Well week 11 after ablation things goung well and whooooooosh! I thought I was having heart attack so painful. Left it as I really didn’t want Thonon A n E. But ended up there. 16 hours later sent him no heart attack ho see cardio.
I was in terrible pain chest and my shoulder and neck, beung sent home, rang cardio saw here Friday. I’ve pericarditis. Given me soluble aspirin and this awful medicineColchicine which is rampant diahoreah and nausea. Apparently normal til calms down.
All weekend I’m back in afib so disappointing so ringing cardio.
Questions:
Has anyone had this after ablation cardio said it can happen. .?
does this afib mean ablation failed?
is it normal so feel in such pain and in bed impossible to get comfy?
Also she saud if afib starts take flec and apixaban…..but with aspirin?
I read aspirin is the go to med for pericarditis, so that mean it’s just got to calm down om it’s own?
My husband has cancer and has been in hosp all week, so this is a blow.
Scared to take anymore colchicine has anyone any experience on how this drug pans out I’ve been given two months supply! Can’t imagine diahoreah that long!!!!
Sue
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Morzine
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Sorry to hear all this. I had colchicine recently for drug induced gout ( Doxysocin) I had a couple of days of diarrhoea but fine after and certainly helped the agony of gout.Fingers crossed
My son and nephew had this at about the same time funnily enough. My son hoestly thought he was having a heart attack. He had the same medication as you and eventually it calmed down - he spent a day in hospital having been taken in in the early hours of the morning. He was about 55 at the time fit and healthy as he is a phys ed and yoga instructor so maybe this helped him get over things quickly. My nephew - his cousin was younger but overweight and not fit and needed longer treatment.
It is not unusual to get AF within the first months after ablation and the pericarditis wouldn't help and was probably a main contributor to your current bout of AF. You need to contact your EP who carried out the ablation or his nurses and discuss this with them. Once the pericarditis has been dealt with maybe they will consider a Cardioversion to put you back into NSR.
Make sure you hydrate well when you have diarrhoea even go so far as drinking the rehydration salts you can buy at pharmacies such as dioralyte.
Hope you get some relief soon. Whenever you feel you need it do contact 111 or your GP surgery for help or call out paramedics.
Sorry to hear this. Its very painful as I well know.
I had my 5th ablation about 8 weeks ago , which was epicardial( entry by keyhole from outside of chest) as well as through both groins under GA. I awoke in alot of chest pain and was fed liquid morphine. I was told that this was not unusual with the procedure.
I was also given Colchicine which helped alot. I was given a supply to take home ( 4 weeks?) plus authority for 3 months supplying. I was taking 2 a day and only needed to take for about 2 weeks before I was pain-free. I didn't have any bad side effects that I remember. I felt unable to lie on my side until the pain subsided.
The one thing I did notice though was that my arthritis in knee joints was almost non existent !
That's because colchicine is effective on joint inflammation , although it's only usually recommended for gout it doesn't work on all forms of arthritis. I know some people with severe osteoarthritis in the knees that are prescribed it as a treatment alternative to steroids and have had positive results.
Sorry to hear what you're going through Sue. After my 3 ablations I didn't really experience any pain, other than once when I got out of bed in the week after my ablation and decided to take the electric blanket off my bed as I could feel the wires. I felt the most dreadful pain in my chest for a few minutes and yes thought it was a heart attack. When I told my GP he said just put it down to an odd experience and to let him know if it happened again - it never did.
I had this drug after pericarditis after pacemaker fitted. Went on too have a stroke so can’t remember much about drug effects as intensive rehab for stroke sorry not more help
My husband had pericarditis a few years ago. A&E called down a cardiologist to examine him and he made all his students come and listen to the unique sound that the heart makes. We still laugh about all those gorgeous female students leaning over him to listen to his heart! Anyway - he was given paracetemol and that was all. He was already on all the usual heart meds.
I had peri and then that led to afib (they were never quite sure what started the peri but it may have been overdoing things, or alcohol or a mixture of those, or even a heart virus). I found paracetamol the best. The pain is awful, i found it best when I was in a chair so I ended up in an arm chair most of the time.
I hope that you are feeling better. That awful medication you speak of really does the job. Unfortunately I have had pericarditis three times already. evidently, that’s my weak point area. It has nothing to do with your ablution. It is the inflammation of the lining around your heart and that is why you get that horrible pain. Thankfully, I did not have the problems that you have with the medication. Believe it or not the medication is actually for gout but they discovered off label. It really does help with pericarditis. I had to take it once a day for 30 days but I think within the first week I felt so much better that doesn’t mean stop taking it or you will be right back to step one. stop counting your weeks, etc. you are becoming obsessed. Just enjoy feeling better there’s no telling how long you will feel good after the pericarditis is gone so stop wasting your precious good time. Some people are lucky and that’s that. The healing process should be just about over now, but we are all different. He could take weeks or months you sound as though you’re counting the weeks until it fails. If you get your a fib back, it is not the failure of the ablation. It is a new spot that is misbehaving and will need to be blocked . That’s what it is if you read about it. The one problem is it is so hard for a doctor to be on point getting the right spot to begin with because they could be just a millimeter off and then trying to do the ablation his failed they did not get it . You have to realize how tiny the works space is in there. my EP is not one that believes in doing them over and over again. I know there are people on here that have had a dozen. You get scar tissue every time you get work done. I had too much scar tissue, especially from my third ablation, which was a mess and total failure to the point I could’ve ended up dead because I had tachycardia and it drove it to the point it put me into heart failure. Those days are gone for me and for the most part, I feel normal. My doctor told me I can pretty much do everything anyone else can. I never thought I could feel this good again. FYI, I have a special pacemaker now.
but as I said, get out of your head because stress is your number one enemy. I was a pain in the neck in the beginning with questions. One thing my doctor reminds me is how many other parts we have inside there. He said because we are so focused on our heart. Once we know there is a problem that we blame everything on the heart. It could be something as simple as gastritis or whatever instead. Obviously you get yourself checked out if it’s bad enough, but don’t jump to the conclusion. It’s your heart like you had mentioned you thought you were having a heart attack. I had a friend go through that last week. she is now minus her gallbladder.
If you’re still hurting trialing on a heating pad, it does help a little bit, but you should already be feeling better. Do not stop your medicine, please
When I came round from the general anaesthetic for my first ablation I was in such severe pain from pericarditis that I had to be knocked out again with i/v fentanyl. Spent 5 days in hosp and then readmitted 2 days later for another 6 days! On colchicine for a few months, (I cannot take NSAID'S) and tramadol/paracetamol. The ablation did hold for 4 years until I caught covid and went into atypical atrial flutter and subsequently had another ablation during OHS for AVR.
Hi Sue - really sorry to hear about this attack of pericarditis. It sounds horrendous . An ex squash partner of Ron's got this after an ablation he had at Bordeaux. But I think it came quicker after the ablation. He spent several days at the clinic in Limoges. I think he said he got colchicine. Did cardio give any indication of how long it would last?
Two d,ays after my ablation, the pain of pericarditis...like an elephant sitting on my chest, couldn't take a deep breath and called the Heart Groups office and was prescribed colchicine. Took a few days to ease up but definitely did the job...... and now keep it on hand for gout flares. i was told they used to routinely prescribe it for patients post-ablation!
I've taken colchicine, on and off , over the years for another health condition I have.It does affect your stomach for a short time so I'd suggest making sure you drink more and possibly have some electrolyte sachets available if you are going to the toilet a lot but increasing foods with those nutrients should work as well if it only lasts a few days. Try eating light smaller meals and sticking away from any sugary foods including most fruit because this makes the symptoms worse.
It is very effective though.
One reason drugs like colchicine , antibiotics and steroids can cause diarrhea and stomach problems in the first few days of taking them is that they are working at removing the nasties and reducing inflammation which can give your stomach and body in general a bit of a shock. The response from your body is to use every way it can to get whatever it is making you ill out as quickly as possible. As your body starts to respond to the drug and it can feel it is being treated it settles down again and is happy for the medication to do the work. You are also getting a " fight or flight" response to being ill which can trigger palpitations and aFib temporarily even in a generally healthy person.
You can't have grapefruit juice with Colchicine but I tend to avoid any citrus juice when I take very strong medications that affect my stomach anyway.
On those occasions I get Vitamin C from non acidic foods and I use a liposomal non acidic Vitamin C supplement in water after food. I use Nutroliq ( available from it's own website or Amazon) but you only require 500 mg a day ( or 5 ml on the dropper) , not the larger doses recommended on the packaging of any vitamin C products.
The body only requires about 300 mg a day and just gets rid of the rest.
It's quite handy to use when you are ill or coping with an infection and can't easily get enough Vitamin C from your food.
In relation to the other medications you are on; you can take flecainide and both aspirin and colchicine without interactions.
One way to reduce any chance of them causing other symptoms like dizziness or nausea is to make sure you space your tablets out so there are a few hours between the flecainide and the colchicine/ aspirin.
This is mainly just to help your tender stomach by not making it work on too many different drugs in one go.
Make sure you follow the rules for each drug about whether to eat to help reduce the diarrhea. If the diarrhoea continues speak to the doctor they may give you something to help it.
Take your aspirin and colchicine at the same time. You must take them with some food but you can feel nauseous or have no appetite. I take mine with a few tablespoons spoons of natural probiotic live yoghurt and about half a teaspoon of honey. I recommend taking any drug that can unsettle your stomach and requires food like this unless it cannot be mixed with dairy, you can use a non diary alternative in those cases.
Many people on strong medications and NSAIDS use this method especially first thing in the morning. The yoghurt helps protect and settle your stomach much like Omeprazole can and can stop acid reflux if it's used before meals too. Like a PPI it can help reduce the risk of bleeding.
In relation to Apixaban, at the moment the aspirin you are taking will be acting a replacement for your usual anticoagulant. You would still be getting clot and stroke prevention from the dose of aspirin you will be on and you would just be able to return to using your usual Apixaban after you have recovered from Pericarditis.
Treating the Pericarditis effectively trumps the other issues at the moment because pericarditis itself can cause you to have acute episodes of aFib and other cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac events while your heart is affected by the inflammation.
You could well find once the Pericarditis has been treated that the aFib goes again.
As well as Colchicine being effective in treating pericarditis one reason it is chosen is because it can be used alongside many common treatments for cardiac problems when other types of antinflammatories or antivirals can't without interactions or more side effects.
Had you had any sort of viral infection or bacterial stomach infection in the month before getting pericarditis?
These types of infections and in some cases dental decay , tooth abscess or severe gum disease are common causes for pericarditis it's very unlikely to be related to having an Ablation so long after your recovery.
If you have been suffering a lot of long term stress from worrying about your husband's health this in itself could have added to the risk of you suffering heart inflammation or could trigger a new period of aFib as well. Especially as it's very likely that you may have got more run down as we all do running around and caring for someone else.
Your ablation was successful, but it's worth remembering that a successful ablation doesn't necessarily mean you will aFib free forever. You may need a number of ablations over a number of years depending on the cause of your aFib or if your afib returns after it has been triggered by another illness or big physical stress event.
Inflammation in the chest for whatever reason can be incredibly painful , even with things like Costochondritis, and when it isn't being treated or treatment has just started it can feel as bad as a heart attack in severe cases. Keep your upper body more elevated on comfy supportive pillows and try the suggestion below. Sipping cool water often can also help reduce the heat and discomfort of chest inflammation.
Take it easy , relax and rest , even when you start to feel better, you need to pace yourself very slowly during recovery from Pericarditis to help prevent triggering more inflammation. Look up the breathing exercises on YouTube related to COVID. These breathing exercises are also effective in helping you to breath and ease chest pain in other chest , heart and lung inflammations as well so can help to reduce your heart rate and constant palpitations or aFib.
The day after my ablation, I was still in the hospital, I started having chest and back pain. My doctor had an echocardiogram done, saw nothing and sent me home. By the time I got home, I was in terrible pain so I soon went to ER. They gave me a double dose of morphine, and the pain was gone for good. I later found out it was pericarditis, and that it's common after ablation. It doesn't seem to have had any effect other than the temporary pain.
After having a non symptom case of covid, a side effect I had was pericarditis. A trip into A&E & 8 hours later, was told I wasn't having a heart attack. Was then prescribed colchicine & took them for about 3 months, until the pain stopped. It's a proper scary condition.
I didn't have the diarrhea, which you're experiencing & at the time, I wasn't suffering with afib. Also I was advised to take 2000mg of ibuprofen along with the colchicine & nothing else.
I'll keep this short.In recovery after my ablation I had chest pains, a nurse flew by and gave me an injection that help.
On the 3 hour drive home the pain returned. We turned around and returned to Boston. The night Doc confirmed pericarditis (fluid in the heart sack) and prescribed colchicine. By 3AM I was home and back in afib, or so I thought.
I complained about diarrhea for 2 months, my own research said it was the colchicine. I stopped taking it. The diarrhea stopped.
At the 3 months follow up I was found to be in tachycardia, not afib. A low energy cardioversion put me in sinus. Here years later I'm still in sinus and enjoy wine.
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