Propranolol for skipped beats.

I had an ablation for superventricular tachycardia not skip beats. It got rid of the SVT but then I started with atrial tachycardia. Doctor really has no explanation but my heart is in bad shape anyway. But I am told once my heart valves are replaced that it should stop. I am 74
The ablation was no big deal. When they work me up to try and trigger the fast heartbeat - that was weird feeling. But I also enjoyed watching the screen of what he was doing to see the spot to hit.

Ablations are a bit more involved than a colonoscopy, if you've had one, but much the same in terms of what it costs in time and bother for the day. It's day surgery. You show up early, often 0700-ish, wait to be taken to a bed, and eventually the EP and the anesthetist come by and chat. You get taken into the cath lab, asked why you're there, and then put out with a mask over your face. Next thing you know you're coming to, flat on your back, with a heavy compress on one or both of your inner high thighs. The nurse will tell you to lie still for the next three hours. You 'May' have a very dry throat due to the use of a TEE (trans-esophageal echocardiogram) down your esophagus to watch the energy tip doesn't get too close to sensitive things like the phrenic nerve or the esophagus itself. It passes inside of an hour. Eventually, they ask you to sip, then eat, and then stand over about 40 minutes to see if you can keep things down and maintain blood pressure while standing. They'll ask you to shuffle around pushing your IV tree. If that works, they call a ride for you and you're taken home, usually NLT 1900 if your cath lab experience is later in the day. You'll be sent home with instructions not to lift more than 10 lb for a week, to avoid kneeling, and to not scrub the incision(s) when washing. You'll also have one or two medicines to take to protect your esophagus for about three weeks. At least, that was my experience.

Day surgery, it's over in a flash, and if the job is done well, you'll not look back. I have had two ablations because the first didn't quite nip all the rogue firing cells and I kept fibrillating. Second ablation months later did the job. Be optimistic. Be resolved to have the arrhythmia stopped!

@gloaming that is totally different from my ablation for SVT. They put me out with an IV so they could wake me up to find the 'sweet' spot then knock me out again. Never had the TEE during it. I had no ice on my groin. Just had to wait 2 hours. So how it is depends on where/who does it.

@charlotteeb Very true, different preferences for different EPs. Some will ask you to stop DOAC the day before, some will ask you take a last dose the morning of. Some ask the patient to take flecainide until the Holter monitor assessment, some want you off everything except perhaps metoprolol or the flecainide. Some will allow the patient to go off DOAC as soon as the Holter shows no ectopy or arrhythmia. Some use propofol via IV, some use gas, some tell you not to use stairs for 24 hours after the procedure, some say 48 hours.
My aim was to show the mundanity of the day, how it goes generally, give a sense of timings, and what the recovery is like. Different nurses even will have their habits and preferences. It's a journey.