I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty upbeat. The ablation procedure had gone very well and I was going to be discharged from the hospital. I had a brief episode just before 7 AM of nausea with a cold and clammy sweat that had me a little worried. This was the second episode (the first was Friday afternoon) and I didn't know if they would still let me go home or not. They had a drug they put in my IV that helped the nausea almost instantly. My blood pressure was low during this time but they weren't sure if that was the cause or just a coincidence. The symptoms went away and my BP slowly returned to a more normal range. After breakfast they checked my BP while laying flat, sitting up, and then standing up and I passed with flying colors. They wanted me to walk some so I made a couple of laps around the cardiac care unit.
Not too long after returning to my room, Dr. Natale stopped by to discharge me. He thought the couple of episodes I had might have been caused by the sedation drugs and wound not continue. Short runs of AF are common in the first month or two post-ablation so he put be back on a lower dose of Flecainide and Cardizem for two months. We are supposed to schedule a follow-up appointment with Dr. Natale for 3-months. In the meantime they gave us a HeartCard device that lets me record my heart rhythm once a day and phone in the recordings for their documentation.
We did ask to take a picture before he left. Here is Dr. Natale with his still yet to be released patient:
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