My very good friend Gillyflower recently put up graph of recovery expectations against reality which although a small joke actually showed what many of us find so I thought I would share a few thoughts and experiences.
A friend had a realively minor operation and when asking how long it would take to recover, the doctor said "about a year". What from that? queried my friend, to which the reply was "from anything!
In our fact sheet on Recovering from Ablation we talk about three to six months for the heart to heal but go on to say that many people are improving up to nine months or a year later. I know that it took me at least nine months before I began to feel that I might actaully be back to normal. Doctors can be very glib about ablation and often tell patients they will be fine in a couple of days which makes them feel failures when they don't. Ablation has no (or very litle) exterior sign of happening so it can fool people into thinking that it is not a serious assault on their body. Just a general anaesthetic can take months to clear for example. The length of time you are under makes a difference as well.
Nothing to do with AF here but an example from me of how medical staff seem to fool patients. When I had my prostatectomy it of course made me incontinent. I was told it might take me six weeks or so to re-learn control. I had to attend regular sessions with what my wife called the "weights and measures " department to check how much my bladder was holding. It was hard and degrading and I began to dispare of ever getting the hang of it even though I was wearing progressivly smaller pads. At about six months suddenly they told me "you are doing ever so well" to which i said what about the six weeks you mentioned. "Oh don't worry about that. Lots of men never manage control after having their prostate removed and we can do another operation to fit a mechanical sphinter valve if needed. " I never needed it but have met people who have them!
You see by giving unrealistic expectations staff just demoralise patients but it still goes on. Our fact sheet hopefully helps patients to understand the reality of recovery and enough old hands are here to tell people off if they ignore the advice.
Be kind to yourselves and above all BE PATIENT!
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BobD
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With my PSA reading rising from 4.1 to 4.6 over the last 6 months and medics circling this did not make for pleasant reading but appreciate the heads-up anyway.
Noted, with fingers crossed I am taking 80% of sugar and calcium out of my diet plus a supplement and the new kid on the block broccoli sprouts will dampen it down.
I so agree with you on what doctors and nursing staff say to you. I have had asthma since the age of four(1948), was put on prednisolone in 1969 because I would not live to the end of the week if I did not start them but if I did I would probably live another ten years if I was lucky. Twenty years later I went on 10mg prednisolone daily to bring my asthma under control. I always get a lecture on being on too much steroid, so I just had over my stack of blue steroid cards dating back to 1969 and that gives them something to thing about. In 2014 I had appendicitis that could not be operated on because I have abdominal adhesions from previous surgery, Chronic Obstructive Airway Disease,and adrenal insufficiency. So I was treated with antibiotics and and pain relief, told I would not be leaving the hospital. Then they told me I had AFib. After two failed Cardio Versions I was discharged back to GP because I had problems with the second cv and that meant I could not have surgery. I have since had four more bouts of appendicitis and each time I have been told I will not be leaving the hospital. In between these I have had Pneumonia five times. I am still here but I felt really unwell when I went to see the gp when the anti-coagulation clinic said I had to go on DOACs and a couple of results came back poor. GP said it was not a good prognosis my kidneys have poor function and they may not improve .
Good advice, I felt a total failure after my first ablation after being told I could go back to work just a few days after...... I went back six weeks later and still struggled! I knew what to expect after my second one so didn’t feel that awful pressure to be on top form straight afterwards and gave myself a chance to heal.
I wonder if medical staff make these unrealistic promises/predictions because they do not want to put patients off what they see as essential treatment. As we know some patients are excessively cautious and have posted numerous times here before taking the plunge, so medics can be forgiven for being economical with the truth sometimes even though it leads to lack of trust in the long run. When I had a spinal op my surgeon (who we trying to put me off I think) told me I could expect a recovery period of 18 months or more. My attitude was that 18 months out of a life of misery was nothing and I took a stroppy attitude to the prediction which helped my recovery. Also there may be the risk that recovery may stretch to fill the time allotted to it but they certainly overdo the positive predictions.
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My recovery from my pulse field ablation April 15.
shortness of breath
3% Afib burden and proposed medication
breathlessness 
PVC’s and Travel
