ABLATION PLUS 18 MONTHS (NEARLY) UPDATE

[Shcldavies]

An update following my earlier posts on my ablation and the recovery.

Just back from our annual holiday in France (lucky to have booked the first ferry following lockdown). This year did everything I would normally do - pool with grandchildren, go carts, canoeing, walks and drinking (wine and beer*) moderately, eating what I wanted etc, all with no problems at all - really pleased.

Still get the odd ectopic/runs of ectopics but these would probably be unnoticeable to many and they do not last more than around 5 seconds - put these down to my MAT which could not be ablated.

* Bought some 0% alcohol Leff beer from supermarket, one evening after having three glasses of wine decided not to push things and had this beer with my son-in-law, tasted really good. On our second bottle we both felt a bit too intoxicated for the alcohol we had consumed, only to find out that the Leff we had bought had 7% alcohol - I had misread the box which was just advertising the 0% alcohol Leff beer - need to learn better French and pay more attention to what I buy!

So 18 months down the line I would summarise that after a shaky start my recovery is progressing well. Now I never thought I would be saying that 4 weeks after my ablation when I was getting concerned about ever recovering. Thanks to the good people on this site who convinced me that my recovery was pretty much normal and it would take much more time than the Docs said it would (this was very assuring and comforting at the time - thank you all so much). Personally I believe that my ectopics are still improving slightly, getting less frequent and are now hardly noticeable.

[BobD Volunteer]

Sounds good apart from the boob with the alcohol. Well done.

[Shcldavies in reply to BobD]

Thank you, recovery really is better than winning the lottery, keeping the right balance between paranoia and complacency is the key, I would not want to go through that journey again - something you have helped with over the years Bob. Keep looking for posts on your recovery but I gather from one of your other responses that its been difficult, unfortunately all I can do is wish you the very best, what a terrible condition we have to live with, suffice to say your an inspiration to most of us on this site.

[VioletG]

Sounds great! And thanks for posting. It really helps to hear success stories. Hope things continue to be wonderful for you!

[Shcldavies in reply to VioletG]

Thank you so far so good but it does not pay to be complacent with these heart conditions, getting the balance right between paranoia and complacency is a skill we all have to learn.

[Padayn01]

How bad are your ectopics do you get then everyday?

[Shcldavies]

Their not bad at all, sometimes just catching your breath a little when its just 1 or 2, sometimes you feel like taking a deep breath when its 5 or 6. I would not have put them down to a heart condition if I had not gone through my palpitation/tachycardia journey. I may get them some days and not notice, other days I do, they tend to be more noticeable (so probably stronger) after too much sugar. I put them down to my MAT condition which my EP could not ablate, I think they started my various tachycardia problems prior to my ablation but now they just start and go away after 1 or 2, or 5 or 6 missed/extra beats.