Cardio ablation

My ablation was a snap. Went home 7 hrs later and resumed all activities after 24 hrs. No pain no sickness. I'm at 3 months and I've had not afib so far.

After my ablation, I went into cardiac tamponade and had to have CPR to bring me back. Ended up with Post Cardiac Injury Syndrome (PCIS). It's been 9 months. Still recovering and have had to take prednisone naproxen and colchicine all this time. Never took medicine before ablation. It seems the ablation worked for my arrhythmia but the cost of this recovery has been intense both physically and mentally and I am an exercise instructor for my entire life. Still teaching but not back to 100% yet. My electrophysiologist has done this for over 15 years and has never had this happen to another patient. She told me before the surgery that I was the healthiest patient she'd ever done an ablation on. I am now a case study at the hospital. It has been horrible. BUT everyone is different and this does not happen often from what I've researched. I was just the unlucky one.

Yow, red350, so sorry to hear that.

My ablation was a simple, go to the hospital in the morning, painless procedure, and back home that afternoon. There is an adjustment time for your heart to heal afterwards where your heart can go in and out of afib for two or three months. My heart jumped in and out for a couple months with almost daily episodes the first month. I went on a two month trek in Nepal after 3 months, still on eliquis and diltiazem, then off all meds.

Not all ablations are successful the first time around, somewhere around and 85% success rate. I have a brother who had one and is doing great a year out, 17 mile hikes. I have another brother that required three to successfully control his afib.
All the best.

I had two within seven months. First one failed and I knew it within six days. Second one, same electrophysiologist, worked wonders and I'm free of AF for coming up to 3 years now.

Across the field of EPs doing ablations, about 25% of all ablations, first attempts (called index ablations) will fail. So a repeat is needed. Not all EPs are the same. The most popular, highly skilled, and most experienced (6-8 ablations each week for ten years or more) are likely to yield the best results, so do your homework.

As the others have said, it's an early arrival at the hospital, and you're home that evening at the latest (if they wheel you into the cath lab near noon or a bit later. Those taken in at 0800 or so will be home by mid-afternoon). So, it's rocket science, but everyone is putting up rockets these days. It's routine, pretty much like an endoscopy, except it's a thin catheter going up your femoral vein and into your right atrium. From there they pierce the septum and insert the catheter into the left atrium and commence to cauterize around the pulmonary vein ostia. That's usually a first attempt, although the more skilled and experienced EPs will take a good look to see if there are other foci where the signals are entering the atrium and causing it to beat irregularly. SHOP AROUND!!

I just had ablation for atrial flutter 2 days ago. Seems to be working fine; I have occasional palpitations and low heart rate occasionally but the medics tell me that's normal while things settle down. They also recommended that I get a smart watch to monitor heart function and perform ECG if needed. I'm looking at the Galaxy Watch 8 since I use a Samsung phone. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks.

@capnhal I use a Galaxy 4 watch that is now four years old and was updated by Samsung to record ECG and blood pressure. It works well. You must recalibrate your BP function every 28 days with a proper cuff. I also have the Galaxy 6 which came with those capabilities. Both watches can also measure SPO2 during sleep, and monitor the quality and duration of your sleep. The recent Galaxy 8 can even take skin measurements to assess the oxidants/free radicals in your skin and coach you about taking better nutrition. !!

However, there's a caveat. The ones I'm familiar with cannot take concurrent/running ECG to warn you of AF. Perhaps the Galaxy 8 can. So, with the earlier models you must take an ECG manually whenever you happen to want to or think to.

@gloaming - Wow, thanks, that's just the info I needed. Just ordered a Galaxy 8.

Had an RF ablation February 2024. So far so good. My last appt. with the cardiologist showed "no hint" of Afib. So, Yay.

@red350 Sorry to hear. My ablation was successful, but now I'm going for a bone marrow biopsy. Looking at some form of myeloma. I guess I'll be on the other site too. Anyway, good luck to you. Seems like it's always something! Oh, and no, I don't mean to imply any relation here.

@rimord Oh my! Wishing you the best! Take care.