I recently had a pulsed field ablation which resulted in pericarditis

Hi Janell, Volunteer Mentor
See my reply to joaf37 - gave info on how to find DR on YouTube.
So far no more Afib for me (fingers crossed)-that 3rd ablation has worked.
Had pericarditis after the 2nd ablation-at least according to my EP (he said "overburned"...Hospitalist disagreed & wanted to stop medication EP put me on - I said NO only if EP said to change. Had to call EMS same day I got home from ablation (home around noon....back to hospital by about 11pm) in the hospital about 3-4-5 days (too far back to remember)

Thank you for taking the time to send this. I did find Dr. Cooper items on-line right away and saw some film clip options and list of topics covered. Will track down the two you noted.

@red350
Hi I am so sorry to hear about your condition. I too have landed up in a similar situation of getting pericarditis after RFA and pacemaker implantation. I am currently 4 weeks on colchicine and ibuprofen. In the first 3 weeks of treatment, I got bouts of pain and fever. In the 4th week, I experienced pain (mainly in the upper back, like a deep dull ache, all the time). CRP is on declining trend, still above normal.
I too live in fear, if and when I will get healthy.
How are you doing now.

I'm so sorry since l also had pericarditis after having a PFA. It was
painful, I stayed in hospital extra days and was on medication for a week.
It certainly was not a bounce back recovery like PFAs appear to be touted.
My electrophysiologist was an excellent physician and his heart hospital
had been chosen to participate in trial PFAs. My opinion is that this
procedure is still new to our country and is in need of more evaluation and
testing. In retrospect l wish that l had gone to Mayo Clinic because l
believe they have taken a more cautious, collaborative, and guarded
approach to PFA. Please take your time in healing after pericarditis and
the procedure itself. It took several weeks for me to start feeling better
and less tired.

@neel Thank you for asking - I am doing much better. I was on triple therapy and I am now almost off prednisone - .25 mg this upcoming week and then done. Then I taper off naproxen and then taper off the PPI and finally colchicine. I hope that it does not come back. I've researched this so much over the last year! I can't believe a year of my. life has been dealing with this but here I am. Europe gives colchicine a couple weeks before ablations and heart surgery and it shows a lot of promise in helping tamp down inflammation that can cause pericarditis. I wish I'd know that ahead of time - I would have asked to be put on it. And of course hindsight - but if they'd given me ibuprofen instead of Tylenol which does nothing for inflammation - I may have been just fine. But who knows. Water under the bridge. I hope to never have any kind of surgery again but if I do - most likely will head to Mayo, even though my electrophysiologist was the best, head of the department, excellent track record. She'd never had this happen to any of her patients. But I am doing much better, back to teaching my exercise classes and trying not to get nervous when I feel a twinge.....Best to you as you recover!

@gracie71 I agree on the Mayo - I will err on the side of Mayo going forward. It's been almost a year of healing. I'm ready for this to be behind me. I hope it is soon. Take care -

It's very sad that your recovery is taking such an unexpectedly long time
to heal. I have a friend who has had an unusually long time recovering,
quite possibly over a year now. What l did not mention was that after
months of blanking beautifully from my PFA, an opthamologist gave me
Prednisolone for Glaucoma and I was told that my IOP could possibly go up
slightly and that my heartrate could also increase marginally. Boom! My
IOP increased by 50% and then l went back into Afib within the same time
perimeter. Please take this as a cautionary tale and consult a reputable
pharmacist before taking medications in any form. Have you considered
requesting Mayo to admit you as a patient to find a solution to this
problem? What better medical minds in the country to help you restore your
health.

@gracie71 Thank you for your input. I've been lucky in the sense that I have been an exercise instructor/bodybuilder my whole life. I went into the surgery in excellent health and came out of it with systemic inflammation. I am allergic to metal and on top of that a redhead and science knows that redheads react differently. I'd never had any surgery and had only been in the hospital to have my children. So this was all new to me. I finish prednisone next week and then taper off the other two meds. My labs have all been excellent from the beginning of triple therapy treatment, with the exception of a flare that happened when I tapered quickly down to 1 mg of prednisone (not much oversight by the lung doctor at that time -don't know why they had her be the oversight of my case except for pleural effusions but ultimately this was caused by ablation so cardiac should have overseeing this from day one). Now I have researched this so much I could teach a class. I think that I will be fine. I cut out all inflammatory foods prior to the surgery - sugar especially - and have focused on Kefir and greek yogurt for stomach and GI protection while taking all the meds. No difference in labs for kidneys and liver from before or after surgery so I think that made a huge difference in my recovery. I believe that food is the first medicine and ultimately heals with long term anti inflammatory diets. I appreciate your information on your eye experience. My eye appt is March, as I had to put it off due to prednisone changing eye pressure and we didn't want false readings. Take care and I hope you recover without any more issues.

@red350
Hi there, I am so happy to know that you are nearing the end of this long treatment regimen. This is a a good news and brings hope to us, the pericarditis patients, who often feel little support about this from the treating EP physicians, who seem to keen to take up patients for the procedure and are little interested after pericarditis sets in.
Wish you a speedy recovery, God bless

@gracie71
hi, thank you for sharing your experience. Glad to know that your recovery was much faster. God bless.