6yrs Post Frontal Heart Ablation.

[cvintson007]

I hope some one can Answer some questions for me. I had an Ablation 6 yrs ago, I was 46yrs old, my Top node & bottom node of my heart found each other, my heart was beating 10k times more in a 24hr period I was in bad shape. So my Heart Surgeon Preformed the Ablation on the front 4 quadrants of my heart, I felt like a New Man the next day. 6 months later my Cardiologist put me on Flecainide 75mg.at night & Nadolol.for Palpitations, fluttering and chest pain, preforms ECG's heart is fine he says. O.k I am now 52yrs old, same meds and alot of Chest pains w/ Palpitations, especially in the evening, folks please answer me back and tell me your symptoms so I will know I am not going to have live the rest of my life with this. My eMail is [e-mail]. Thanks and God Bless, Chris

[wendicarro]

Hi Chris

,

Is this you're first abalation? I had my first about three years ago and was symptom free for 1 week only ,my AF suddenly got worse over the next year so went on to have my second procedure and went into a fib immediately and was commenced on flecanide, they became gradually worse again with chest pain, breathlessness and atrial flutter.

I was advised to take up to 300mg of Flecanide and 200mg of Metoprolol but still no better, Early last year I had my first fainting episode and felt that I could not function on these meds, I had another ablation in March last year and symptoms returned with a vengeance.

I was then taken off Flecanide and left on Metoprolol and had a pacemaker fitted in November!

I have just had an AV node ablation and am totally dependent on my pacemaker

and slowly reducing my medication.

You probably need a monitor to record what is happening for a few weeks rather than just an ecg, Have you got an arrhythmia nurse?

Your chest pain is likely to be effect of your heart doing the equivalent of a marathon!

I was always told to seek medical advice for chest pain lasting longer than a few hours .

I would ring your cardio secretary and ask advice,

Hope some of that helps??

Good Luck,

Wendi

[Hidden]

I would definitely have a word with your GP and ask to see an EP - electrophysiologist, the people who specialise in AF. You shouldn't have to go through this.

Lis

[BobD Volunteer]

Your description uses unfamiliar terms I'm afraid so I can't really tell what has been done for you. If you refer to the isolation of the four pulmonary veins in the left atria by ablation technique then this procedure sometimes needs to be repeated. If you go to AF Association website there are fact sheets properly describing ablation and all sorts of other AF related matters. As Wendi states a one off ECG seldom catches AF and you would need a long term monitor to see what is happening. I feel that you really need to see an electrophysiologist who is a specialist cardiologist who specialises in rhythm problems again and discuss the way forward. I had three ablations over three years but have been AF free for nearly 7 years now so it can be done.

Bob

[EngMac]

You might find this article of use. You need to login to get to read this. You will not get junk mail as a result of creating a login identity.

medscape.com/viewarticle/82...

There are many other articles on this site if you search for atrial fibrillation. I seem to remember reading that a certain school of thought suggests that drug therapy and ablations may not be long term effective solutions but interim ones only. They require tweaking as time goes on. I can't remember where I read this though.