High burden PVC's

Posted by dnk1kinney @dnk1kinney, Jul 19, 2023

I am a 48 year old female who up until a year ago raced in local gravel bike events, ran, and strength trained on a regular basis. Vacations consisted of trips to ride our bikes up Going to the Sun road at Glacier National Park, bikepacking around the UP and other highly active trips. In my day job, I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, LMHC.
I am currently two days post ablation for high burden PVC's that also caused weakness, fatigue, diminished exercise capacity, and brain fog. It's been a year since initial diagnosis. During that time I was trialed on several beta blockers and ultimately settled on Flecainide with propranolol as needed for break through rounds of trigeminy and bigeminy. The struggle was how much my heart would be held too low to manage the capacity needed for my cycling. With this ablation, the doctor said, "it was the most difficult ablation he had done in recent memory and he is "hopeful" that it was successful. It was deep in the heart muscle and close to the AV node. He "pushed the boundaries" in getting close and feels he has exhausted all options for further ablation. If he had gotten any closer to the AV node he feared she would be pacemaker dependent going forward and he's not in favor of that as an option at this point."
I was under sedation for five hours and had to stay overnight in the hospital. I am hopeful this works and also keenly aware it may not. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced similar. I'm also curious what life with a pacemaker is like.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Heart Rhythm Conditions Support Group.

Very similar history. Given pacemaker so I could take a beta blocker in combination with flecainide. Have side effects from drugs, but pacemaker is a piece of cake—no side effects or even know its there.

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Pacemakers have been in use for many decades, and of course they're being improved all the time, as is their power source.

In the event your procedure does not seem to have worked, I would strongly suggest you consult another EP, one with a very high and good reputation (you may have to travel), to see if, upon careful review of your file, he/she can't improve your condition with another procedure or even just a repeat or a touch-up. Skill and experience vary widely in the medical profession. There might be 'someone' out there who would be happy to try to rectify your first failed ablation because she has both those qualities.

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