3 months after Ablation

[aFibber55]

I thought I check in and report on my progress as I got a convenient reminder to do so last night. As we all know it’s a bit a shock when the beast returns.

I had my ablation in Hammersmith end of October last year and after a rough start it’s all settled down nicely, so waking up last night with the familiar Mariachi Band playing in my chest was very disappointing. A bit of extra Bisoprolol and deep breathing and it subsided in a few hours. I know it’s early days and I am looking for my big girl pants wear again to see me through ! It seems that the arrhythmia is a now little faster, but also a little less “banging” than before.

Since the procedure I had about month with pulse rate in nineties and now it seems to have settled down to steady eighty. I am still on my meds , Apixaban and 2.5mg Bisoprolol twice a day and feel more breathless than I did before the op.

I am waiting to have my phone consultation with cardiology in April and my GP doesn’t wish to deal with matters cardiac as I am under cardiology care. I did manage to have brief chat with my cardio nurse who said they haven’t even got phone appointments before April and it seems that I am doing well, so wait. She did sent me to have a ECG and echocardiogram in January in readiness for my April phone appointment, so I assume I would have heard if there was anything alarming.

I can thoroughly recommend a touch of sciatica to take your mind off ablation recovery. I have been in agony for nearly three months. Finally had a member of the musculoskeletal poke about yesterday and apparently I have Piriformis Syndrome i.e. sciatica caused by piriformis muscle inflammation trapping the sciatic nerve, not very common of course, (I don’t believe in common ailments ) and I can now proudly say that I have a genuine pain in the a**e🤣

Lots of dos and donts and exercises and I should be as good as new apparently. I have hyper mobility and all that show offs bendiness has now morphed me into a bag of bones rattling around without much support. My pelvis is moving in mysterious ways.

[Teresa156]

I’m sorry to hear that the beast made an unwelcome return. I know how it feels.

Do you have a Kardia machine or are you able to take an ECG if it returns again, but hopefully it won’t. If it does, do keep letting your Nurses know and keep sending them readings and keep asking them to help . Hopefully it won’t get to that point, but if you are quiet and just getting on with it, they will think all is ok.

Do let them know you are more breathless too, than you were before the ablation, if you haven’t done so already.

[DREW6]

Sorry you had this. Sounds like you are doing the right things. I had two ablations in 2024. The first was in April, and I had terrible back pain during this time. Not sure what triggered it but started in February. My lower spine has had wear and tear and it caught up with me. It just made getting out of bed difficult and exercise nearly impossible. Both my heart and back were giving me problems throughout the year.

I'm happy to say my back is better. I'm no longer "pretzel man" as my wife called. me. PT and exercises helped along with weight loss of about 15-20kg. I need to lose more. I still have varying amounts of back soreness or stiffness, but not nearly as bad as a year ago. Sometimes I forget I have an issue at all, which is nice. Still do daily stretches though.

My afib is another story. I'm 3 1/2 months since my last ablation and am getting some palps, but no full fledged afib episodes. I'm off all the afib meds now (Flecainide and Metoprolol) and it feels not terrible, but not great either. I seem to have bigeminy when laying back in the evening and at times overnight. Taking this a day at a time. I'm trying to see my cardiologist since my heart rate and blood pressure are up slightly. Neither is alarmingly high but it is a concern. Just doesn't feel right.

Good luck to you!

[aFibber55 in reply to DREW6]

Thanks for your answer Drew.

All sounds very familiar, but well done loosing all that weight. I did well with weigh loss until this year. It’s hard to keep it going when too can’t move easily.

Sorry to hear about your palpitations. It seems that they are sometimes the harbingers of Afib getting more frequent but not always.

I try very hard to stay positive and ignore strange rumbles and most of the time I am successful but it’s always in the back of your mind.

Hope you get somewhere with cardiology and your back continues to improve. Mine is suddenly decided to play nicely again .

Keep moving

[chickenmouse]

Sorry to hear about that, was the sciatica caused from the catheter they put in groin for the ablation ?

[aFibber55 in reply to chickenmouse]

No, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t want anyone to think it was caused by the procedure. It was probably caused by inactivity. I have had sciatica on and off all my adult life and it usually appears if I have been sitting down for long periods. Last year I had problems with my knee and was not able to keep very active.

I have no idea what position you stay during the hours it takes to complete the procedure, but I remember being positioned on my back with pillow under my knees and warm socks on my feet. So I assume you remain on your back.