My BIL has been having palpitations for months now. He’s been on some Rx for it and took an extended Holter Monitor test and will be having a cardiac ablation on Thursday.
H offered to fly up to assist but his adult kids will be taking care of him. Anyone with words of encouragement. He’s been very uncomfortable with his atrial fibrillation, which was very frequent in the 10 days we were visiting him. It exhausts him.
DH had a cardiac ablation about ten years ago. All went well. As I recall, it wasn’t a big deal at all.
My friend had an ablation recently with no problems. She was back to her regular routine quickly. I don’t think she needed much help after the procedure.
My mom had cardiac ablation when she was in her early-mid 60’s. As I recall, it was pretty easy as procedures go.
The ablation can do wonders for A-fib. It’s an easy procedure, usually done in the cardiac cath lab. It may require an overnight hospital stay. But after his last one, my husband was working out at his cardiac rehab the very next day.
My husband has suffered from A-fib for years and in February went into cardiac arrest and was diagnosed with advanced heart failure. His heart was so damaged from the A-fib that he was immediately put on an external ventricular pump to keep him alive for the immediate future and assessed for an LVAD (implanted ventricular assist device) as a bridge to a heart transplant. Cardioversion did not reverse the A-fib. BUT ablation did. I wish he had been counseled to consider it before the A-fib had damaged his heart to the extent that it did. He’s doing better now with a bi-ventricular pacemaker, no apparent need anymore for an LVAD bridge to transplant. But he will have to have another ablation because of a slight V-Tach that the monstrous A-fib had masked to some degree. He’s actually having that done next week and told me to plan to go to work the next day because he expects to be “uber-ready” by then.
I’ve “been there, done that” and can assure you the inherent dangers of living with atrial fibrillation are far greater than the inconvenience of going through an ablation.
Atrial fibrillation killed my father and caused me to suffer a stroke.
Subsequent to the stroke I had an ablation. It’s a fairly high tech procedure but, from the patient’s perspective, it’s simple and painless. They give you some anesthesia, you start counting backward from ten and get to about eight, and the next thing you know you’re waking up to someone telling you it’s over.
Before the procedure I asked the doctor if I could exercise the following day. He told that would be fine, but to avoid lifting anything over 20 pounds for a couple days. Always the jokester, I replied “Don’t lift anything over 20 pounds? What if I need to pee?” The joke was almost as successful as the procedure.
Recovery was… well, there isn’t really any recovery to speak of. I went about the rest of my day normally and was back at the gym the day after the procedure.
Its been about eight or nine years and the atrial fibrillation hasn’t returned. The doctors have determined my risk of a repeat stroke is low enough that I’ve been able to discontinue taking warfarin.
In the words of Borat, “Great success”.
Thanks, everyone! This is very reassuring and I hope my BIL will have similar success!
It can be a longer procedure as they find all those pesky spots causing the A fib. On occasion a second procedure is needed. Nice on all the positive stories above.
I’m getting an ablation done in a few weeks. I have SVT and it put me in the hospital a week after my knee replacement in January. I’m not worried about the procedure as much as I’m dreading the overnight hospital stay.
Sister had ablation about 8 years ago. Worked like a charm! Such a relief. No recovery time or assistance needed. She lives alone and was able to go home and go about her regular routine.
Timely topic. A friend is having his second ablation later this month The first one was less than 5 yrs ago. It helped immensely but he now needs another ablation.
It’s still surgery. I have one bad story (nicked artery) but won’t worry you with it.
Yes, I know there are risks—it IS an invasive procedure and things CAN go wrong, but it seems to be performed fairly often with mostly good results. BIL is exhausted with the frequent afíb, and hopefully this should help.