What downside have you experienced after an ablation?

I had been on Flecanaide, Diltiazem, and Eliquis to control my a-fib for about 2 years. Then the meds became less effective, I had a cryoablation at 67 and under deep sedation for the procedure. In the hospital for about 5 or 6 hours, mostly to make sure the incision site was stable, and home the same night. I had a-fib off and on for about 2 months, which was expected, while the heart healed. I was on flecanaide, diltiazem, and eliquis prior to my procedure and then for about 5 months after, then off of everything. About 3 months in, I went to Nepal and did a 2 week trek, then a trek for 30 days far from any medical help. I did not have any other side effects.

This is very encouraging to read. I’m 72 and I’ve trekked in Nepal a few times, including a 30 day trek in 2019 before I had Afib. I returned once more in 2023 when I had Afib but it acted up to the point where I had to bail out at only 3500M elevation as I was simply exhausted from the Afib. I am now awaiting a call for an ablation in Montreal. It’s great to hear you were able to trek after your ablation - gives me hope!

Hi mishel,
I had been experiencing heart palpitations since 2017 or so, but was not correctly diagnosed until 2020 with a Ziopatch wearable heart monitor. The first cardiologist misdiagnosed me with a normal heart ( totally missed the mitral valve prolapse & regurgitation), and missed the arrhythmia by only doing an ECG. Had increasing incidents and then one night my heart did flip flops for six hours. The next cardiologist only caught the atrial flutter. Then went to a big teaching hospital, and two top EP cardiologists there picked up on the Afib, too!
Each of them recommended a catheter ablation as a first-line method of intervention, and I could forego most of the drugs.
In retrospect, I think I should have first tried more natural means of treating the AF and AFL. The actual ablation took upwards of 4 1/2 hours, as the EP discovered I had a septal pouch wherein the aberrant AFL cells were percolating. It was difficult to ablate this hard to reach area, so I was under the anesthesia about 2 hours longer than predicted. I had two ocular migraines following the procedure, and was plagued by frequent PACs for over a year. I found these more bothersome than the AF! I also experienced other types of arrhythmias (SVT/AT/sudden rate drops) which were picked up by the implantable loop recorder necessitated by the perceived arrhythmias.
A recent brain MRI shows increased brain changes since an MRI taken just prior to my ablation. Could that be a result stemming from the prolonged sedation or minor infarcts from the procedure itself? Who can say for sure….
It’s over 4 years since the ablation, and I am still in NSR with those blips along the way. Thankful for the return to normalcy, but still wonder if I did the best thing for me.

@thisnthat
Hi,
Like you I have suffered migraines with aura since an ablation and watchman implant. Stated with back to back one's when leaving the hospital and occur every 2 -3 days since then, just over a year now. I too was under longer than usual chasing an arrant signal which never stuck around long enough to zap. Did you find any med or anything that stopped the migraine occurrences? My primary and ENT drs. have thrown up there hands, tried a neurologist and meds he gave me made my loony but did not stop the migraines. I am at a loss where to go next. Thanks for any advice

@thisnthat
Hi,
Like you I have suffered migraines with aura since an ablation and watchman implant. Stated with back to back one's when leaving the hospital and occur every 2 -3 days since then, just over a year now. I too was under longer than usual chasing an arrant signal which never stuck around long enough to zap. Did you find any med or anything that stopped the migraine occurrences? My primary and ENT drs. have thrown up there hands, tried a neurologist and meds he gave me made my loony but did not stop the migraines. I am at a loss where to go next. Thanks for any advice

Hi mishel,
I had been experiencing heart palpitations since 2017 or so, but was not correctly diagnosed until 2020 with a Ziopatch wearable heart monitor. The first cardiologist misdiagnosed me with a normal heart ( totally missed the mitral valve prolapse & regurgitation), and missed the arrhythmia by only doing an ECG. Had increasing incidents and then one night my heart did flip flops for six hours. The next cardiologist only caught the atrial flutter. Then went to a big teaching hospital, and two top EP cardiologists there picked up on the Afib, too!
Each of them recommended a catheter ablation as a first-line method of intervention, and I could forego most of the drugs.
In retrospect, I think I should have first tried more natural means of treating the AF and AFL. The actual ablation took upwards of 4 1/2 hours, as the EP discovered I had a septal pouch wherein the aberrant AFL cells were percolating. It was difficult to ablate this hard to reach area, so I was under the anesthesia about 2 hours longer than predicted. I had two ocular migraines following the procedure, and was plagued by frequent PACs for over a year. I found these more bothersome than the AF! I also experienced other types of arrhythmias (SVT/AT/sudden rate drops) which were picked up by the implantable loop recorder necessitated by the perceived arrhythmias.
A recent brain MRI shows increased brain changes since an MRI taken just prior to my ablation. Could that be a result stemming from the prolonged sedation or minor infarcts from the procedure itself? Who can say for sure….
It’s over 4 years since the ablation, and I am still in NSR with those blips along the way. Thankful for the return to normalcy, but still wonder if I did the best thing for me.

I had put off having an ablation - call me overly cautiou. I had an unsuccessful cardioversion and was subsequently on Tikosyn 500, which worked for awhile, and uthat was later reduced to Tikosyn 250 (worked even better but both had detrimental effects on my kidneys) Normal sinus rhythm 2 days of 3. Ablation had been suggested early on & was finally convinced myself to go ahead.

I had an successful ablation at The Cleveland Clinic. No issues. Had hiccups for a few days but they went away after 72 hours. My heart has been in normal sinus rhythm 100% of the time for 3.5 mos - I checked daily with my blood pressure meter, pulse oximeter, manually, and my Kardia ECG device. I’ve remained on Tikosyn 250 and am scheduled to discontinue. I’m happy with the results.

No side effects. Afib gone I should have done it sooner. Cleveland Clinic was superb.