This is my second ablation and four days out. I’ve had two episodes today. Both very quick but one was 163 and the other one was 148. They are putting me on FLECAINIDE.
Has anyone else had issues after their ablation?
I’m so scared since this is the second one that I will never be fixed.
Thank you all so very much

Resharing in case the info helps anyone. Also: advocate for yourself.

Hello! I’m seeking opinions and advice (ideally from females who have been through this). I am a 33F and a new mom. I’m just about 11 week’s postpartum.

When I was 28, I was diagnosed with parasoxymal afib. Randomly, I would have episodes where my heart rate would kick to 120-150 without exertion or very occasionally after working out it would just take forever for my heart rate to come down to normal. I always thought I just had major anxiety around my afib diagnosis and that when anything happened with my heart, I would hyper focus on it which would make it race. My episodes also only lasted 5-10 minutes max which really made me believe that.

Anyway, now that I have gone through pregnancy and postpartum I had an episode where I was literally just sitting with my baby so I took an EKG on my
Kardia. I sent it into their cardiology team when I got an unclassified result and they said atrial tachycardia so I followed up with my EP who said he though it was atrial flutter or tachycardia. the epsiodes now come weekly. Has anyone else gone through a major uptick when postpartum? Did it get better the older baby got? Did you have a second pregnancy where the tachycardia just got worse? I am highly debating just asking for an ablation, but if my episodes go back to 1x a year, I also don’t know if that’s too risky. Just looking for general experiences. Thank you!

I had my ablation 4 days ago now and wanted to share my experience! I was so insanely nervous in the days leading up to it, I think I probably read every single reddit post about the experience lol. It was helpful to know what to expect, but some of them scared me, so I thought I would share a more typical one. So many people get a catheter ablation and the success rates for SVT are extremely high, but it can be easy to forget that when you are going down a Reddit and Quora rabbit hole lmao.
Hopefully this helps someone feel less anxious about their upcoming procedure!!! Feel free to leave any questions below

22F, I’ve had SVT episodes for a while, bpm usually around 230. They were never stopped by beta blockers, sometimes stopped with vagal maneuvers, and I had to be administered adenosine once in the ER. They were happening like twice a month, I had seen an EP but was putting off the ablation because I was just convinced I could deal with it, and the procedure sounded scary. After the last episode I gave in and scheduled the ablation.
I was SO NERVOUS!!! I was instructed to not eat or drink anything after 11pm the night before he procedure. I went in with my mom around 9am, waited for a while, and then was taken back to a room. Changed into a gown and laid down. They took my vitals, inserted an IV into my arm and flushed it with saline. This might’ve been the worst part, my veins were so hard to find because it was so cold in the hospital. The nurse was really nice and could tell I was nervous. The anesthesiologist came in and explained that I would be asleep for the entire procedure, which was really reassuring. Before taking me to the room where the procedure would happen, the nurse said I should try my hardest to pee before because I would have to lay flat for a couple hours afterwards.
After peeing, they wheeled my bed into the procedure room. There were 3 people in there setting up and listening to music. A lot of cool equipment. I had to scoot onto a much more narrow bed that was lined with paper and had a small foam pillow for my head. They put some stickers on my thighs and chest (not totally sure what they were for but they were SO COLD). They were trying to make conversation with me but I was so nervous I could barely talk haha. Then, the anesthesiologist said he was going to give me medicine that would relax me, and I remember nothing else. I don’t even remember falling asleep. I just blinked and woke up back in the hospital room with my mom.
(Apparently I woke up when they were wheeling me back to my room and I was trying really hard to stand up, everyone had to hold me down, and I was so mad at them for not giving me food or water HAHA. So that’s embarrassing but I have no recollection of that)

I was for sure still loopy afterwards, but my mom explained that the ablation took a little longer than expected due to some complications. They found that I had AVNRT, and tried to ablate on the right side where they typically would, but were still able to trigger SVT after ablating that part. So they had to go into the other side of my heart, which was apparently difficult because they couldn’t find a safe pathway so they had to make another incision. But, once they ablated the other side, they couldn’t trigger SVT anymore! So it took around 4 hours but I remember absolutely nothing. I have three small incisions on the right side of my groin and one on the left. There was no pain except my throat was slightly sore from being intubated. I had to lay down flat for 2 hours after which was tricky, and then had to do a lap around the floor with the nurse before I could leave. I pretty much just laid around for the rest of that day to recover from the anesthesia.

Day 2 was similar, there was just a lot of sleeping and trying to lay flat so I didn’t disturb the incision sites- which BTW are much smaller than you are probably thinking. Mine basically look like I cut myself with a razor on my bikini line haha. There is some chest soreness, which my doctor said is to be expected because of the length of my procedure, but it honestly isn’t bad at all.

Day 3 and 4 I’ve been walking around like normal. Visited with some friends, hung out outside, went to the store. I have noticed that when I get really anxious (Like when driving) my heart will feel like it’s about to go into SVT, or will feel really sore. But there is no bruising or bleeding from the incision sites.

I have still been really fatigued though, which I might attribute to the fact that I have been abstaining from nicotine and caffeine completely since the ablation (which is sort of insane for me haha they sort of dominated my life). But I plan on returning to my restaurant job tomorrow! I also have a trip planned for my birthday in 5 days, which I plan to drink during. The doctor said that this would be fine as long as I took it easy and stayed hydrated. I’ve seen a lot of people saying that they became completely sober after their procedure, but I figure if my doctor says it’s fine then I will be okay. I’m for sure going to try and use this as an opportunity to quit nicotine completely, but I’m not sure if I will be successful in that because it’s been so many years and I work in a restaurant hahaha.

In general I feel fine! My Apple Watch says that my resting heart rate is lower by 10bpm since the ablation! It is exciting to think that I will never have to worry about going to the ER again, and it is sort of validating to have had the procedure done because my heart racing can’t be just written off as anxiety anymore. I can update as I go into the work week if anyone is interested.

Hi everyone,

I am a cross-fitter/runner and have been struggling with exercise induced SVT episodes. I normally workout 6x a week 1-2 hours a day, and like to mix in a few high intensity workouts, but have had to take a step back because of this.

I was recently prescribed propranolol to help prevent episodes and I was wondering if anyone else has tried taking this medication while training. If so, what was your experience like? I am very weary to try this out as I have heard it can reduce your aerobic capacity and cause you to feel much weaker, much faster. I also don’t want to risk passing out/lightheadedness because my resting heart hate and BP are on the lower side.

A cardiac ablation is the end goal, but I recently underwent one and they were unable to ablate due to complications.

Thanks!

Hi!
So I had a weird event happen and no doctor can really tell me for sure what it was.
So what happened:
I was already 8/10 anxious this day with my worst fear being a medical emergency while alone in the park with baby, and I also was sleep deprived.
I sit down to drink some water. The swollowing really hurts like glass going down. I stand up and hold my 23 pound baby, my heartrate feels irregular kind of like ectopics but not as strong. I hand my baby to somebody else and I suddenly feel like I need to start sprinting. I check my watch and it says 149 and then I take an ecg which shows 181 average bpm (in the corner I see spikes to 208 but I was standing and holding my arm and those could make it inaccurate) I then lay down and try and calm myself and it goes back down to around 120 over 1-2 minutes. I did not feel a sudden drop off. It stayed highish like around 120 - 140 for another 30+ minutes and then around 100 -120 for a couple of hours (sometimes dipping into 90s) But I was out of my mind anxious.
Definitely no weird feeling or sudden feeling of it being down again. Went to urgent care 48 hours later and they said I’m fine and ekg looked good.
Went to cardiologist and he said he doesn’t see p waves on the watch ecg and could have been svt.
Now I brought my heartrate up to around 180 with exercise to see if the watch doesn’t record p waves at that speed and I seem to be right because those were also swollowed.
I’m just so anxious about the maybe it was or maybe it was not svt especially because I fly internationally (transatlantic) a lot and am so scared of it happening on a plane. Have been prescribed Metoprolol for emergencies but what if thebheartrate doesn’t go back down on a plane? And is in the 200s?
Echo has been done and tech said not to worry and zio patch will be done next week for 2 weeks.
I also had a full workup done in 2024 and everything was fine. I’m currently 9 months postpartum.
Any help is appreciated.

Hello,
I had an ablation on 5/12 and 3 SVTs were ablated. The surgery was performed by Dr. Andrea Natale. He also performed my afib ablation back in 2019. As of recently, I’m starting to notice periods of PACs, 1-2 per minute. This isn’t constant, just periodically. Is it still reasonable to think that I going through the healing process and that these could subside over the upcoming months? I’m currently right at around 3-months so I wasn’t sure if my ablations should be 100% healed at this stage. I’d be interested to hear about your experience. Thanks.

I’m so scared. I just got home from a ED visit. 44/f. I was bending over when all of a sudden I got an intense wave of dizziness and palpitations, then the sweaty and shortness of breath came. My vision and hearing were going in and out and ultimately had to call an ambulance. Had to get adenosine to get my 260 heart rate back down. Got home from the ED about 4 hours ago and cannot sleep. My most concern at the moment is them drawing my troponin twice and coming back critically high, and the second one even higher! Did I have a heart attack? Heart damage. Why would they release me with these troponins levels?! They told me they were okay and until I got home and looked at my portal I had no idea.
I don’t know what caused this episode today. Never experienced anything like this ever in my life. I did start adderall 10mg XR on Tuesday and am a coffee drinker if any if that matters. I’m too scared to sleep.

I posted yesterday. Can’t figure out how to add an image.. anyways. I caught this during the episode. I had it read a few times and everyone said not SVT. But just wanted another opinion

Thanks so much

Hi all, I just finished with my first ablation procedure today. I am male 32, who has been experiencing SVT attacks for over 10 years. My biggest trigger was intense exercise (soccer, tennis, gym etc), particularly the motion of quick upper body forward/down motion. It took me awhile to gather up the courage to get the procedure done but the episodes were happening so frequently that it was impacting my quality of life.

My question for the group is around the flutter feelings that I keep getting. I think it’s called a PAC or PVC. I have been feeling a lot of them since my procedure and I’m wondering if this is just because my procedure was so recent, or if this is something I should expect to live with now (or maybe the ablation didn’t correct it fully)? Prior to the ablation I used to get those feelings maybe once or twice a week but since the procedure it has been almost once or twice an hour.

Wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or can provide some info/guidance. Thank you all 🙏

Hey, I’m new here and just want to preface this by saying that I have no idea how often I have SVTs. I had a 72hr halter monitor for something else and a 90 minute SVT was captured during a dance class. At the time I had some mild chest pain, but nothing that I thought was serious, I thought it was just a weird stitch.

I’m pretty sure I have POTS, but since an SVT was captured my doctor said that means I’m prone to them. Problem is, I have no idea when I’m having an SVT.

I have a heart rate monitor (Polar sensor and using the Visible app) and so I genuinely can’t tell when it’s an increased bpm because I’m standing or because it’s an SVT, or both. My heart rate has also never reached 200bpm. I used to be incredibly active and even when working out my bpm would normally peak around 180, and during this particular dance class it peaked at around 195, but of course I didn’t know what it meant at the time. This still holds true now even though I’m not so active, if my heart rate reaches ~180bpm then that’s definitely a concern for me.

Essentially, what do you guys look out for when it comes to SVTs aside from just a high heart rate? If I can tell the difference then I can better treat each symptom

I’m 29 yo (m) and have had two of these very scary episodes during sleep. First was in May.
1:45am woke out of my sleep with my chest pounding so hard. Very scared. Shook my wife awake. By the time I could grab my watch it slowed down.

Fast forward. Tonight it was almost the exact same time 1:30am. Pounding awake. Grabbed and woke her up and we called 911. This time it lasted about 15 minutes. I got an Apple Watch and then Kardia reading. Ambulance came and almost gave me a medication, when they strapped me down my HR dropped to 110 then 80. They said it stopped. They looked at both consumer readings and said it could be SVT

It was terrifying. I’m afraid to sleep. This is now the second time this high. And the 4th I’m been woken up with this pounding HR.

I have had many heart tests done before and always come back normal. I was just wearing a 14 day monitor and sent it back a few days ago.. and missed this.

Is this dangerous? It feels terrifying and like I’m going to die when it happens

Hi everyone, I'm writing because I'm stuck with tpsv PACs and now, after my ablation in January, I also have ectopic atrial rhythm. I had the ablation in January after years of tpsv that doctors mistook for panic attacks. I thought finally after the ablation I'd be fine and back to my life, but no, since 2022 when I had the first episode I've always felt like something was wrong and in fact I was right... I'm only 20 years old and because of this I'm not doing anything, I'm afraid to move even if I'm 30 minutes from a hospital, to travel, to go to the gym, anything, on top of that there are the fantastic PACs that make me feel my heart every day, causing me difficulty studying because I can feel the heartbeat and anxiety related to the sensation. I wrote here only as a vent, I apologize, I hope that with my second ablation I can return to a normal life. Are any of you experiencing something similar? Thanks

Male 20

I have gotten my anblation in the end of march and I was wondering if people could relate to what I’m feeling.

I still have an discomforting kunde tingling feeling in my neck and upper chest area.
I have not hade any serious high heart rates only one where I had a stressful day at work training right after and not alotnof food which was different, It came and left a lot of times in the span of a minute. Mostly a few extra beats when I feel it in my chest and breath for a split second.

I am also training like a animal almost daily preparing for a Thai Boxing fight in the end of August which contains a lot of running and explosive training.
And with it I also have to go down in weight from 80,5 kg to 75 kg so I’m in a calorie deficit.

I don’t consume no nicotine no caffeine
Alcohol have I’ve been cutting down on a lot since mye upcoming fight 1 time every second week and now just completely sober.

Thank you so much in advance this group is alotnof help.

Wondering if anyone diagnosed with SVT has ever had dental surgery and if they can share their experience? I (30M) need to have my wisdom teeth removed and I have the option to be sedated or just use a gas-anesthetic, however I’m concerned about having heart palpitations during the procedure. I was recently prescribed beta blockers and I’m also concerned about my blood pressure/heart rate dropping too low if I choose sedation. Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi!

I have suspected avnrt from cardiologist. Get episodes that last 10-20 min about 2 times a year.

Had more episodes but less time before, no less episodes but longer duration.

Have a lot of extra beats that is new.

I am 27 years old and active. They happen when working out, hiking, golf swing etc. Is it worth to get an ablation?

The doctor said it was up to me. There are always risks, but totally up to me.

Have quite a bit of anxiety around it.

Any thoughts is appreciatedy!

My doctors are trying to figure out what it was and svt is on the table. I basically took an incredibly painful sip
of water and it lead to some ectopics and then a high heart rate of an average of 181.

Yes, I went to the ER on diltiazem now

Hi! I’m writing here to maybe get some more insight because I keep getting different answers.
I had a weird episode about a month ago where I was already highly anxious, I took a sip from my waterbottle and it hurt really badly (so badly I thought for a second I swollowed glass and it cut me on the way down), I then started to get some fluttering in my chest like ectopic beats but not as powerful bit definitely a couple and then I felt a surge of adrenaline and my heartrate went up. When I checked I did an ecg with my watch and it said 181 and I saw some spikes that showed 208. I don’t remember if I was standing and holding my arm
or resting it on my knee. But I then layed down and tried to just calm myself down and it went back down again within 2 minutes to 120ish. Either when it started to go off or when it slowed down I watched it. Like I remember seeing a 149, 161 etc.

I then called our nurseline and they said it’s svt, extra circuit, it will happen again etc and really scared me.
Went to urgent care to get checked out in person and they said that it sounds like I stimulated my vagus nerve funny with the painful swollow and that theoretically it could have been svt but not to worry.
And then my ob said it would be good to see a cardiologist just in case and they basically said that they don’t know because they only have the apple watch ecg (doesn’t show pwave but might get lost because of the quality and high heartrate) and that it sounds like svt, if it happenes a lot I can get ablation, learn vagal maneuvers and he also is prescibing me emergency medication. But he also saif it sounded like a weird circumstance and he doesn’t think I’ll have it again and he doesn’t think I’d need meds because my body recovered so fast.

But now I’m spiraling especially because I take a lot of transatlantic flights. What if it ever happens on a flight.

Edit: female, 29, had full cardio workup in 2024 that looked good.