post ablation episodes

[hartbeast]

I had my second ablation (this time it was a Pulse Field Ablation) on June 18.

The first two months were a little rocky, as I healed, and then no episodes after August 29 until I had my follow up on November 1. EP said I could go off my flecainide starting Dec 1 if I stayed episode free.

Then I had episodes on Nov 9, 13, 15, 17, and 19.

I know that my stress levels have been pretty severely elevated by the daily insanity resulting from our recent ghastly election, among other things. But I wondered if anyone here has had AFib recurrence as late as 5 months post-ablation that still resulted in good results, eventually?

[BobD Volunteer]

Obviously there are no guarantees but experience has told me that the supposed three month "blanking period" is a minumum. As we say in our fact sheet on recovery many people are still improving at nine months or a year.

[Cliff_G in reply to BobD]

Agree, but there is opinion (I forget where) that one shouldn't just wait and hope during the blanking period and that helping things along with meds such as Flecainide is a good idea. For each of my ablations I was discharged on Flecainide and after the first (when I was nearly in permanent AF, so a difficult ablation) I ended up on it full time. The same will probably be true for my ablation 2 months ago.

[BobD Volunteer in reply to Cliff_G]

I was never on flecainide, rather propafanone but seem to remmember it was nine months or so before I started weaning off it.

[hartbeast]

Thank you, Bob and Cliff, it’s helpful to hear your specific experiences. I am still taking 200mg flecainide per day, although I had been hoping to start weaning off on December one, as the EP suggested. I do have an appointment with him in a couple of weeks, but it sounds like I should just let go of the idea of going off the Flecainide for now, at least until June, when it will have been a year.

My AFib has been paroxysmal all along, and nonexistent for almost 3 years when I finally found the anti-arrhythmic dosage that worked for me, two years after my first ablation.

I guess this flurry of episodes, even though each was only a few hours, just rocked my boat a bit. Perhaps I should’ve expected that it could get worse before it got better, after the second ablation.

My immediate concern has been that I really don’t want to increase my flecainide dosage. I don’t do well on daily beta blockers and I imagine they will want me to take them with a higher dosage of flecainide. But I’ll know more when I meet with my EP, and I know it’s best if I can avoid worry in the meantime. Hard to do! Thanks again.

[Rainfern]

I hope your heart settles quickly. Sometimes for our own health and sanity we need to stick our head in the sand and appreciate the small things in life - none of us can turn back the clocks on recent US election result, horrendous though it might be for the world at large. It’s like a kind of grief, and grief is a known trigger of AF. It sounds like you need to look after yourself. A friend of mine in Houston is turning all her focus on gardening! Be patient and good luck with your EP appointment.

[hartbeast]

Thank you, Rainfern 💔