I know everyone is different with their recovery. I'm 4 months out and things are getting just a little better except for the beats per minute. It is still faster than normal and last night I really minded it. How long has this lasted for some of you?
cryoablation: I know everyone is... - Atrial Fibrillati...
cryoablation
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mlp3434
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One of the earlier volunteers on this forum, (not BobD) once suggested that I got my wife to conceal my monitor in the shed at the end of the garden and hide the key. One of the best bits of advice I’ve ever had from this forum, I know from personal experience, the more you check, the more you worry, the longer the recovery and the less likely the procedure will be successful.
Your choice of course, but why not just accept that all the advice you have had so far by so many people appears to have been accurate and that you are now feeling better. You are on target with the so called 3/6 month blanking period and your elevated heart rate should return to something like normal at a time unique to you…….it’s good to hear that things are going well…….
BobDVolunteer
About nine months normally. Three years since my ablation for atrial tachycardia my average BPM is 85 which I now seldom notice. If it gets up to 100 I start to feel it . Normal HR is 60 to 100 by the way.
Three years bavk, I went on here after six months after my ablation and asked is it normal for me to be still “ not me.”.....I think the thing is we have no idea how we will feel when we have the ablation but the truth is it takes a while.....and although we look well, the fact is the heart is still healing.....I reckon nine months was a turning point......agree with everything flap jack and bob said. And as for checking beats etc.....in time you will just get on with life and not think about your heart.....I rarely take my pulse now and back then I had my beat monitor by my bed....! Chin up....onwards and upwards, Sue
I was still experiencing higher than normal heart rates for 12 months and my resting ‘normal’ of 65 moved more to 70-75 unless asleep when it would drop to low 50’s. For some people it takes a long time for things to really settle. I found I got frequent and very unpleasant ectopics whenever I tried to push exercise and my HR would shoot up - sometimes on the slightest exertion - gradually this happened less and less until at 12 months everything settled down to the new norm.
I do wish there was a lot more research and information available about how people recover from ablation, especially on ectopics and higher than normal.
We hear such a lot on this subject following ablation but I’m never sure if that’s just because all the people who recover almost immediately - as we are often led to believe will happen by doctors - all leave the forum and go back to their own lives so it leaves one with a sense of ‘This really isn’t what we were led to believe would happen’ because it seems to be a question that comes up on a regular basis.
I’ll be interested in the replies.
Good luck and best wishes for your recovery.
I think you're spot on about the variability of healing time and experiences! It's pretty much nothing like what the NHS leaflets tell you to expect. Ours are a much better guide. As I head in to ablation #2 I think I know what to expect, but it could well be different. Hopefully I'll be calmer, which will help. The arrhythmia nurse warned me - you've been relatively stable now for months - it'll be a shock in the first few weeks of healing, so be prepared for it. TBH that's the bit I was deliberating - the sheer disruption and discomfort of it...
I think it true that the people who have no problems seldom come back here to tell us. Only a few stalwarts who hope to help others stay if their hearts are stable.
If you think of how many ablations are carried out in UK alone every year (possibly between 7500 and 10,000,) the number of "complaints" is very low.
in reply to BobD
I agree, like you I have heard many EP’s, Cardiologist’s and other health professionals talk about AF and the treatment options and whilst there is a lot of emphasis on AF, the cause and effect together with treatment options, very little, if anything is said about recovering an ablation. I believe this is largely because they see an ablation as a routine procedure and no big deal. I think the same could be said about many other types of procedure.
Patients however will always tend to see things differently, after all it’s they who are having the procedure, it’s their heart that’s being treated and it’s they who have to live with the outcome. This is why your idea to produce the factsheets has been so valuable to members. It’s even worse for folk who live on their own with perhaps little support and therefore feel so vulnerable generally and more so, after an ablation.
I had quite a few episodes of afib 2020, and meds would not reverse it after the first few bouts, so had an ablation in Oct 2020. It seems to have done well. I had one bout of afib within first 3 months post ablation, not unusual was what I was told, and I had an episode of SVT in Aug 2021, so that makes it now just about a bit over 6 months, with no problems. I think it's kind of a "keep your fingers crossed" kind of thing. So I guess maybe this can be considered a modest success?
I know I still have irregular beats, but no heartrate over 100. I have a loop monitor and will see what cardiologist says later this month.
I'm about to go for ablation 2 this Thursday. Almost 11 months since the last one. Even now BPM consistently higher than previously and tbh I prefer it. BPM noticeably higher in the first 4 months but after about 6 dropped a little. I'm usually between mid 70s and mid 80s which feels comfortable. Drops to high 60s when I meditate, only feels odd if I go into the mid 90s. Happily goes up to 120 when I exercise however - either in short bursts or on a more strenuous walk.
Yesterday your profile said you were 68 but today it shows 69, so if it’s appropriate, Happy Birthday 🎂
mlp3434 in reply to
Thanks. Will be 69 on the 31st
My resting HR was higher after first ablation. Increased from about 44 to 52. But second and third ablatiobs don't seem to have affected it much...
Mine is not so bad (ablation at the end of June last year). However, my EP put me on Felcainide after the procedure, and increased my Bisoprolol dose a little before, and since my '3 month' review has been postponed twice and will not now be until August this year, I'm still taking those doses. I'm sure my heart rate would be higher if I wasn't taking them.
I do still feel my heart beats, especially when at rest, but I think this is a learned response to the worry about AF over the several years prior to the ablation. We become very aware of what our hearts are doing, which we were not before there was anything wrong.
I had an ablation January 28 and have been very lucky so far no palpitations. Maybe once a day feel 2 or 3 fast heart beats and then it stops. My resting heart rate is about 10-15 beats per minute faster than before ablation but I knew this was to be expected. I think it may have started to drop a little past week. I don't check my pulse often because it increases my anxiety which is why I never bought a Kardia. My resting pulse is now 82-92 which to some is probaby high but before ablation it was 72-84 so I tend towards higher range normally. One good thing about having a faster pulse I was on Metropolol for months and I never felt fatigued like others seem to do with lower pulse rates.
I will be 5 months post CryoAblation in one week. I'm right there with you. On beta blockade my resting HR was low 50's during day and high 40's at night, dipping to low 40's with sleep. My HR a few hours after procedure was 120. They released me that night to the wilds. I continued beta blockers to thwart increased ectopics but it didn't work and I ended up coming off entirely. By all accounts my procedure was a success as I've had no AF since a single episode at day 5.
However, everything has changed. Though it has stabilized somewhat and I'm able to exercise at a decent intensity, my HR and its reactivity to stimulus feels alien. I'm in the low 80's morning, 70's through the day and high 60's at night with a consistent low of 57-61 bpm while sleeping. In some ways I appreciate the increased rate after being suppressed for so long on beta blockers. But, I'm a full 20-30 bpm higher than before. With exercise the rate is very responsive and shoots up quite quickly if I don't warm up properly.
During my 4 month check my EP said I might expect it to settle some more towards the one year mark. In the mean time to address any concerns I might have we are doing a stress echo in a few days. If there is any cause for concern, that test should spotlight it.
I feel the first 3 months was an acute adjustment phase. the 4th month brought an increasing improvement and I'm starting to feel much more like myself as I put more time between me and the procedure. Without a doubt, the number one thing that has helped is to be mindful about how I perseverate on and monitor the heart rate. Best piece of advice you'll find in this thread is ditching your monitor outside a daily check perhaps. Just in the past two weeks I've started leaving the heart rate strap at home when I ride my bike or go for an aggressive uphill hike. If I do use it I don't look at it until later, and only then to see if anything out of the ordinary manifested. I figure a second ablation, if warranted would require a tracing of a 'wonky' rhythm, so I hold fast to that concept, but I realize it's a habit loop that keeps me hitched to anxiety. If you are relatively free of arrhythmia then why not enjoy it....this is what we wanted. It looks and feels different than we imagined but I'll take this any day over what was happening pre-procedure....:). Best of Luck!
Hi, I had a cryoablation in Jan 2020, just checked my Apple Watch report, it took about 12 months to properly level out. Hope this helps.
Thank You so much
I'm not speaking from experience as my ablation isn't until April. However, if you're post-ablation heart rate is higher than comfortable can't you take a low dose of a beta blocker to bring it down a bit?
I do but it still can act up. I depend on those blockers for sure.
I had an ablation in August and still getting very slight attacks of Af with a cold virus, and my heart rate, which used to be 50-ish when resting is now 60. It hasn't changed back yet so I am still convalescing I think. This timing seems to be a very personal length of time depending on individual age etc. I think as others have pointed out here, the best thing to do is to stop worrying and enjoy being in sinus rhythm . Good luck 
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