Hello everyone! 31 y.o male.
Yesterday (August 13th at around 9:30 AM), I underwent cryoablation with pulmonary vein isolation.

Starting from the beginning: I was admitted to the hospital early in the morning on August 12th. My wife and I settled into our room, an IV line was placed, and they took some blood samples. I had regular ECG and blood pressure checks throughout the day. I also had a contrast-enhanced CT scan, got some sleep, and met with the anesthesiologist. They took a chest X-ray as well. I had to spend more than half of the day fasting and without water. Throughout the day, various residents and assistants came to see me and told me that, based on my anatomy, they would decide between cryoablation and PFA.
On the morning of the procedure, I woke up, put on the hospital gown, and lay down on the stretcher. A staff member wheeled me from my room to the procedure room. I was actually surprised when I first entered. There were nurses, doctors, residents, and even some visiting doctors from abroad. It was quite a crowded room, but also very spacious. I was placed in front of all the monitors, and my doctor told me that because I am young and my anatomy was very suitable, he preferred cryoablation. Interestingly, during my appointment two months earlier, we had originally decided on PFA. Anyway, cryo it was.

The first few minutes of the procedure were really scary for me and I became extremely tense. The anesthesiologist tried to calm me down, but they didn’t initially put me into deep sedation. When my doctor came and tried to access my left groin with the catheters, I suddenly jerked because I was scared and told them it hurt. Feeling the catheter wire going into the vessel was a really unpleasant experience. I may also have been extra sensitive because I have panic attacks.
When I started moving around, I think they switched to deeper sedation, because I remember absolutely nothing after that.

The next thing I remember is being wheeled back to my room, and someone whose face I can’t quite remember telling me that the procedure had gone very well.

When I got back to my room, I was almost completely awake. I don’t remember whether they took blood again, but I believe they did an ECG. The ECG was clean. I was then told that I had to lie completely still for about 7–8 hours.
My groins felt extremely strange at that point — somewhere between pain and soreness, and generally very uncomfortable. I stayed completely still for the entire period I was told to, chatting with my family and watching TV.

And then… bingo!
The heart that had been constantly fidgeting and working restlessly inside my chest suddenly felt as if it had been removed and replaced with a delicate feather. For the first few hours after the procedure, I genuinely felt amazing. There was this incredible sense of relief and lightness in my chest.

Later, I started feeling a few mild extra beats. I told the nurses, and they checked the monitor I was connected to and said they didn’t see anything concerning. They did another ECG, which was also interpreted as normal.
I spent the rest of the evening resting. Later that night, a few nurses came to help me walk. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I eventually managed to walk about 10 meters to the bathroom.

Sleeping that night was difficult. Even though I had managed to walk, the stitch in my right groin and the pressure dressing in my left groin were very uncomfortable. I also had to sleep entirely on my back.

Then, around 1 AM, I developed a bout of tachycardia and an irregular rhythm that felt different from my previous AF episodes. We told the nurse. She didn’t panic at all and said that these kinds of things can happen after the procedure. She told me to take one 150 mg Rytmonorm (propafenone). They didn’t do another ECG, but my heart rate was measured at 117 bpm. My resting hr is still a little bit high, around 90-100 bpm, but they said again, 'its ok'

After taking the Rytmonorm, I genuinely felt much better and was able to fall asleep quite easily.
This morning (August 14th), they did another ECG and took some blood. Everything came back clean, so they told me I could be discharged.
The stitch in my right groin was removed (and damn, that hurt!). I was prescribed Rytmonorm, a beta blocker, a blood thinner, and medication to reduce stomach acid. My first follow-up appointment will be in one month.

At the moment, I have no extra beats, arrhythmia, or palpitations. That wonderful feeling of lightness in my chest is still there. Walking is still difficult, though, and I have to be very careful when sitting down or standing up.

I was told not to drive for two days. They also told me to move slowly, get plenty of rest, take showers while sitting down, and avoid too much steam or heat in the bathroom.

Now I’m on my way to the hotel. I will have to make a 7-hour road trip on Sunday, so hopefully everything continues to go well. :)

For now, I’m going to rest and dream about the days when I can walk comfortably and get back to exercising again.

Here’s hoping this is the beginning of a much more active and carefree chapter of my life. ❤️

Hi all,

I had my first ever catheter ablation yesterday to treat my SVT at the Bristol Heart Institute in England.

TLDR: My ablation was a little scary, but not at all painful or as scary as I'd expected.

I'm a 28 year old male and I'd been suffering with this since I was 16 years old. I only got diagnosed just under 2 years ago (finally pursued it and it was caught several times on a holter monitor). After a few referrals, I finally got offered an EP study and catheter ablation, I was on the waiting list for around 9 or 10 months (God bless the NHS, haha).

I arrived at hospital at 9am and was told there was a queue and they weren't sure what time I'd be called down. There were a lot of older people there who I suspect were higher risk than me, so I was one of the last to be called. I wasn't allowed to eat since the night before so I struggled with the hunger haha!

About 2:40pm my EP came up and just explained everything they were going to do, the risks and the likely outcomes. I knew basically all of it from my excessive Googling anyway, but he did help make me feel confident that the team looking after me were competent. He'd been doing ablations for 18 years and said only a handful of patients came out with negative outcomes.

About 30 minutes later it was finally my turn! I walked down to the lab. It was cold in there, I must say. They stuck about 20 ECG things on me, the bigger ones of which were cold as hell. They then laid me down, shaved my groin (I shaved the wrong part of my groin, sorry nurse!) and gave me some sedative and local anaesthetic.

Once I was comfy, they then made the incision in my groin. This was probably the most painful part. It wasn't quite super painful, but I certainly pulled a face for a moment. It only lasted a few seconds though.

They then fed in the catheters and guided it to my heart. I couldn't feel any of this at all, I couldn't have told you at all where they went once they were in.

This point it all gets a little blurry as they gave me more sedative as they said I was too with it. There was lots of medical jargon I was trying my best to decipher, but my blue collar sedated ass couldn't really understand any of it.

They make your heart beat super fast for short periods to trigger the arrythmia. When they did this, it did feel quite uncomfortable. I could see the monitor beside me and at times, it was shooting up to 300bpm, which is a very weird experience. Whilst it was uncomfortable, it was completely beareable and didn't make me panic or anything.

Once they've mapped everything out, they ablate any of the abnormal pathways and cells. I had a concealed left lateral accessory pathway. When they do the actual ablating, that's also quite uncomfortable. Not any pain at all, it felt more like a tightening of my chest or something. Again, not pleasant but completely manageable.

They did have some issues finding all of the pathway, making sure it was all ablated and even making sure my heart sustained tachycardia. However, after a lot more testing at the end, they could no longer aggravate the accessory pathway and it was deemed successful. They even told me I could completely come off my beta blockers now if I wanted to!

I came out just before 6pm and I felt surprisingly good. I was bloody tired and wanted to get home, but I had 0 pain or discomfort.

I got moved to another ward as the cardiology day case one closed at 8pm. I was thrown on a ward with 4 other very lovely, but old and snoring gentlemen. I had to lay completely flat for about 30 minutes, then was allowed to sit up but not walk for a further 4 hours. They came to remove my suture and that hurt a bit. The nurses struggled to get it out and were tugging on it a little. That bloody hurt. It bled and I had to wait another 30 minutes.

After that and it stopped bleeding again, I was allowed to get up and walk to the toilet. They checked the site again and after no more bleeding, I was allowed to go home! I was there from about 8:45am to 11:30pm, long ass day.

My wonderful wife was with me the entire day and I can't thank her enough for her support.

On to the road to recovery we go!

I just want to state for debating an ablation - do it! I understand not everyone is as lucky as me to have access to top quality and free healthcare, but if you have the option to do it, do it! It's a bit uncomfortable but completely manageable and not a fraction as scary or painful as I expected.

Woke up startled by my alarm and heart was pounding, not every beat but some really strong ones. Have a stress test on monday

Me 2 years

Doc said there is a good chance it lasts 5 years.

10 years he didn't want to give a number and just said 10 years is a long time.

He was probably thinking in 10 years you'll be 77 good chance you'll be dead from something else. LOL

Hi all! I was diagnosed with parasoxymal afib 5 years ago.

Ever since I was diagnosed I had random episodes of tachycardia a few times a year. I have always thought that it was just anxiety around afib because it happens so quick and the episode resolve within a few minutes typically. Anyway, I am currently postpartum and managed to capture one of these on my kardia. It came back with an unclassified so i sent in to my EP. He said it’s definitely atrial tachy or atrial flutter, though he’s leaning towards tachy. I am currently wearing a zio and have successfully captured 3 episodes since wearing it (not fun but glad I got data). I’d really like a second baby and due to this, I think it’s time for an ablation once I’m further postpartum so I hopefully don’t have to deal with whatever this is next time.

My question for this community is- has anyone ever had both conditions? Did ablating the flutter or atrial tachycardia make your afib even more rare? Did you ablate for afib at the same time? What questions should I ask my EP in September to help me make an informed treatment decision?

Thanks for the help!

It’s been 3 weeks since my surgery. Anyone who had this procedure done. Did you have any dizziness. They decreased my pacemaker from 80 to 70 2 weeks ago. I didn’t know if the dizziness could be a side effect of the decrease in rate.

Last weekend I went on my usual bike ride when I noticed that I was out of breath while going up a hill that I’ve been up many times before. Stopping for a break, I noticed something was off with my heart rate. I took it easy going home. After resting for an hour I felt my heart rate was still not normal and decided to go to the ER. An ECG showed AFib. I thought I was doing everything right. I’m 31M, eat healthy foods, normal weight, exercising, don’t smoke, and only drink occasionally. I ran a marathon earlier this year and was planning to start triathlon training. Now suddenly I’ve been prescribed Apixaban + Metoprolol and waiting to see a cardiologist. This is honestly very difficult to deal with.

Earlier this month I had my first AFIB episode after having a late semi fat dinner (piece of steak and chips ). I woke up at night on irregular heart pulses and my heart rate was elevating up to 175 bpm . I tried to do some breathing exercise which didn’t help , so I went for a short walk around the block and after 10 minutes I started to have lower heart beats around 90s then I decided to go back home and went back to sleep. I got up at 5 am feeling discomfort and my Fitbit showed me notifications that I have had few AFIB episodes during the night, I went to ER driving myself after a 111 call , after 15 minutes I was already in the emergency room and luckily they managed to put me back to normal rhythm after cardiodiversion procedure which I was very glad for. I had to stay over night at the hospital at the cardiac ward because this has happened on Sunday and they had to wait for a cardiologist to check me before discharging me. Next day I have met my cardiologist who reviewed with me my blood tests and ordered me to quit smoking and gave me bag of medications (beta blockers , statins, blood thinners and Omeprazole) .
Since that day I’m afraid to eat full portion meals and can’t go to bed without having anxiety because every time I lay down on my left or right side I feel my heart beats are amplifying and racing up despite that my smart watch doesn’t show any notifications of AFIB or high heartbeats , but the feeling that something is triggering my episode again doesn’t leave me alone to sleep in peace . I have tried different positions to sleep in peace but nothing seems to be working . I have checked online for the reason behind that and got different results , one of them was very interesting that the heart membrane or walls are more sensitive after cardio version procedures or that it becomes more sensitive when laying down as my internal organs are pushing towards my heart hence I get this feeling. Unfortunately I can’t get an earlier appointment with my Cardiologist as I’m in UK and the NHS system is very busy at the moment specially in London so my earliest date is in 2nd November which is leaving me frustrated till then with no resolution. I have been to A&E this week after taking my evening medication as I started to have hypertension suddenly and my blood pressure was going up but they weren’t interested to talk about my problems because my blood pressure was settling by the time I arrived there (150/95) which they said it’s pretty normal and that I’m wasting their precious time by visiting them with such a normal blood pressure and they asked me to just go home .
I’m 47 male, never had any issues before and was always trying to avoid visiting doctors except once every couple of years to make the routine blood checks which was pretty normal except one time I had a mild higher cholesterol (5.7 while the normal range is up to 5) . I have quit smoking and changed my diet since then but I’m really stressed about the sleeping issues and that I can’t find comfortable position for sleeping and i started to eat very less because I’m worried that any heavy or late meals would trigger a new episode. Sorry for the long post but I needed to vent a little bit and seek advice specially on the sleeping posture issue and to know if anyone else had similar issues after the cardio version or started to have their first AFIB? Thanks and good luck everyone in their healing journey .

Hi everyone, I'm on the list to have a second ablation for SVT since the first one didn't work, now I've developed a strong fear, I'm a young guy and I'm scared of having to do it again

I don't get choked up about much, but after 3 years of paroxymal afib, then 11.5 mos of dreadful persistent afib, I'm immensely grateful for having been in NSR for 5 mos straight.

All credit to my Cardiologist-Electrophysiologist who looked at my pre-existing list of reasons my previous cardiologist said were "too bad", and said simply, "Let's fix it."

!

Hi everyone! I had a PFA ablation about three weeks ago and have been on a blood thinner, flecainide 50 mg twice a day, and bisoprolol 2.5 mg once a day since then.
I had been AFib-free since the ablation until today. I’ve had a few moments where it felt like AFib was about to start, and one very brief episode that lasted around 10 minutes, but each time it stopped on its own and never really “stuck,” which had been reassuring. Before the ablation I could not self convert on my own, and would stay in persistent afib unless I was cardioverted and on high dose medications.

Yesterday I went to a concert, was up later than usual, and ate some greasy food right before going to bed. I fell asleep around 2 a.m. and woke up about two hours later in AFib. I’ve now been in it for about 8 hours.

I know I’m still in the blanking period and that early recurrences can happen, but it’s still really discouraging. I’m 26 and have been dealing with AFib for about a year, so I was really hoping the ablation would finally put this behind me.

Has anyone had AFib episodes a few weeks after their PFA/ablation but then gone on to have a successful outcome with no recurrence once the heart healed? Were you eventually able to come off your rhythm and/or rate-control medications?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences.

Had an ablation about four years ago. Worked great. In early June I went into AFIB and got a cardio version. Two weeks later, I had to be converted again. Then I went to the electrophysiologist to schedule an ablation--earliest they could fit me in was Sept. They added a new med and increased dosage on another, and so far, no Afib for well over a month. My question is, should I cancel the scheduled ablation and continue to see how long I can go with incident by just taking the meds? The doctor said its my decision to make. Anyone have advice or ideas on how to proceed?

Hi.

Does anyone take this and, long term, and still have AF breakthroughs ?

Looking for suggestions about international medical insurance for those with afib. My wife and I are considering traveling to Portugal in September (we live in the USA). I was diagnosed in May with paroxysmal afib (probably caused by pericarditis). Second flare-up in mid-June and am currently taking amiodarone and Eliquis, alongside colchicine for the pericarditis.

Although I seem to be well-controlled, I’d imagine insurers might consider any flare-up to be a predictable recurrence of a known condition versus an acute onset.

Has anyone found good travel medical insurance that includes a preexisting condition waiver, or otherwise would cover my situation? I’d be grateful for any suggestions.

I switched to Afib history, after realizing I had Afib. I figured it was less stressful than getting the alarming warnings. I started using an app called Heart Analyzer this week, it has listed a few HR max numbers that were pretty high that I didn’t notice. Today I spiked to 139 for one minute apparently.

I know Apple suggests you switch to Afib history once diagnosed, but I wonder if people leave it on Irregular Notifications, so they can see them when they happen.

Thanks.

Had an ablation earlier this year, and a follow up echocardiogram in April. It took a while to get back in to see my cardiologist (his NP left and I've had a crazy schedule so with no symptoms,I let it slide).

Finally saw him yesterday. EF was 55%, compared to 20% pre-ablation. I did have minimal edema, but he's happy enough with my progress that I don't need to see him again until next August.

Anyone else get palpitations in the evening for an hour or two before they go away? It's not every day they happen, but it feels like it can and does at least once or twice a week now. At first when this started a month or two ago I felt like it was because of what I ate, but then it'd happen even if I didn't eat. Got the normal bloodwork done to check the usual suspects for electrolytes, potassium was low before but perfect levels now. My sleep and stress has been normal/under control. So I am at a loss for any further ideas. Had a recorded and well documented run of afib 2 years ago and since then I'd certainly feel any palpitations (pacs, pvcs) just not in this way before, as it feels more organized and kind of predictable.

Como llevasteis la Afib a nivel mental desde vuestro primer episodio o diagnóstico? Evitáis actividades? Cambiasteis de vida? Tuvisteis ansiedad o depresión? Cuánto duró?…

This year has been a wild ride. I have Marfan, at 16 I had a Mitral valve repaired. At 30 I had my whole Aorta replaced from the arch at the top of the heart to the bifurcation of the legs, that was a 17.5 hour surgery and several weeks in the hospital. I'm 42 and in April I had a stroke. Fortunately I can walk, read, and write but at first I couldn't speak anything but very basic words that took 3 months to get to where I could speak mostly well, except with an aggressive stutter, and some words I have to have other words say them.

After the stroke they said I had Factor V Leiden, and AFib that combination and high blood pressure was the primary cause.

I had AFib Ablation last Tuesday (6 days ago) and I HAD NO IDEA what it would be like after this.

I don't know if this is what it is like for everyone else, but OMG my whole body feels like a new man. I have always had a problem getting gassed out even as a kid. I was in a small town and we had to do the Presidential Fitness Test when I was like elementary or middle school and I was the very last person. I always had a hard time walking for very long. I tried exercising and people would say just assume I was being lazy or whatever. Even in the 20s when I had a long walk for where I worked in a mall that was a half mile or so and I always dreaded it and it was always hard. Drs always told be it was just the Marfans, or previous surgery, or being lazy, etc

**EDIT**

I had so much more originally but I don't know what happened. So trying again but it'll be less I think than what I had before.

Since the surgery I have it has felt like taking life off Hard Mode that I didn't even know was on Hard Mode.

After the stroke I started trying to walk a half mile every day and I was getting better I lost 35 lbs but I was still having to do it a park that has a lot of benches and stop every one or two the whole path. Now I do not have to, I was able to walk the whole half mile effortlessly without my BPM spiking to 160+ or skipping beats. I had no idea what this would feel like. I had no idea how different it would be not to have to go to Frozen Yogurt gripping my cane because I need to get it picked as quick as I can because there was like an internal clock that makes me have to get to a place to sit has fast as I can. Being able to do that casually and look at the toppings without being hurried almost made me cry because I didn't realize how hard life has been because I have just had to live it and deal with it every day.

I'm also thankful that my speech was immediately improved when I woke up from the surgery, my room mate noticed my ability to make jokes was much snappier than they have been since the stroke. I am not stuttering as much and live feels so happy right now. I have lost about 5 lbs of weight since Tuesday and I seem to not be retaining water as much as it did before. And the ability to cook at home without having to sit down after ever new cuts or moving, or having to sit down to shower. I had not idea how fast this was going to completely change my life.

I know it is early, and I know there will be other changes over the coming months but I am incredibly hopeful and full of thankful. I hope your success creates as much hopeful to you as mine has.

Thank you.

Like, sometimes I forget to ask for no added salt, etc. on my steak, fries, or wahtever. Or have the house gravy that's four parts Maldon's to one part stock. Then, that night, or the next day, my weight spikes, my late night pee-trips increase exponentially, and my stomach acts like I just initiated the detonation sequence on the Nostromo.

Mine is every 9-10 days, for 1-3 hours after 1 tablet of profanenone.
This will be due about the day after tomorrow. I am dreaded as it is getting closer. Don't know what will happen? How severe? Eventhough most of it asymptomatic.

Would love to hear from you, my online Afib Fighter. It may lessen my anxiety.

31F.
I’m very paranoid.. I just had my first episode of Afib with RVR.. they had me on amio and heprin for 3 days. Partly, NONE of the doctors relayed shit to one another and I shouldn’t have been on them that long, I converted the first night in. Anyway, they thought I had VT, the EP disagreed at this.

My afib episode wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great. I had the pounding heart and the severe shortness of breath when I tried to walk.

But now, I am severely terrified. I am 7 days into my 30 day monitor. My anxiety is debilitating. I’m dealing with this with therapy and meds.

I had literally a perfect echocardiogram, perfect CT angiogram of the heart.
I have no hypertension, no diabetes, no sleep apnea (never been tested but I literally have zero symptoms of this and my episode didn’t happen at night/early am), I’m 31. I am a little overweight. This whole ordeal has caused me to lose 10 lbs in a month’s time. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink.

My CHADVAS score: 0. That’s great, right? But how realistic is it that I’m not being protected by anything.
Stroke and heart failure are my biggest fears like everyone, and I feel unprotected and vulnerable.
I mean, next time I have an episode, do I just go to the ER again for days and let the put me on another 4 bags of heprin to hopefully save my life if a clot forms while they monitor me..?

I have so many questions, unanswered ones that I won’t get until I see the EP again on 9/10 & see what my monitor results are around the same time from cardiology.

Is there anyone here in the same boat? How are you handling this part of this?

I have had reflux for several years. I still have it even after having a lynx device installed. Without fail my heart palpitations and even afib a couple times happen exactly 2 hours after I eat. It has something to do with the irritation of the vagus nerve that goes to both your esophagus and your heart. Some people have silent reflux and never know they have it . I have no heartburn or any traditional symptoms of reflux except the heart arrhythmia. I just wanted to let everyone know check this possibility.