Did anyone else suffer from very frequent ectopic beats after cardiac ablation?

[Shannon182]

I had an ablation on Thursday (today is Monday) and since Saturday evening I’ve had frequent ectopic beats it’s started sparse but it’s nearly 30 an hour,most hours now. I have experienced them before but never to this degree the last two days have been hell never been so stressed and anxious they feel awful. I have tachycardia induced cardiomyopathy (hence the ablation for the tachycardia) so I’m really nervous this many ectopics is going to be making my HEart failure worse. I called the cardiac nurse this morning but they had calmed down last night/ very early this morning so they said to leave it but 30 a minute is a lot and to call them to arrange a 24 hour holter monitor if it continues. But they did also say they are normal and benign especially after ablation! Just feel so alone and worried!

[pottypete1]

I think you also asked this question on the AF Forum.

I have had 7 ablations so I think I have experienced pretty well everything a heart can throw at you after the procedure.

It is far to early to expect things to settle down this quickly. You should expect your heart to take a while to settle down. After all the ablation does entail creating scars on the inside of your atrium and therefore it is quite a trauma.

Ectopics in the main are benign and are a common consequence that will normally settle down eventually but you must give it time it is very early days.

To cope with the stress you are experiencing try one of the many meditation YouTube channels that are available for example:

youtu.be/_jD3VxSGM-k(Not working as expected?)

It takes a while but I am sure it will all settle down for you just give it time and for the time being make sure you have a lot of rest.

Pete

[Shannon182 in reply to pottypete1]

Thank you for your reply Pete, I don’t think I asked this question elsewhere but I may have as I’m new to this! Did you have ectopics as frequent as I am having then after any of your ablation?

[pottypete1]

Yes I did.

After an ablation it is very common to have ectopics and in most cases they settle down gradually.

Take it easy and try not to worry too much.

Pete

[Lucymoo]

I had an ablation 3 weeks ago and have had nearly daily ectopic and atrial flutter incidents a lot worse than prior to the ablation. Have had a continuous cough due to stimulation of the vagus nerve I’ve been told. I’ve felt slightly better over the last couple of days and managed to talk to a GP that has had two ablation himself who doubled my beta blocker. I’ve found the cardiology team unhelpful when I rang the number on their advice sheet who said to contact my GP.

I’ve read up prior to the ablation and afterwards but didn’t expect so many incidents but I feel positive. My follow up review is in October so looking forward to things settling in the next 8 weeks

[Goldfish7]

Yes - lots and I'm 2yrs in from the ablation (no definitive AF since) and now get quite regular ectopic's, tachycardia and if I've done too much during the day (not a lot and unfortunately hard to quantify) I often get bigeminy and trigeminy runs for hours or until I take Pill in Pocket meds. This was far worse in the 1st year following the ablation. Prior to the ablation I had Rapid Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation which often landed me in hospital with very high troponin levels.