4 months post abalation

[Padayn01]

Hi all just wanted to know peoples past experience with abalation at this stage. How did you feel? Where you fully recovered? Good days and bad? I had a rollercoaster these last 4 months got a bad irregular attack on week 6, 8 and 16 of my recovery, still get loads of skipped beats some days I get none, totally changed my diet lost weight and taking magnesium supplement just waiting for the day to be normal.

[higgy52]

4 months post Ablation was still recovering, loud heart missed beats stabbing pains in chest extra beats, nearly 10 months for me and still improving so far,

its still early days for you, can take up to a year to fully recover,

Good luck

[Padayn01 in reply to higgy52]

Glad things are improving for you thanks for the message cheers

[Hidden]

All sounds fairly normal and it’s good that you have made some lifestyle changes. If I were you, I would try and take your mind off matters of the heart and maybe even give the forum a miss for a while. Speaking purely from personal experience, I find it very beneficial sometimes, to completely break away and I often feel much better and become less aware of what’s going on with my heart. Of course, you must do what is right for you, it’s only a suggestion to help you towards finding that “normal day”.

[Padayn01 in reply to Hidden]

Yeah appreciate that flapjack but even if I gave this forum a break I just can’t get away from how my heart is acting up, I’m pretty counting every beat to make sure I’m in NSR , I know that’s not a good place to be in but I can’t help it, thank you mate for messaging

[Hidden in reply to Padayn01]

I know it’s not easy but you will get there.....👍

[BobD Volunteer]

Not far short of four months for me too and still have micro events circa 15 to 30 seconds. A trifle irritating but still plenty of time yet.

[Padayn01 in reply to BobD]

Cheers bobd I know we only a day or so apart in abalation

[Jakisu in reply to BobD]

Bob D, wanted to ask your best opinion. I have svt’s about once every 4-6 weeks, they come out of the blue, hit around 160bpm and last for up to an hour. I’ve always managed them altho they’re a bit of a nuisance!. I’m now on a list for an ablation and wanted to weigh up the pros and cons with you and the gang here. You seem to have ongoing issues so do you think those after effects are perfectly ok and better to go that route?

[Fazerboy]

I'm about 6 weeks since my ablation. Not on meds, heart seems ok but I think my hr fluctuates quite a lot at times. It seems to be high (about 110) at times when I wouldn't expect it to be that high. I'm ignoring it at and putting it down to "still settling in". I'm hoping that after about 6 months I won't notice it at all. I have a 3 month check in Jan so I'm hoping a good ecg result will reassure me more.

[Fazerboy in reply to Fazerboy]

should be "at the moment".

[Padayn01 in reply to Fazerboy]

Great that your not on meds, I’m still on the meds

[Fazerboy in reply to Padayn01]

I was only on 1.25mg of Bisoprolol so quite a low dose. I think we just have to let time improve things.

[Padayn01 in reply to Fazerboy]

I’m on 25mg of metraprol

[djbgatekeeper]

I had a Cryoablation September 2018, the first 6 months were up and down then my heart started to settle. I have noticed steps in the right direction even after a year, situation now is I get about 20 single palpatations a week and that's about it... Fingers crossed it stays that way. Best of luck with your recovery.

[Padayn01 in reply to djbgatekeeper]

Thanks pal and glad things are improving for you also 👍🏼

[Ianp66]

8 month post ablation coming up now mate for me, I know exactly how you feel! it can become obsessive listening and waiting for a run or irregular period to occur , plus checking pulse and bp etc etc can become a vicious circle . Have to say I had a bad blip in July with flutter and cardioversion, but since then its settled and, seems more so as the months go on.

It is hard as I think being so aware of your heart and then worrying for me anyway was initially making ectopics and runs more prevelant. It's a hard thing to do but you must try relax, and not spend as much time on the forum in that I do agree with flapjack, as reading and thinking constantly about it can I think make it hard for you to get over what's a major life event and huge operation for anyone, as much psychological as physical for me. I've thrown myself back into work, but not too exhaustive, and daily gentle exercise helps, even just walking or swimming has got me back to life and less inclined to dwell on the workings of my heart .

I wear my earbuds and get some good music on when am getting obsessive and listening to heartbeats, I find it helps massively .

It's still early days yet Pad, I think 12 months is still a target recovery period for a "beat up heart" to recover, so try give yourself some slack and especially be kind to yourself, I just keep reminding myself I was worse before and didn't have a medical team batting for me as we do once under the care of a good ep, chin up mate.

Ian

[Padayn01 in reply to Ianp66]

Good to hear from you pal, ahhhhhh mate I know exactly where your coming from but what hurts me is that you have a few good days and everything going well and you think to yourself yessss finally I think the abalation is doing it’s job than bang it gives you a reality check and it just leaves you so depressed, but I’m so glad that things are on the up for you pal stay in touch 👍🏼

[Ianp66 in reply to Padayn01]

Yea I think that's about right mate , its like the hearts a marriage 😂, it hopefully will improve though and some brighter days ahead, this bloody winter time isnt the best for any recovery either, hopefully after Santa's been itl get better, watch elf a few times thatl brighten it up a bit 😂😉.

Ian.

[Padayn01 in reply to Ianp66]

Hhahahahhahahhahhaa cheers mate top man

[Oldiemoldy]

I’m 8 months out and satisfied the ablation “took”. But I had a very hard first 3 months - breakthrough attacks, fatigue, terrible terrible cough from general anesthetic. And depression over feeling so bad. Quit drinking for at least 15 months (one glass of wine scheduled next July).

But very gradually better though energy level still not 100%.

No meds but an anti coagulant.

Hang in there. And good luck!

[Padayn01 in reply to Oldiemoldy]

Glad your on the mend such a long road to recovery

[stagecoach]

I had my ablation in July and had non AF arrhythmia at the end of the 1st week and lots of ectopic beats (and ventricular bigeminy) so my diltiazem was increased to 300mg. I also needed a couple sessions of high dose predisolone for 3 weeks at a time and during these I had arrhytmias that looked like SVT from the Kardia library so my Flecainide went from PIP to 50mg twice daily to 100mg twice daily. At my 6 month review I'm hoping to start to reduce medication. I've been in sinus rhythm since my ablation so I'm hoping things will now improve.

I've also stepped back from this site and have put my Kardia away... and for the past 3 weeks I've not had any ectopic beats... or arrhythmias..

[Padayn01 in reply to stagecoach]

Thanks for your message glad your in NSR, do you get any skipped beats at all now or any flutters?

[stagecoach in reply to Padayn01]

no, nothing, touch wood.... suspect it is due to high doses Flec and Diltiazem..

[Padayn01 in reply to stagecoach]

Good stuff hope it continues

[Lien-Ju]

1 year and half since my 1st cryoablation and I experience occasional palpitations, my heart decided to burst around 90/100 bpm at rest for 1h sometimes.

[Padayn01 in reply to Lien-Ju]

Wow still fully recovering after 1.5 years

[avma]

Hi!

I’m at almost 7 months after hybrid ablation for AT and still not fully recovered. I have good days and bad days, depends on what happened the day before. Trying to get my mind off my HR. So putting my HRwatch aside as much as I can. My heart seems also to be a very sensitive one, so feeling everything very intense, which makes me afraid and my HR will go up, trying to get out of this circle. Also still doing cardiac revalidation, this helps a little giving me trust in my body and mind and try to get out of the depressed feelings that I have since this all started. The EP told me that it takes a full year to recover. But you always hope of course that it will go faster.

[Padayn01 in reply to avma]

Thank you for your reply, may i ask what is Cardiac Revalidation? like you i'm just so scared of over doing the heart, i have done no exercise since my ablation and every little skip and bump just sets me up for horrible depression, and final question what is a Hybrid Ablation? as i had a catheter ablation

[avma]

Cardiac revalidation: I live in Belgium and I get 45 sessions to go to the hospital and practice under supervision with the physiotherapist and a breast tape that measures my Hr while doing exercises. I can also go to the psychologist if I want to, this is then also a session of the 45. I do this every other week. After that I can get 60 sessions with a private physiotherapist to continue the exercises. I like this because you feel save in the hospital, they are there every step of the way. I do this since 2 months now, because I had to wait until 4 months after my hybrid ablation to start because I had a bit of fluid around the heart, this is common after a hybrid ablation. In a hybrid ablation they go through the groin and through the side of the rib cage. If you want to know more about it, you can go to my profile where I have put a few posts about this.

i wanted to say that it’s important to exercise so you can gain confidence again mentally and physically.

[Padayn01 in reply to avma]

Thank you for this, and you are right about the excercise just don’t know how much to start of with and when your heart skips so much you just want to stand still and hope it goes away

[avma in reply to Padayn01]

I fully understand. But what you always can do is walk. You start with little walks and see how this goes and then you walk a little longer or/and go faster and this at your own pace. I don’t know if you have an exercise bike at home, you can exercise every other day for 10 minutes on it. What you also can do are a bit of squats for the upper legs. 3 times 10, with a pause in between and some exercises for the breast muscles and 💪. you can do this 3 times a week. Everything at your own pace and losing the weight is very good too. I lost 21 pounds already since July. Doing the WW-diet. Good luck to you 👍🤗

[Padayn01 in reply to avma]

Thank you so much for this

[Hidden]

Try the following and see if it helps:

-----------------------------

After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar (and to a lesser degree, salt – i.e. dehydration) was triggering my Afib. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer (this is why all doctors agree that afib gets worse as you get older). If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again (easier said than done of course). It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 1 or 2 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day just to test it out. In addition, I have noticed that moderate (afternoon) exercise (7-mile bike ride or 5-mile hike in the park) often puts my Afib heart back in to normal rhythm a couple hours later. Don’t know why – perhaps you burn off the excess sugars in your blood/muscles or sweat out excess salt?? I also found that strenuous exercise does no good – perhaps you make yourself dehydrated??

I'm pretty sure that Afib is caused by a gland(s) - like the Pancreas or Thyroid - or an organ that, in our old age, is not working well anymore and excess sugar or dehydration is causing them to send mixed signals to the heart - for example telling the heart to beat fast and slow at the same time - which causes it to skip beats, etc. I can't prove that (and neither can my doctors), but I have a very strong suspicion that that is the root cause of our Afib problems. I am working on this with a Nutritionist and hope to get some definitive proof in a few months.

Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. (I’m not a doctor – it may be the sugar in your muscles/organs and not in your blood, don’t know). In any case you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. You can have a healthy heart and still have Afib – something inside us is triggering it when we eat too much sugar or get (even a little) dehydrated. Find out the core reason for this and you will be a millionaire and make the cover of Time Magazine! Good luck! - Rick Hyer

PS – there is a study backing up this data you can view at:

https//cardiab.biomedcentral.com/a...

How much sugar do you need to stop your afib? The answer is about 1/2 of what your daily sugar limit (threshold) is. My sugar threshold is about 80 grams a day right now. So if I go over that (and it's sooooo easy to do) my heart will start to afib. Then if I cut back to about 40-45 grams of sugar for one or two days, then the heart goes back to normal rhythm and stays there until I exceed my daily threshold of sugar again. (moderate exercise will shorten that time frame). I have gone 30 days under my sugar threshold with no afib once just to prove it is the sugar. And I have consumed my daily limit of sugar every day after going into afib and it stayed in afib for a week - just to prove that worked. So - as long as you know what your sugar threshold is you can control it. I use the following WEB site to know how much sugar is in different foods:

fatsecret.com/calories-nutr....

[Londongul]

Five months post ablation for me and touch wood I am completely back to normal. I hadn’t had any AF episodes since the ablation and recovered smoothly after 2 weeks. I finally can do things I wasn’t able to do before like exercise, have coffee or couple of drinks. I was told by my EP that I can stop all medication but I am still taking 80mg of Sotolol daily as precaution. The only thing I regret that I hadn’t done it earlier and wasted 2 years suffering because of my irrational fears.

[Padayn01 in reply to Londongul]

That's great news, where you pretty active before the ablation, like did you exercise looked after yourself before the ablation? usually they are the people who recover quickest

[Londongul in reply to Padayn01]

Yes, I always been fit and active. With AF exercising was challenging because my heart rate wouldn’t go down after the workout but now it goes back to 65 bpm after a minute or so. I am 34 yo and I don’t have any other problems with my health, perhaps it also played a role in my recovery.

[Padayn01 in reply to Londongul]

Yeah people that look after themselves usually recovery is about 2 weeks glad you are back to where you want to be

[Londongul in reply to Padayn01]

Thanks! I hope you get better soon as well. Just take your time.

[Padayn01 in reply to Londongul]

Thank you x