list for any cancellations that open up a slot.

Schedules are such fluid things that I don't think others' experiences are going to be helpful, but I would expect less than 3 months.

Quote
Geocappy
I was notified on 4/19/22 that Dr Natale approved me for my ablation. I am just curious if anybody was scheduled for their ablation recently and when was their initial approval.

Don’t want to bother Amy to ask if she has a ballpark estimate 3,4,5 months from approval date?

I was approved May 18th and am not yet scheduled. I did have a conversation with Amy and asked to be put on the cancellation list (for Austin) when I do get a date.

Well, that helps a little. It has been 21/2 months since I was approved so I would hope I would be notified soon as to when it might be. I was told most likely late June or July initially. Not sure how much notice they give before the date so not sure when it will be now. Hope before September as that would be 5 months from approval. I did email Amy and ask for a ball park estimate

Quote
Geocappy
I did email Amy and ask for a ball park estimate

If you don't hear by the end of the week I would email her again. And if you don't get a reply within days, I would call.

Just heard from Amy with early August dates. Now I am nervous

I had a fear factor of zero at each of my three ablations. Knowing he was skilled put me at rest. You will be ok.

Any input as far a whether it is better to fly in day early meet with Dr Natale in person in office day before procedure or do telemed with him several days early and just fly in day before procedure

It depends on his clinic schedule if there is time I would think. Did they offer you a choice between virtual or in person?

Geocappy - Great that you have a date. I can understand your being nervous but I agree with Susan’s comment that Dr. Natale’s skill put her at ease. When I had my first Natale ablation in 2003, I had to wait six months. It was definitely worth the wait and nothing has changed about that, for sure. In 2014, I developed A-flutter and Dr. Natale ablated that in Texas along with a touch up in 2015 which meant flying from Ohio to Texas twice and the “Calming” protocols helped again.

In 2004, I offered a post titled “Calming My Heart.” It’s long but you can skim through it for tips that may help reduce anxiety. Here’s the link… [www.afibbers.org]

I also rely on PharmaGaba (Natural Factors) if or when I am likely to be in a setting or situation that might be stressful. Often, I think that it’s more of a ‘placebo effect’ than a true need, but it works and it’s safe, economical and easy. That’s just “my paranoia” because don’t want stress to affect my heart.

I’ll be watching for your news so keep us posted.

Best to you,
Jackie

Quote
Geocappy
Any input as far a whether it is better to fly in day early meet with Dr Natale in person in office day before procedure or do telemed with him several days early and just fly in day before procedure

From the perspective of another patient waiting for an ablation, I think I would prefer to meet with him in person as everyone says that he is so very reassuring and also in case there was any need for him to listen to your heart or whatever. Also, I would want to leave time to meet with the anesthesiologist. And then there is the possibility of a flight being canceled—it would be desperately disappointing to miss your ablation!

I had an appointment to meet with him the day before my ablation. I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, he was not available so his NP met with us. Fortunately, though, I had a telemed visit with him after he reviewed my medical records. It was a great call and it proved to me what folks had told me……he is a wonderful, humble person!!

The thing I was disappointed in was my discharge day. There were so many staff in my room, I could not take everything in !! I wish I would have had more time that day to speak with Dr. Natale.

This suggestion is not specific to Dr. Natale. Ask the doc's permission to record the audio of the meeting. Some docs may not want this from a litigation perspective, however if they will allow it, you can go back and listen to the meeting for anything you missed. This is especially good for post operative meetings where you may still be recovering from anesthesia. Our longevity doc allows this as have the surgeons for a number of my wife's surgeries.

Recording the meeting, if permissible, is a great idea! I should have remembered to do that. I will be going back, so thank you for the suggestion.

Quote
Daisy

Any input as far a whether it is better to fly in day early meet with Dr Natale in person in office day before procedure or do telemed with him several days early and just fly in day before procedure From the perspective of another patient waiting for an ablation, I think I would prefer to meet with him in person as everyone says that he is so very reassuring and also in case there was any need for him to listen to your heart or whatever. Also, I would want to leave time to meet with the anesthesiologist. And then there is the possibility of a flight being canceled—it would be desperately disappointing to miss your ablation!

Flying in the day before to guard against missing a flight is absolutely mandatory in my opinion, especially in the current climate of air travel chaos.

But I disagree with the in-person meeting reasons. You can fly in the afternoon of the day before the procedure just to make sure you make it. You don't have to arrive on a red-eye at 6am to make a 9am appointment with Natale. He's as reassuring on video as much as he is in-person, and there's zero chance he's going to need to listen to your heart. Your meeting with him will probably be quite brief, maybe 15 minutes, so I wouldn't place too much value in a face-to-face. As the world now knows from the last two years, video conferencing is a powerful tool that comes very close to in-person meetings.

There's also zero chance you're going to get to meet with the anesthesiologist until right before the procedure unless maybe you're a very unusual case. An anesthesiologist might not even have been assigned yet.

I would opt for the virtual meeting.

Quote
Daisy

Any input as far a whether it is better to fly in day early meet with Dr Natale in person in office day before procedure or do telemed with him several days early and just fly in day before procedure From the perspective of another patient waiting for an ablation, I think I would prefer to meet with him in person as everyone says that he is so very reassuring and also in case there was any need for him to listen to your heart or whatever. Also, I would want to leave time to meet with the anesthesiologist. And then there is the possibility of a flight being canceled—it would be desperately disappointing to miss your ablation!

I had three Natale ablations, watchman and pacemaker at Robles in CA. Each time the anesthesiologist came very briefly in the Cath lab’s recovery room when I was prepped to go. If I had my choice, I would had loved to see Dr Natale for a short moment as well but he run his procedures like clockwork precision and I never had that opportunity. Perhaps in Austin it’s different.

Quote
Carey


But I disagree with the in-person meeting reasons. You can fly in the afternoon of the day before the procedure just to make sure you make it. You don't have to arrive on a red-eye at 6am to make a 9am appointment with Natale. He's as reassuring on video as much as he is in-person, and there's zero chance he's going to need to listen to your heart. Your meeting with him will probably be quite brief, maybe 15 minutes, so I wouldn't place too much value in a face-to-face. As the world now knows from the last two years, video conferencing is a powerful tool that comes very close to in-person meetings.

There's also zero chance you're going to get to meet with the anesthesiologist until right before the procedure unless maybe you're a very unusual case. An anesthesiologist might not even have been assigned yet.

I would opt for the virtual meeting.

So true. No need to see him in person and in CA the anesthesiologist also showed up right before they wheeled me in. I still wasn’t rushed and had time to speak each time.

I do recommend you shave yourself the night before. Two of my ablations I did prep beforehand and it was lucky because they came to get me and the RN said “wait, I didn’t shave yet” and my home prep saved time because I replied no need.

With my Natale ablation a year ago I was required to be at Los Robles for a physical exam/blood test the day before. I offered to have my local Cardiologist do the physical but Los Robles required their own.

I did not meet with Natale the day before but did go over things with his NP.

Since it was my second ablation with Natale I had no anxiety about that, indeed I just wanted it to happen fast so I could get on with my life.

I did have some anxiety while hooked up and waitig to get started as I couldn't help going into the what-if's about postponement, etc., while waiting alone in the curtained off area, The Anasthesiologist, the NP and others came by from time to time but it took perhaps 90 minutes to assemble the whole team. i asked the Anasthesiologist for an Ativan or something to make the wait more pleasant. He said he didn't have any. If I ever need a third ablation I will take a 1 mg Ativan into the prep area with me.

Quote
Carey
I would opt for the virtual meeting.

Thanks—that is all helpful information. Question: don’t they want to do a CAT scan the day before? I read that somewhere here.

Daisy, my CAT scan was done the day of the procedure.

Quote
Daisy
Thanks—that is all helpful information. Question: don’t they want to do a CAT scan the day before? I read that somewhere here.

They do for people who've had previous ablations because they want to rule out preexisting stenosis of the pulmonary veins. So they did for me but most people I know who've gone to Natale didn't get a chest CT.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2022 07:23PM by Carey.

On taping I have a functional med doc that suggests it.. I am always leery to ask. on the anesthesia.. I have never had an appt before but have always had lengthy conversations even before cardioversion. (less lengthy for those). And I had two teams last time- one for TEE and one for ablation - I spoke with both of them. Sometimes you have to be insistent LOL. (Again .. and I feel I should just put a * at the end of all my posts.. I have had a lot of other "work done"...so maybe I'm a special case...)

I agree Carey,

The only time I have seen Natale ablation patients being required to have a pre-procedure spiral CT, is strictly to rule out pulmonary vein stenosis occurring within any of the four pulmonary veins from a most recent ablation, and whenever the patient has had one or more previous ablations elsewhere ... for just the same reason you noted above, Carey.

One would think PV stenosis was more or less a thing of the past by now ... and it is quite rare these days. We have only rarely seen it reported on our forum over the last decade plus .. at least only a small handful at most that I can recall. It is also the case that PV-stenosis is more often associated with a less experienced operator, with a few exceptions.

Nevertheless, highly experienced operators from renowned ablation centers will typically also require a CT scan as part of a new ablation procedure from those with a prior ablation history, primarily just to document that no PV-stenosis has occurred during a previous ablation

Actually, just about all of the experienced operators and top centers that I am aware of usually require a prior CT scan as well.

Shannon