Well they say everyone is different...

[Lizty]

My EP told me that every patient is different and, to my amazement, spent a good 40 minutes at my first appointment working out what might be causing my arrhythmia. One of the complications might be bradycardia, but he needed to deal with the atrial flutter and atrial fib first and then see what happened after that. So I am now nearly 7 weeks after ablation and beginning to feel a good deal better.... but...still tiring very easily. My pulse rate is still quite high, and my blood pressure low.... funny old mix. My EP did mention the possibility of a pacemaker in relation to the flutter.... but not sure why. Does anyone else have these kind of symptoms and does a pacemaker sound like a possibility?

[tibetan36]

Hi Lizty

I have the same symptoms as you. I have a pacemaker installed to deal with Bradycardia only.....I believe pacemakers do not help with Afib or Aflutter. I have already had two ablations. One needs time to recover, say three to six months or even longer for the scar tissue to form. In that time we may still have all the symptoms which will eventually diminish as time goes on. (that's the theory). I have no medical qualifications so cannot say why your EP is relating a pacemaker to Atrial flutter. At this very moment I am in both AF and Atflutter with my pulse stuck around 98-105 bpm. I am due for a cardioversion and or another ablation soon. I also had two stents installed a week ago to make a total of four all up. Never ending....

I wish you well Lizty and hope you are back to full health asap.

Cheers

Barry

[Lizty in reply to tibetan36]

Well, I certainly know now about the long recovery period.... Although they say it takes 3 months plus for your heart to recover, you assume that the rest of you will get back to normal sooner! I still get tired easily and a bit breathless on walking. I think that some people are back on their horses pretty soon.... whereas I am leading quite a quiet life myself. Still it was always pretty manic before! Re atrial flutter, my EP wanted to do it first in case it was the worse of the two conditions...but warned me that after that I might need a pacemaker. I decided to have both flutter and afib done together as it would just be one...albeit long...procedure. Thanks Barry for your helpful advice. Seems that it is possible that a pacemaker may be a later addition. Happy with that if it means I can go zip-wiring one day with my niece!!

[LindaDaisy]

I have an ICD for LVNC and a bad family history. In the last 10 years I've also developed episodes of various arrhythmias. Bradycardia was identified as sometimes occurring before a arrhythmia disturbance. So the pace maker part of the ICD is set to pace me if I go below 60.

[Lizty in reply to LindaDaisy]

Ah... that rings a bell. When i was younger i used to get bradycardia and tachycardia.... and occasionally got really bad dizzy spells as a result. The EP asked whether it was the brady or tachy that preceded the dizzy spells, but I couldn't specify exactly as each time I was more worried about passing out than figuring out how I had got to that point! {which I never did, completely]

Thanks Linda....every little bit of info helps...