I've been told by my EP that he recommends that I have an ablation, as I have PVCs. I'm only 40 and currently take Flecainide twice a day, 50mg per time and have done this for around a year. I'm terrified of having the ablation done, as any heart procedure sounds terrifying to me. I asked could I have it under general anesthetic and the EP said no.
Is it worth it, will it name my PVCs go away? I've read quite a bit on here that you still may have to take Flecainide afterwards anyway, so I'm not sure I fully understand the benefits. Any advice would be gratefully received.
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Bahrain22
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I was diagnosed on a Friday and an ablation by Monday. It was definitely not my funniest experience, but i am pretty young as well, just 31. My cardiologist suggested I do the ablation so i could avoid the medications long term. He said the side affects of the medication with long term use he believes are harmful, and if there is a chance to get off any medicines i should go for it. He said the medicines are ok if you’re older and it will be of shorter use but I’d be looking at 30 plus years and would have a greater chance of side effects down the road. I had my ablation Monday along with my last dose of any beta blockers. My ablation made a difference in me immediately. So was it fun, no, but i won’t have to worry now about side effects of long term medication use. But you have to make the right decision for you.
Thanks so much for your reply, sorry to hear that you too are in the 'ablation needed young' club but delighted to hear that it went well. Would you mind talking me through what happened? What did it feel like? I'm not scared if pain, I'm scared of it going wrong or me freaking out!
Basically i had 2 things “go wrong” you could say. But nothing they didn’t figure out. They played their best guess and went in through my Femoral Artery while mapping. When they got in their best guess was wrong. So they had to call in someone who specializes in veins to help map out how they could get to my problem area. They said it was a much more difficult spot, but they got it i just had to get jabbed twice. Nothing wrong just harder then they anticipated so it took longer then planned.
My second problem was that the sedation and pain meds slowed my heart way down and my pressure would drop too low. So i didn’t get to have the sedation and pain meds. So for me the pain was the worst part. I just got Tylenol.
So i did feel every little bit outside of the part of my groin they numbed to insert the catheter, but my aunt does ablations with her dr daily (she is a tech) and said she’s never done one with the patient awake or in pain how i was. It was just my luck so i don’t think that is the case for everyone. I felt it lead to my heart, i felt the catheter sitting in my heart, i felt and tasted the burn. So no not fun but i would do it again if needed.
Oh wow. So you were awake because they couldn't sedate you? Do they normally sedate to the point where people are 'alert' enough to speak etc? I just wonder why my EP said I can't have a general as a friend who had it here said they had it done under general.
They said they would give me sedation, enough to keep me alert and talking, but i couldn’t get anything after they started. My aunt had one and she was fully asleep, and lime i said my other aunt is a tech who works in the room for ablations and she said most are asleep and if not just enough awake to speak but they never complain of feeling things outside of pressure.
Hi , my understanding after having an ablation done in 2019 is that a cryo ablation where they use a freezing agent at the tip is performed under sedation .That's what I had , I felt little pain as the catheters were moved to the heart but once the ablating was going on I felt quite a lot of pain and the pain relief they gave me was gradually increased until I fell sleep and woke up in recovery .I was told afterwards that is quite normal but each patient is different regarding how much they feel .My procedure hasn't worked completely as I still have episodes which are less troublesome than before and less frequent but I have around 8 or so a year My EP has said the next step for me would be another ablation but this time an RF version which would need me to be under a GA as its more intensive and can take up to 6 hours but has a better outcome generally .I understand also that the recovery time may be a lot longer so I'm still weighing up the benefits at the momentI hope that clears up the difference and certainly if I was offered another cryo ablation I would not be concerned about the procedure from my own experience
I had an ablation 14 months ago, I felt I was awake and able to answer questions etc, they certainly gave me extra medication during the procedure. The only thing was some pressure on the chest and I said at one point I thought I had had enough, then we went for a little longer! I was anxious to have mine done and truthfully didn't find it too bad at all, Would have it in a flash again and I'm expecting that to happen as it wasn't a total success, but still pretty good. Good luck.
I was awake for half of procedure. It's awful. They injected calcium which slows the heart right down (it got to about 30) whilst the heart was slow they did some electrical pacing where they try to trigger PVCs from all over the heart. Once they've mapped they out you get adrenaline and they do more napping while you're heart is 150. This process is essential for them to pinpoint the exact location. They want you awake for that part but once they've mapped you you're stabilised again and they do the ablation. That was my experience.
Sounds a right bodge job if they thought they could go into the artery. It must always be a vein in order to get to the right atrium where all veins end up.
It may have been the other way, the vein first then the artery but either way i feel like a lot of the crew was new or lost The one guy putting pressure after held it for 20 minutes to find out he was holding it in the wrong place. I don’t have much choice for drs or this is one i would probably have researched more.
Have you tried anything natural ? Like Taurine and L-Arginine or Magnesium? I had a 12% pvc burden and these 2 amino acids have reduced them 95% on most days
If you can find “CatAnn” on here she has very specific and great information on her posts about treating her PVCs naturally.. she was in line to get a ablation and ended up not needing to get it because of these supplements.. she is super sweet too and will answer your questions if you ask her specifics about what has worked for her.. of course everyone is different so what worked for one may not work for another but the supplements are fairly inexpensive so for me it was worth it. I don’t take any other medication. Take care
I had an ablation for Afib about 7 months ago and I had a general anaesthetic. If you surgeon says you don’t need one I am not sure why. I know they can be done under sedation but I depends on what they are actually doing ablation wise.
I've had lots of ablations. One was under light sedation ... the rest under general anesthesia. In fact, my world-class Electrophysiologist won't do them if patient is under light sedation (valium-like pill).
Ablations are nothing to be worried about. They are routine, now. In fact so routine that many who are not too experienced are doing them.
Ablations are done on a lot of elderly people ... even some in their 90's, so a youngster should have very little problem recovering. There is no pain .... no discomfort. Only a short fever spike during the night the day after ablation.
I firmly believe if you get the best to do it ... the less complications you'll have and more likely to have success.
Get the best EP you can find. Fly .... travel by train ..... do teledoc sessions by computer .... whatever you have to do to consult with the best in the ablation business. Some of the info you're getting doesn't sound right to me.
I also agree with the poster above. I had terrible PVC's at one time ..... continuous. Doctor said ignore them. I couldn't. I discovered 400mg of a triple magnesium formula twice a day smoothed heart out to normal in a week. They never did come back. Miraculous ........
If you have a pc .... just go to Swanson Vitamins site and it will tell you everything you need to know about the supplement. Plus ... you'll be able to read reviews about it from other customers. Good Luck!
I live in Belgium Europe so we don’t have this. That’s why I asked which ingredients and how much was in it, so that I could search for an alternative here. But no problem I will figure it out.
OK .... it has Magnesium oxide .... citrate .... aspartate .... One capsule serving is 400mg. I suppose the three types are divided equally. However ..... you probably can't go wrong (there's so many types) if you just get 3 or 4 magnesium types and mix them together yourself. Cheap gram scales are easy to get, so shouldn't be that big of a deal.
Swanson Vitamins ships internationally. Maybe they service your country . . . .
I agree with "The_Lord_is_with_Us" to get the best EP.
My daughter's ablation was performed by Standford EP Pediatric. After 4h operation, the doctor said it was not successful and she thought that it's from "outside" of the heart !!!
We went to see an EP at UCLA, he confirmed that it's from inside.
We went to UCSF, the Doctor also confirmed that it's from inside. However, he wants to set up an ablation from inside, if not successful, he can do it outside right after ( !)
Like you, my daughter is young (20 year old) , an ablation is a very good decision IF it's successful !!! IF you don't have to go through it again and again ...
"The_Lord_is_with_Us":
I've heart about Dr Natate. It seems that he's very famous for afib ablation. How about PVC?
Epicardial ablation is much more dangerous though.
It seems that Dr Natate has an office in Southern CA too. Do you know that it's as good as the office in Texas? Thanks
Dr. Natale is expert at ALL arrhythmias and similar conditions affecting the heart. He implants all devices, too.
Dr. Natale heads up a 14-person EP Group in Texas; however, I had my ablation at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California, where he visits once a month for 3 days to do ablations and other procedures.
His nurse and hospital staff said Dr. Natale would not certify the EP Lab at Los Robles until it met his exacting specifications for equipment and technology. Once it was upgraded ..... Dr. Natale has done hundreds of successful procedures there now.
Hope you get your daughter to him for consultation ..........
Thank you. We'll try to get appointment with him. It seems that he is affiliate with Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla too. However, since you had good experience with Thousand Oaks, we'll try to go there.
I had ablation for PVCs in December last year. I still get them 10 weeks on. Just remember it may not work the first time. Try not to be anxious. Trust your doctor and go into it with an open mind and be happy. Ask for their stats, My EP has done over 3000 ablations and never any serious complications or death. Just remember at least 8 people will be in there with you, all experienced and trained.
I had two ablations for PVCs about four years ago first under sedation second under GA which was much better it did not stop the ectopics I am now on Flecanide and Nebivolol which controls them to a level I can have some kind of a normal life, my EP wants me to have a third as I now have a lot of pain with the ectopics but I am hesitant as the last 2 didnt work for me maybe I need to find a new EP, recovery for me was quicker having a GA, please let us know how you get on, are you in UK?
Hi,I am very scared of anything medical, but I would say that my imagination was far worse than the reality! At 53 I had an ablation for atrial flutter last year and I didn’t even know they had done the procedure after having the ‘gin and tonic’ as they called it (sedation and pain relief). Recovery was okay - just take it steady. I wish you well.
I had an ablation for PVC’s 4 years ago. I was having so many a day I couldn’t breathe and had so many symptoms. My ablation was under light sedation, in and out of consciousness throughout the procedure, what I remember is more like remembering a dream. While the ablation itself wasn’t the funnest experience I’ve ever had it was definitely worth it and was very successful I’m glad I did it. I was really scared too but I really didn’t have a good quality of life before I was so symptomatic.
I was only 28 when I had my cryoblation. I had to stay awake because my EP said he would be able to trigger the Afib and SVT better if I was awake. I didn’t have any pain relief because they couldn’t get into the vein in my arms or hands. They tried to give it my through my groin but it didn’t have any affect. I must admit it was more uncomfortable than painful. It was a long 3 hours and he went ahead and froze my pulmonary veins. He couldn't trigger any attacks even whilst awake so he hoped the freezing would help.
Unfortunately around 6 months later my Episodes started again. I am currently on Flecainide and Bisoprolol and they have said I will most probably need another ablation when I’m ready.
My concerns are I could go through it again and they may not be able to trigger them. They have them on ECGs but just couldn’t trigger.
I really don’t regret having it done though and I wouldn’t rule out another one. Anything to help reduce the meds and help stop the episodes.
You do not need to worry about the ablation as far as sedation...you will not know what is happening! You are technically not "completely out"...but trust me, you will NOT be aware that they are ablating you! Ad this is better for recovery time, all the faster you will bounce back afterwards! Ablations for pvc's is MUCH easier than an ablation for afib, far more effective. Do it...you will NOT regret it!
I had both afib and pvcs, and had a rf ablation under general anesthesia with Dr. Andrea Natale in Texas two years ago that fixed my afib. That part is perfect, no longer goes to 220 bpm or beats fast at all. My pvcs were really bad also, and Dr. Natale said fixing those would require a second ablation while I was not under general anesthesia. I take Flecainide 50 twice a day plus an extended release Atenelol 25 1x daily so the Flecainide doesn't cause flutter and I feel perfect. I have tried to go off of Flecainide 3 times, but after 10 hours, my rhythm is so bad that I can't stand it. I persistently skip every second or third beat and can't function. I am going to wait for awhile longer to see how treatments, surgeries and medications advance since I'm back to normal and having no problem with the meds. If the meds stop working some day or become dangerous or makes me feel sick I would try a pvc ablation. I have been in Australia for over a year, was traveling here when covid hit, so have only seen a gp this year, not a cardiologist or ep. Hoping it will be safe to go home to the USA in four months if they do enough vaccinations.
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