Hi all, love this group so just wanted to share my ablation experience, especially for anyone here who is as worried about having their first procedure as I was.
My Afib started about 2 years ago and has quite rapidly progressed in terms of frequency, duration and impact of my quality of life, so having discussed with my EP, ablation was recommended to hopefully ease my symptoms and more importantly prevent my Afib progressing to a more permanent state.
7am Monday was my scheduled appointment time and the team at the Royal Papworth were fantastic. My procedure was cryo and also completed under GA. (I hadn’t slept for about 6 days before hand, was incredibly stressed and anxious and GA was the only way I was able to go through with the whole procedure)
I was about 2 hours in theatre and recovery and all was pretty straightforward. When I did wake up the centre of my chest was very painful (an intense burning sensation) but after about 30mins and a number of codeine the discomfort subsided and I was returned to the day ward.
After just short of 3 hours in the ward, I was discharged and on my way home. It’s just incredible surgery like this is possible with the ability to discharge in such short a time. I was full of GA on procedure day (Day1) and really came home feeling absolutely fine. Rested for the remainder of the day with just some mild central chest pain to deal with by way of regular paracetamol. The chest pain did make sleeping on my front or side impossible so it was a night of broken sleep propped up on pillows.
Day 2 was much the same, a fair amount of chest discomfort which by the end of the day was improved but still apparent. I found that taking deep breaths was difficult and shallow breathing helped matters greatly.
Day 3 more pain improvement but my breathing was more laboured and the fatigue levels given I’ve done nothing since Monday were very surprising. On the plus side I can finally sleep on my side again.
Day 4 less pain but more fatigue and breathing continues to be a bit restricted. (I’ve had asthma all my life so it’s nothing I can’t cope with but i was surprised that my chest feels quite tight.)
Day 5, less pain again, but fatigue continues and I still don’t feel up to doing much. Feel a bit disconnected from things still (GA related I’m sure) but chest continues to be tight.
So for me, the worry was far worse than the procedure and as many people have written previously, the recovery process and taking things easy seems critical to a successful outcome. I’m a school caretaker/handyman on a 40 acre site in Norfolk and walk best part of 12 miles a day on site, but based on the first 5 day I don’t think I’m going to rush back to such lofty levels of physical activity.
If anyone is waiting on their procedure and wants to ask anything about my experience please feel free toreach out.
Keep strong everyone,
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SJ1000
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Thank you for sharing and good to hear that you are not rushing your recovery.
I've had 4 RF ablations and have to say that i never experienced the discomfort you describe. One of my ablations was under GA , after which i experienced short lived chest pain , but my other 3 were sedation after which i felt pretty good.
I agree that the worry is worse than the procedure!
You might well ask ! Without getting too boring it was a case of some areas requiring redoing ( as were reconnecting i guess) and then finding new areas to ablate. I was (am?) a difficult case but am feeling pretty hopeful at the moment, being 13+ months post last ablation which i gather was quite extensive ( circa 5 hours in lab). AF was mostly persistent and have had 22 dc cardioversions over the years.
As we say in our fact sheet on recovery do nothing the first week and not much more the second. Yoy need a lot of rest. Your body and heart in particluar has had a huge amount of stress and trauma even though you don't have a huge zip up your front!
Totally agree. I hadn’t appreciated how much the procedure would take out of you. The literature from the hospital suggested I’d just need to take a few days off work.
Thanks for this, very useful. My ablation is scheculed for 4 weeks time at the NNUH and is being done under GA. I was interested to see how much pain you had as I don't tolerate codeine or opioid pain killers and rely on paracetamol.
Good luck with the procedure, would be great to hear you experiences too. The pain when I woke up from GA was probably about 7/10. A burning sensation in the centre of my chest which respond in about 10 minutes to the codeine they gave me, if that hadn’t worked it would have been morphine. I only had the one dose of codeine to alleviate the initial pain and then I managed it for the next 5 days with just paracetamol. I’m sure if you advise the hospital beforehand they will be able to offer you an alternative that will work for you. Hope that helps and good luck!
You're from our favourite part of the world (well along with Suffolk, where we're off to today). It's a good place in which to convalesce. I hope your school is managing without you while you recover.
Glad to here how you got on and that it went well I have been so against having an ablation and thought I could manage it with medication but since June I have had over 25 episodes and the last one this week which lasted three days so I now have an appoint to see an EP in Leicester in two weeks time, I am not looking forward to the appointment but I know I now have to do this as it is affecting my quality of life mentally and physically.
Keep resting and don’t rush back to work until you are ready.
Hey there, really sorry to hear your episodes are making life a challenge. My episodes were daily and lasted only about an hour at most although I did have 8 days straight at Xmas which is what spurred me on to see the EP.
Ablation has got to be right for you personally so don’t ever feel it’s a route you mush take, there’s always choice. For me it was about the increased risk of stroke if I didn’t have the ablation and having lost both my Mum and Dad to strokes I just had to try and get this sorted.
I also felt my Afib quite acutely and I hated how conscious I was of it and how uncomfortable my chest was. So while petrified about the Op I just wanted to hopefully get back to something like normal. Sure I’ll probably always have to avoid afib triggers, alcohol in my case but it’s no biggie and if that’s the worst life throws at me then I’m a lucky guy.
Take the appointment with the EP and just explain how you feel about it and between you, you’ll evaluate the risks and benefits and come up with a plan to move forward. Remember, it’s a choice!
So the million dollar question. Would I have ablation again if needed. Absolutely. I’ll be scared beyond belief but in my case to live without Afib is worth the very small risk of the procedure.
What a wonderful post. So glad you are doing well post-ablation. Thank you for taking the time amid your recovery and if you feel up to it, please post more weekly symptom updates as I for one are hanging off your every word! My ablation is next month. I cancelled it once already due to fear but have since been talked round after seeking a second opinion. I don’t know if mine’s cryo though my EP is big on that. PS: did you lose weight due to worrying beforehand? My GP suggested my recent weight loss isn’t BB-linked but ablation anxiety!! Everything today is explained away as anxiety. Doh!!
I really get it about being anxious. I’ve seen so many posts on here from people who seemed to be much calmer about the whole experience and managed with sedation rather than GA. Personally I get stressed just going to the dentist so a heart procedure was way past the top of my internal stressometer!!
Most importantly I’m glad I’ve had this done. The risk level is pretty low and if I’m going to have a heart attack or a stroke mid procedure, there’s no better place to have it that than in hospital. For me it was the stoke risk multipliers, if I didn’t have the surgery, that concerned me most. My EP felt my Afib was progressing quickly (more episodes more often) and being 5 times more likely to to have a stroke due to Afib outweighed (for me) the possible procedural complications.
All my friends just brushed the Op off saying that it would be fine and that the EP does it all the time, which I do understand. But I don’t do this all the time, and an operation on the heart, which is your primary life providing organ is a real and worrying proposition. To be fair to my friends they don’t have heart conditions but they just expect me to be back at work today (a week on) and it’s all forgotten. But I’m not at work and post operation I’m feeling a bit fragile and it’s made me reevaluate what I do with the future. I’ll take time to recover properly instead of pushing myself back into AFib. I had episodes everyday, which were very uncomfortable and I hope I don’t go back. Time will tell.
So, all I can say is hang in there, it IS for many people a very anxious time pre op and we all deal with it differently but I believe the benefits outweigh the downsides. If I need to do this again, I absolutely will, I’ll be slightly less frightened but I’ll always be a worrier.
Re weight loss, the answer is no for me, but I’m energy and anxiety all the time so I’m built like a racing snake and have been all my life.
Hope this reply helps in some small way and please message me if you want to know anything more.
Many thanks for sharing your experience. I don't have afib but do have low burden PVCs which I daily feel. I'm learning to live with them but at the same time trying to learn as much about ablation as possible in case I need/want one in the future. I have heard that Papworth is one of the best heart hospitals in the UK so I was excited to read about your experience there. Something that I'm particularly interested in is how ablation affects heart rate and blood pressure. Have you been monitoring yours? Have you noticed any changes? Also, did you experience PVCs or ectopic beats before your ablation? Are you experiencing them now? I ask this because it seems that a common side effect of afib ablation are new regular ectopic beats and I really would like to know why. Good luck with your recovery and please do keep posting your recovery experiences.
So PVC’s is where this all started for me about 4 years ago now when I lived in Florida. I noticed some massive heart beats just before I fell asleep and went to see a cardiologist. Did all the tests and I had an unspecified arrhythmia (not afib) high BP 180/95 and two small arterial blockages one in my LAD and one in my carotid. The PVC’s causing the arrhythmia were partly controlled with Metoprolol but they never really went away and I could feel everyone which was odd and concerning in equal measure.
Anyway, the Ectopics usually Eva me apparent when heart rate was 100bpm and just kept coming even though the metoprolol kept my resting heart rate down in the low 50s. Then all of a sudden I was getting hours of what turned out to be Afib and here we are now.
My EP explained the Ectopics were triggering the Afib and it would continue to progress unless we tackled it.
So re blood pressure I was pre op on average 125/85 and post op about 120/80. My resting heart beat pre op was about 52bpm it’s currently 80bpm which is both normal and a good sign post op. So no blood pressure change but a good increase in heart rate even while I’m taking the metoprolol which as a beta blocker actually slows the heart rate down. I’m noticing the odd Ectopic but nothing like what I was experiencing before the op and so far no Afib which feels incredible - long May it last.
The Royal Papworth - all I can say is ‘Awesome’ and you’re correct it is one if not the best heart and lung centres in the U.K. if you can go there, do, such a brilliant team
Many thanks for the update. I know that many doctors say PVCs are harmless but I don't really believe that. I know too that they will never go away on their own. Though odd days go by when I experience hardly any they always return. I'm keeping an eye on them but trying not to be anxious. I suspect that one day I will want/need an ablation but my plan is to go as many years as I can without medication. As long as my ectopic burden is low and my heart is structurally sound I'll plod on and try not to worry. Good luck with your recovery and please keep posting.
If you don’t need surgery that’s great but Always go with your gut on these things. 18months ago I was told I had no heart issues whatsoever and it’s only because I kept researching and pushing I’ve managed to get the treatment I clearly needed. Take care of yourself.
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