Af afib a month after ablation

[gazakura]

Before the ablation, i would only get AF maybe once a month, but it would last quit long, almost 24 hours sometimes. So i opted to have my first ablation about 6 weeks ago. After the ablation everything seemed normal and apart from getting the odd heart beat here and there, I went about my daily life albeit taking it slow with any exercise. About 4 weeks in, i decided to have a 'light' gym session, lift a few weights, nothing too heavy. 2 days later, i am in and out of AF every 5 minutes or so, ranging from 1 or 2 seconds to 20 seconds. This almost always happens as i am about to go to sleep so i have been having a lot of trouble sleep, as i would also wake up in panic from coming into and out of AF and sinus rhythm. Is this normal? And will it get better? It's been 2 weeks like this already and I can't help but feel a bit discouraged.

[Hidden]

Not unusual at all as you will see from the AF Association fact sheet, link below. We always tend to express a degree of caution with exercise levels above the norm. Your heart has taken a beating and it needs time to recover which may be why it has reacted badly to lifting weights. Listen to your body is good advice and although it can be a bit frustrating, it’s better than putting yourself at unnecessary risk.....

heartrhythmalliance.org/res...

Hope this helps.....

[jeanjeannie50]

As you have brought your AF back by doing exercises that put strain on the body I would try this:

Hold your upper body as tense as you can and bear down while breathing out through your mouth for as long as you possibly can. Or Google valsalva maneuver. Sometimes just tensing the body and bearing down, without doing the breathing out would work for me.

Jean

[dmac4646]

How about not excercise for a while and see what happens

[gazakura in reply to dmac4646]

Thanks, definitely will be taking it lightly in terms of exercise for the next few months. I'm just hoping it does settle down and I didn't just undone all the good work from the ablation.

[Mike11]

I think this emphasises that consultants performing ablations need to tell patients to take it easy for THREE TO SIX MONTHS ! An ablation is a major incursion on the second most vital organ in the body and it needs to recover properly before it is stressed.

Sorry to not be any more helpful, but we see this issue time and time again on this forum. Limit yourself to light walking for the next five months and you will appreciate it at the end.

[Mary-miles in reply to Mike11]

Mike I totally agree Most physicians say take it”easy” for a few weeks and don’t lift anything over 10 pounds and then get on with it.They should read this blog from the people who have had ablations and they would see that it’s not as fast a recovery as they think it should be.They could gather data from everyone they gave an ablation to for the first year ,including age sex medications etc and then people would all know this is a long process and it’s normal for some to take longer to heal than others.Its not instant results for most people and they could even recommend a group like this for support.It would cut back a lot of the anxiety that we get from thinking OMG I am the only one.

[dmac4646]

Hopefully it will indeed settle.