Hopefully, these little ditties are helpful for someone out there!
All was going well until a few weeks ago when I had two episodes of fast heart rate which required a pill in the pocket intervention to calm down. I took that after 15 mins and it worked after 15 minutes. Luckily although I've been having fast HR episodes about 5 times per day none have lasted longer than 1-7 minutes. Papworth arranged for me to wear a 48 hour monitor so shall have to wait and see what that shows.
Other than that all is good. I'm cycling once per week and riding my electric assisted bike once per week. I've used the rowing machine a bit, and I'm on my third week of couch to 5k running (I call it running but its really shuffle 1-2 mins, walk 1-1.5 mins).
So to sum up, for the sporty ablation patient, I was able to the following at these stages (and the Arrythmia nurses reassured me that I was doing the right thing by being active)
Pilates, yoga, stretching after 4 weeks,
Weight training, lighter than usual, after 5 weeks,
Electric bike after 9 weeks, manual bike after 16 weeks,
Rower after 17 weeks
Running after 5 months, just a few bits of jogging while walking at first. Walking I was able to do after about a week, but very little.
It took three months to be able to walk briskly again like i used to. Took 4 months to begin to feel well again and not knackered all the time and so far it has taken six months to feel 95% recovered. Now I'm just unfit! I even had to go on a diet to lose a stone of flab I put on while inactive!
I'm only on an anticoagulant as I came off amiadarone after 4.5 months.
If you are sporty and want to ask me anything, please do not hesitate to ask or private message me.
Cheers and thanks for the lovely people who supported me throughout on this forum...
Written by
Jajarunner
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In order to put your experience into perspective; how long have you had a heart rhythm issue? How old are you? What kind of physical shape were you in before the ablation?
I'm 56, female. I was doing all the stuff I am doing now beforehand but more. I've had three episodes of rhythm problems:
48 hours flutter 2015, resolved with cardioversion
5.5 weeks afib 2019, resolved with cardioversion
5.5 weeks afib 2020 resolved with cardioversion and then ablation 2 months later. I also had some undiagnosed episodes during that period from 2015-2019, I'm pretty sure.
I'm the sort of afibber who cannot tolerate the meds so for both those periods of 5.5 weeks I was barely able to walk due to being so weak and zombified! Hence, how I was lucky (?) enough to get an urgent ablation during corona lockdown.
Thank you for all that very useful information. I am dreading being inactive as at my age it is hard to get muscle back - I lost some whilst on Hormone Treatment for prostate cancer 4 years ago and need to be as active as possible during my recovery to stop me from losing more. As it is C19 is playing havoc as first of all gyms closed and when I did go back to the gym I found a lot of people were not following rules so after a couple of weeks I stopped going. Maybe I shall have to invest in more weights at home - I have some and a treadmill and static bike - old but useable bought when I had a hip replacement 10 years ago as no level ground around us to walk on- all hills. We've moved now and if I have to have my other hip replaced I can walk up and down our road before getting to a hill!
You could do bodynweight exercises. Like pressups (full or modified); lunges or squats or sit-to-stands into a chair. Use water bottles as dumbells or invest in some resistance bands. Or ask father christmas for some dumbells for christmas!
So was I. At the moment I am managing very well but must up the weights. My sons used to have a multigym in the garage years ago when they lived at home - wish I hadn't got rid of it - though where we would have put it when we lived in a one bedroomed house in Cornwall I don't know - I think it would have fallen through the floor in the shed!
Hi Jaja, having arrived home from hospital last night post ablation I decided to finally sit and read all of your posts. All went well apart from my wound springing a leak just as I was getting ready to leave. I'm now up before 6am with a thumping headache, probably from the anaesthetic and having not drunk enough water. I found your posts really useful thanks, although I'm a bit depressed at the length of recovery time! Until I posted on hear I was thinking in terms of weeks, not months. That being said it's much better to manage your expectations and at least if it does take me the same length of time I'll know it's not unusual. I hope your high rate settles soon and thanks again for the post(s)
Thats very nice of you to say so. I was exactly the same, I wrote out my super careful post-ablation recovery plan months beforehand.... one month to cycle, three months to run etc etc. As you saw it did not go li,e thatnatnall. Really 4 months to reassemble normal, but then I do do a lot of stuff!
I'm so hoping I won't need a second ablation and if I do its soon so I ca get it over and done with!
Also I'm super slow to,get over everything. My first cardioversion (48mhrs agib) took a month, second (5.5 weeks) took 3 months, third cardioversion (5.5 was afib) took two months. Hopefully you will be quicker xx
Lol, don't worry, spotted one in mine too. I usually heal fairly quickly and cardioversions don't really trouble me tbh, I went for a 10 mile run 2 days after the last one. I'm not counting on anything atm though reading yours and others posts. Hope you get yours sorted soon
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