It’s now five days since my ablation under general anaesthesia for what was called symptomatic permanent atrial flutter. The operation lasted around three hours. I’ve had the condition for a couple of months and was pretty much devastated by it. It changed me from being an energetic 65-year-old to being a very diminished individual, both physically and psychologically.
The ablation has worked and my heart is beating normally again. I thought I would write about my experiences in the hope it might help others since what I'd read from some others on social media led me to expect to feel much better this week than I am doing. For example, here is a quotation from someone on Facebook: "Successful ABLATION yesterday!!! I'm in NSR and everything is going well..." I feel GREAT." I wish I could write such a post!
More confusingly for me, my consultant and GP have told me that what I’m experiencing is perfectly normal – so why the discrepancy between what people suffer? Well, I can’t account for it at present except to repeat the adage that we’re all different. Maybe the reason is that only 10% of arrhythmias are “flutter”, and permanent flutter is much less still? Maybe it’s the side effect on my now "normal" heart of my bisoprolol 2.5mg (my heart rate has plummeted down to under 50bpm at times)? Maybe my heart needs to strengthen after being weakened by the flutter? Whatever the cause, this week has been an unpleasant experience when, at times, I’ve felt very poorly indeed.
The first three days brought lots of aches and pains many of which were around my heart and caused me, on occasion, intense anxiety. It’s hard to separate the physical from the psychological, and we all vary in that respect, I realise, but I have at times felt very poorly indeed - and frightened. I had swallowing issues, wherein if I gulped liquid, it created a dreadful kind of powerful palpitation feeling; I often felt something like a balloon under my left rib pressing on my heart – a kind of chest pressure and mild pain on the left side and sternum; I sometimes felt like something was stuck in my throat – and lots else besides. Weeing the first night was ridiculous – I was bursting to go but hardly could. I had to go back to bed still bursting to go and was forced to get up every half hour at times. I suffer insomnia but that night slept hardly at all.
Luckily… things started to improve a great deal yesterday and today is somewhat better still. I still have next to no energy and can’t do much at all without feeling unpleasant pressures in the chest and so on. So, I don’t do much at all.
I did find a truly useful and enlightening website that has helped me and my family through the week. It’s written by an American EP cardiologist who tells it “as it is” and who has also, I believe, has had ablations himself. This is the link:
drjohnm.org/2014/12/ten-thi...
Finally - a thank you to the fellow sufferers on this website who write in and help others. It's been an emotional experience all round and you have helped a great deal.
Steve