So it seems nothing is simple in my life. My official diagnosis is Multifocal Atrial Tachycardia, Atrial Flutter and Atrial Fibrillation (and a leaky Mital valve but that's mild and not a problem at the moment). I am lucky to have amazing cardiologists that I love. The recommendation is for a pulmonary vein isolation and atrial flutter ablation which would be done at the same time. If you've had these done together I'd like to hear your experiences.
I see my EP again in 6 weeks and we'll book it in then. I have been sick with shingles so we want to make sure I'm "fighting fit" before proceeding.
All I want is my life back
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Kaz747
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It is much easier to do both together Kaz. Flutter is in the right atrium which is where they arrive before punching through the septum to get to the left atrium and fibrillation. Can do it either on the way in or out. Recovery time should be the same.
I had atrial flutter ablation a number of years ago and Pulmonary Vein Isolation at the beginning of May this year.
As Bob says, a lot easier to have it all done in one go.
Make sure you rest after the op. In my case, I had complete rest for the first week (doing very, very little) and only a bit more the 2nd week. I’m coming up to 6 weeks post ablation now and still off work but getting out and about and increasing my activity levels by going for a couple of good walks each day.
I have been able to reduce my meds (Sotolol) by 75% and have found this has done wonders for increasing my levels of energy.
Hope all goes well for you, and that you recover from shingles quickly.
I'm on Sotalol 40 mg bid. Wondered if this "slowing down" led to diverticulitis return after 6 yrs......sleeping 15+ hrs a day. Is one ever able to stop Sotalol? Had SVT ablated 2/17. Happy you have made great progress.
I had both done at the same time last July. I had sedation instead of anesthesia and slept through it.
Insure you get plenty of rest afterwards. Main thing for me was to listen to my body and take it easy for the first few months.
I had episodes of afib up until the third month post ablation and the episodes finally stopped altogether.
I was put on eliquis, cartia XT and flecanaide 300mg for 3 months.
I am happy to report I have been free of afib for 8 months now and feel great. The procedure itself wasn't bad at all for me plus I am off all meds now.
I have had the shingles and afib flutter and pulmonary vein isolation are a walk in the park in comparison. Plus it is easy to do both at once as Bob mentioned.
Thanks for the replies. It's interesting to hear your stories. I am concerned about how much time I may need off work to recover. I started a new job in February, had a month of April/May after ending up in hospital with Atrial Flutter and having a cardioversion, then being diagnosed with shingles. And now this. Hopefully my wonderfully supportive boss will continue to be so.
Hopefully your boss will appreciate you'll be fitted than before once recovered. I had AF and Flutter combined ablation, didn't seem to take as long as some other people reported. It is certainly important to be as fit as you can be beforehand. I have several other conditions that made it more complicated but I still recovered fairly quickly. Best wishes!
I suppose that this will depend on how physical and how stressful your job actually is. Remember that the ablation procedure is causing actual damage to the heart which then has to heal. Most jobs can be done a few days after having had a broken leg put in plaster, but not a builder or a footballer . . . The important thing is to do little that could put stress on your heart beat. If you can think calmly and rationally about your problems when working and it's a rather sedentary type of job, then there is no reason why working light duties would get in the way of your healing. Just be careful of how it is affecting you? I hope you boss remains supportive!
Had a good chat to my boss today (he is on the other side of the country to me) and he was great. I'll take the time off I need and then should be able to work from home a couple of weeks before getting back into things properly. I find the commute (walk, bus, train, walk) very tiring at the moment.
I had a dual procedure done a couple of months ago. Having both procedures done at the same time made sense to me; I'm difficult to sedate so was aware for most of the time. I certainly didn't sleep through it, and found the phrenic nerve stimulation very uncomfortable. That said, I'm glad I had both procedures done together and most people are much less aware during sedation.
My main reason for chipping in here is to warn against doing too much too soon. Two and a half weeks after my procedure I was feeling well and going along nicely with a rock steady HB of 60 only taking a very low, 1.25mg, dose of bisoprol plus rivaraxoban. I'd taken the good advice from others on this forum to take it steady and was feeling great. My poorly partner had left our very heavy powered mower at the bottom of a slope and a storm was brewng so I pushed the mower up the slope without starting the engine. Could have been a coincidence, but BAM! my heart switched into flutter, where it remained until a cardio version five weeks later. I'm back to a steady 60BPM and hoping my recklessness hasn't undone the good work done by my lovely EP before the scars had a chance to mature.
Thanks Jan. I appreciate you sharing your story. I hope things continue to work well for you.
I'm hoping to have a general anaesthetic. I had my first ablation under sedation and it was awful. They stopped it after 4 hours as I was so uncomfortable. I had a second ablation under GA which was much better. That's when they discovered there were multiple foci so unfortunately that didn't fix the problem either. Everytime they got a spot, it would fire off somewhere else. Fingers crossed everything works this time.
I'm with you as far as requesting a GA is concerned. Most people seem to snooze away on sedation but I was wide awake throughout.......Totally out of it about five hours after the event tho'
I'll keep you posted but dont want to tempt fate by posting "all is fine" too soon.
I had the same thing except leaking tricuspid valve and aortic valve both minor this procedure is going to hurt like you can't imagine because of where they must ablate if your any thing like me brace your self for a very tough recovery I can tell you it's worth it to get rid of the arrhythmias because they will over time mess up the heart muscle reply when your out of the hospital if you have any questions about what to expect I'm on week 11 now tachycardia free but still healing from the surgery. Most Important don't be afraid.
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Today was NOT the day
Scotsman frae Edinburgh age 77 
Kardia and Atrial Flutter
Second Ablation in my four year journey with AFIB 
