Second ablation after six months

[jsanta]

back in February my doctor noticed that I had any irregular heartbeat after looking at the EKG. Then I went to the cardiologist and sure enough he said when I'm resting I'm in a flutter.I proceeded to have an ablation. And everything was perfect. Actually went to the Super Bowl 10 days later. I was fine.

About five weeks ago I noticed I was extremely out of breath after going upstairs.

I went to the doctor and when I rest I have no problem but any type of exercise I go into a extreme a flutter. . Ironically I started taking Cialis for BPH and that's the time I came up with the fatigue and out of breath. I'm convinced thatcher daily 5 mg triggered the aflutter/a fib.it so on Tuesday I have another ablation except he's going to go up both groins he said I have a flutter but he's going to treat it like a fib .

He also said if I just traded with drugs which I am in right now Xeralto and Metropol that is a good chance my a flutter will turn into a fib.

Not really happy about all this but I was just wondering if any of you have a second ablation and it was successful and I don't understand why he's going to both sides this time.

He trying to explain it to me in layman's terms and said that I now have two gears now first gear and fifth gear and when I going to fifth year my heart starts beating very very fast he regularly there's no second third and fourth gear.

When I rest I'm perfectly fine just any type of exercise wears me out. Im the 64-year-old man a little overweight ex college football player and not happy!

[BobD Volunteer]

It actually makes no difference mechanically which groin he goes into as the route to the heart is the same. I e along a vein into the right atrium. I do know that some EPs use both sides and maybe this is to put more bits and pieces in there but do understand that it makes no difference which side of the heart they arrive at as all veins arrive at the right. Flutter is in the right atrium but for fibrillation they have to punch through the septum into the left atrium. My third ablation I had one each side and one in my right wrist as well so don't worry.

[jsanta in reply to BobD]

Thanks Bob. He is going to go into both sides. He said this ablation will be a couple hours vs the last one which was an hour. Must be there's more work to be done.

So I was just wondering if anybody understands what he means when he says I have a flutter but he's treating it like I have A fib..

Also success rate for second ablation?

[BobD Volunteer in reply to jsanta]

Flutter can cause fib so treating both makes sense.

[Maggimunro in reply to jsanta]

Hi there jsanta, just had my second ablation for afib three weeks ago and this guy seems to have done a much more thorough job than the first surgeon. He also used both groins, presumably to take all the catherters they need to blast the cells around the four pulmonary veins.

So far I am recovering well and did a 4 mile walk yesterday. Hope the same for you.

[jsanta in reply to Maggimunro]

Thanks M! I am really happy for you! I can't walk four hundred feet without getting out of breath! I am having the same doctor do it but this ablation will take a couple hours vs an hour last time.so I hope he does everything he needs to do to make me healthy again. What were your symptoms the first time and the second time ?? How long after your first ablation did you need a second one? How long was it before you could lift anything?

Really appreciate you getting back to me it's such a lonely feeling out there. I'll keep you posted thanks again for the response! Santa🎅🏻

[Maggimunro in reply to jsanta]

I became aware of my heart problems when I started getting tachcardia and fainting. The 7 day holter picked up 3 episodes of A fib during the week but as I was literally dropping the holter back at the hospital I collapsed again with a pulse of well over 200 bpm. So my first EP denied I even had Afib and put me on his 6 month waiting list. I wasn't exactly enamoured with his attitude and arrogance.

My first EP tried 3 different drugs. None worked.

My quality of life went down hill rapidly over the next 3 months so I asked for a cancellation and this turned out to be with a different EP. So my ablation for SVT was done in July 2016 and was a huge success.

My follow up with the second EP showed I had been in Afib for 35 hours during the week I wore the holter. Yes, I had had bad patches of 3-5 days when I could barely get out of bed, but I had felt OK whilst wearing the holter.

He put me on his 5 month waiting list (I needed a GA) but life deteriorated rapidly and I was barely functioning, so again I asked for a cancellation.

Unfortunately the cancellation took me back to my first EP. I had the ablation for A fib with him and it was horrendous. It took 5 hours. However, After I recovered from the op, I felt OK. I went to Australia. Felt great, came back and wore the holter again. Five weeks later I felt bad again.

Back to see my second EP and learned I had been in persistant Afib even though I had felt fine.

I had my second ablation for Afib with my second EP just 3.5 weeks ago and I can't tell you how different the two experiences have been. Smooth and rapid recovery from the op and quick recovery back to health again. So far all I am having are bouts of ectopics.

Onwards and upwards.

[teach2learn in reply to jsanta]

My paroxysmal fibrillation progressed to permanent over about 18 months and had added flutter by the time I got my first ablation, which was delightfully successful for 18 months. When new AF symptoms began, milder and usually helped with flecainide PIP, my EP said a second ablation is common to "clean up" areas that grow back over after the first. So, to be free of heart meds, I went with a second and have been af free for nearly two years. Well worth it. BTW, he did it all through only one right groin incision because I'd had a saphenous vein removed (varicose) years ago on the left. It was unusual, but apparently using both sides is optional, probably for redundancy safety.

[jsanta in reply to BobD]

Thanks Bob!

[jsanta in reply to jsanta]

T thanks.. I am happy you said something about the varicose vein because I had varicose vein done on both sides about 20 years ago so I'll bring that to the doctors attention today being that I have my pre-surgery appointment. That's my formums like this are really a source of great information..