Here is an email which I sent to the webmaster of a site...

Here is an email which I sent to the webmaster of a site who has had Catheter Ablation himself.

Dear Mike,

I live in England and have had episodes of fast heartbeats for over 20 years. I thought that these were unique to me and besides I had found a way to control them. These arrhythmia’s only occurred when lifting heavy objects and never when driving. They would happen about once a month and as I could control them I didn’t think anymore about them.

I have been a private pilot for seventeen years and in 1996 decided to learn to fly helicopters with a view to becoming an instructor. The tachycardia never happened in the air either. In 2000 I had enough experience to qualify as a helicopter instructor and left full time employment to pursue a career as a helicopter pilot. I flew with several hundred people until 2002, when I experienced a couple of seconds of light- headedness. This passed and I thought no more of it. Then a few months later the light-headedness came back, again only for a couple of seconds. This was quite frightening. So I monitored what I was doing closely. The next day I had another episode. That was it! It's great to go flying, even better to be paid for it but it's not worth dieing for. I immediately grounded my self and reported this to the authorities in the hope that they could help. I /we thought this was anxiety until my aero medical examiner asked me if there was anything else I wanted to tell him. I told him about the fast heartbeat. He then suggested that I might have SVT but that this could be treated and that in time I could return to flying. I was referred to specialist cardiologists at the UK CAA. I told them that immediately before the light-headedness I felt a flutter in my chest. I had more tests done and it was concluded that I had PSVT. As I did not have any medical insurance and because having lost my job I couldn’t pay for it, I was referred to a cardiologist on our National Health Service.

What is the point of this e-mail? Well I am the sort of person who likes to find out information about a subject. With the web this was relatively easy. I have always been interested in medicine so this was a bonus. The trouble was that I frightened the life out of myself. It was at this time that I came across your website. It was comforting to find someone who had gone through this. I read your pages with great interest including the FDA pages. I then did lots more searching on the web and with further follow-ups with doctors over here it was thought that I had Atrial Flutter, triggered by PSVT. If I wanted to fly again then EP Study and Ablation were the only options. Besides this arrhythmia was starting to make me ill, so the flying was now a secondary concern. An appointment was made at one of our biggest teaching hospitals for the procedure.

Like you and probably most other people, I became more and more anxious as the time grew nearer. The night before I was to go into hospital I was feeling anxious one moment and fine the next. I had now amassed enough information about what they were going to do that I could probably do the procedure myself. In a word I was very frightened. I called and old friend of mine who has just had a heart attack himself and he just let me pour it all out. I really did feel like crying. Talking to my friend Dave helped me quite a lot. The next day I put off going to hospital until the very last minute. To my surprise once I had been admitted to hospital, my anxiety levels started to go down. I think that this was due to the fact that I had finally resigned myself that tomorrow I was going to have the procedure, eight months after initial diagnosis. I was fortunate to be in a bed next to someone who’d had this procedure several times before and he reassured me. In the end you have to put you trust in that the doctors know what they are doing and that they are there to help you. I discussed my anxieties with the cardiologist who was to perform the procedure and he explained what would happen and the risks involved. He also arranged for me to have a tranquilliser before I was taken to the Cath Lab.

The procedure itself was totally painless. I was in the lab for 2.5 hours and never felt any pain at all, in fact it was absolutely fascinating looking at all of the equipment and what the doctors and nurses were doing. They found that I had in fact got "AV Nodal Re-entrant Tachycardia". Two accessory tracts were found and ablated but unfortunately one is close to the AV Node so it was decided to stop there and repeat the EP Study in ten weeks time. So I was partially cured. Now when the time comes to go back, I hope I will not be so anxious.

If any one is contemplating or waiting for catheter ablation and is worried then please by all means forward my email address to them if they want to get in touch. Like you I found that the procedure is much less daunting than what it seems. Finally, two days after the procedure I have four small holes in my right groin and quite an impressive bruise. They are starting to ache a little bit but there is no pain.

Thanks for your web pages; they helped a lot in the beginning.

Kind Regards

John O'Donoghue

Follow-on from 02/14/2003.

Ten weeks have past since my first EP Study and Partially successful ablation. I returned to the Cath Lab yesterday, 05/06/2003, less anxious than the first time but all the same concerned as they were going to carry out a " Trans Septal" re-do procedure. After a chat with my cardiologist, this time I walked into the Cath Lab totally un-sedated, and just chatted to the staff as the prepared me for the procedure. As before much of what happened did so whilst I was asleep. I would wake up from time to time and then drop off again. I tended to wake up when they were pacing my heart to find the accessory pathways. This again took about three hours. Again there was no pain associated with the procedure including the ablations. As I lay in the re-covery room waiting to be taken back to my ward I asked my Cardiologist for the results. He said they were pretty sure they had ablated the problem. I must say though that this time I did feel some pushing and shoving in the groin area during the procedure. This time doctors used five catheters, three in the right and two in the left groin. I have to say that four hours later when they took out the catheter sheaths, there was some bleeding which meant a lot of pressure on both groins. This coupled with seven hours flat on my back did hurt, a couple of analgesia tablets helped here, but if indeed they have cured me, then 15 minutes of pain is worth it. Time will tell. Once again, if you are going to have this procedure then it is only natural to be anxious, but put your trust in your doctors, they are there to help you.

Best regards

John O'Donoghue.

Update 06/10/2006

Over three years later, I am arrhythmia free. I’ve had no repeat episodes of tachycardia.

If anybody is going to have this procedure and they want to talk about it, then please feel free to email me, and I’ll help if I can with any questions.

[i:6a75314f92]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:6a75314f92]

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