Pacs, Please Go Away !

[Brian147]

Had my second ablation for atrial flutter back in September , first ablation was in 2016 for afib, that ablation worked for almost seven years. Have been having these weird extra beats, I felt them and they showed up on my Kardia . After some internet research, people told me they are pacs. For awhile there they were happening a few times a day, once or twice in a 30 second ekg on my Apple Watch. But now, for the last week they aren’t as bad, some days I can’t even tell I had any. Not sure what to think of these. I’m kind or worried, many questions running thru my mind. Did the ablation fail, do I need a third one, will these pacs kill me or shorten my life. Will they go away……. If it’s not one thing , it’s another . Just getting fed up. If you never dealt with afib, you don’t know how we feel, I never thought I would take NSR for granted, oh how I love NSR !!!!

[BobD Volunteer]

Ectopic beats such as this are not uncommon and considered benign. Everybody AF or not has them, up to 200 a day. Problem is we AF people notice and start focussing on them. There is a very good slow deep breathing exercise which helps many of us and stopped mine after a month or so. Use stomach (diapragm ) not shoulders and slow your breaths down to no more than six per minute fior at least five minutes. With practise you can get much slower for much longer.

[CDreamer]

It’s very usual to experience ectopic beats and feel them after ablation. Mine took about 12 months after ablation to go away. Don’t focus on them and try the breathing exercises Bob recommended - works a treat!

[Sixtychick]

I had an ablation in September also. I suffered with ectopic beats up until about a week or so ago and now they seem to have almost gone. I took ECG’s with my portable EMay heart monitor and put them onto my phone and I showed them to the Doctor who did my ablation, when I went to my follow-up appointment the other week and he looked at them and said they were nothing to worry about . It takes a while for your heart to heal after ablation and most people get them for a while afterwards. It was reassuring to be told that.