I am a 42 year old female. I was diagnosed with afib when I was 18. I played sports with this at times debilitating condition, all through college. I was in much better shape then. Anyway, I had an ablation in March 2022. So now I am 4 months post ablation. It seems the ablation has helped an atrial flutter that I was experiencing prior to the ablation, which was a new occurrence, and my afib. I am trying to get back into the swing of things with exercise because it is my passion. I find my heart rate spiking easily during brisk walks. If I move to an easy jog it spikes to 130-140s. Obviously this is not normal. It gives me panic attacks and I don’t want to exercise. It’s depressing for me. I am just wondering if my heart rate will ever get to a place where I can exercise again, I guess a a normal level. The medication I am on now is Metropolol. My doctor took me off of Flecainide 2 x 50mg a day and Dilt XR 120mg when I told him about the spikes. Any advice you can give me is welcomed.
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Utballa
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I'm sorry to hear that it sounds like you are now experiencing atrial flutter. It's quite common to have this after an ablation, but that can easily be ablated (it's a more simple procedure than atrial fibrillation). What does you're EP who carried out your ablation have to say and how are you feeling?
Hi Jean, thanks for your reply. I no longer have the atrial flutter thank God. Just the heart rate spikes when I exercise. My EP doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal. He prescribed me Metropolol to lower my heart rate.
Hi UtballaI was expecting a return to normality quickly after an ablation but in reality it took a long time to get over it, from my experience and what I have read 4 months may not be enough for full recovery. My resting heart rate is up to 60 from around 50 pre ablation after over 2 years, like you it knocked my confidence to exercise hard (I am a fit 66 year old) it is to easy to look inward and be overly tuned in to what your heart is doing which is very understandable.
Maybe build up your exercising gradually towards what you did pre ablation, perhaps your heart rate is rising quicker because your fitness will be down after the post ablation resting. Be patient and try not to get yourself down.
Thank you so much for the advice Harvester. Everything you said makes so much sense. I keep telling myself that my heart is still healing. I guess the expectations from my EP are a little disheartening. After my 1st month check up he said I should be exercising and I was way worse off than I am now. I do think my fitness level has declined so I am going to have to gradually work to get it back up. I guess I have to view the process as being a marathon not a sprint.
My history is similar. My ablation was in April. They took me off Dilt 6 weeks ago because my ankles and feet were swelling. They slowly lowered my dose of metoprolol and stopped it, Multaq and a blood thinner last week.
I'm back to working out five mornings a week though a little lighter than normal. I get some ectopic beats but my heart rate stays low enough that it's a little hard to do aerobic exercises.
What dosage of metoprolol do they have you on? While it's hard to feel human on it, it should at least be keeping your heart rate to within reason or even lower than you'd want it.
Hi HiloHairy, I am on 25mg Metropolol a day. I have been feeling much better on this than my other meds of Flecainide, Dilt XR and Xarelto. My heart rate has been lower on it but yesterday I took a walk outside and all of a sudden it spiked to 148. So weird. The heat coupled with the fact that I had already done 2.5 miles may have played a factor in it. It was very scary to say the least. I mostly walk inside on a treadmill in the comfort of my own home for that reason.
I trust that you're on the 25 mg time release? If not and you're only taking it once a day you certainly should be on the time release.
If 25 mg a day is not keeping you at a reasonable heart rate maybe you should talk to your cardiologist about taking 25 mg every 12 hours? This is still a relatively small dose and from my experience, the direct acting is more predictable timewise than the time release.
~Hi Utballa - I am in much the same situation with intermittent high spike rates since ablation Feb 2022.Unfortunately had break through arrhythmia on 3 occasions recently. Longest lasted 14 hours & wiped me out for a good 2 days
I am presently wearing an "Event monitor for a week as a Holter monitor didn't capture anything of interest.
I too am most reluctant to go back to my fitness classes - I just do 1 minute stints on exercycle at home little & often through the day.
Cardiologist did suggest the EP may have to do a touch up - whatever that means & not going to worry myself until I actually know what is going on?
Will be most interested to know if you get any answers - good luck ~
So sorry that you are going through this. It is very draining at times. I am sure your EP will develop a plan for you. It may be still too early to tell if the ablation was successful. I am rooting for you.
~Thank you Utballa - I would really like to think that I am possibly still healing as still in blanking period which will be 6 months 8 August. I really would not relish undergoing anymore ablation but if that is what it takes then "undergoing" more I must.Guess healing time knows no bounds ~
I’m a 42 year old, active, physically fit man who had his 3rd cryoablation in early November 2022.
No structural damage to heart but they did more work on this last procedure because they found a misfiring hotspot in an area you don’t normally find them.
I’m now almost 4 months post ablation and experiencing a few of the same issues as you with the HR spikes. Normal rhythm but high HR often. Mine go up to about 110-120. It can cause me anxiety and panic as well. My pharma regimen right now is similar to yours (Flecc 100 mg twice daily and 120 Dilt).
EP and his nurse practitioner told me the high HR could last a little longer given the additional ablation work they did and, like my EP who performed my first ablation in 2015, told me it’s actually a sign of success.
I see my NP for the doc who performed it in a few days.
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Increased heart rate 3 months after ablation
High heart rate after 3rd ablation
High resting heart rate after ablation
Low heart rate 7 days after ablation
Heart Rate after ablation. 
