Post VT Ablation

[vicjay]

Hi Folks,
I will try and make this brief, so that interest is not lost...

In 2006 I started experiencing bouts of dizziness that wouldn't go away. In May 2007, during a very traumatic and stressful time in my life, I started feeling worse. My Dad passed, I had to rush to Europe for the funeral and to take care of issues. The stress and anxiety that this induced affected me in a bad way. In June, I ended up seeing my PCP because I felt as if I was blacking out, and felt dreadfully sick, almost as if i was going to die...it was a very weird experience. the dizziness remained intense. During my visit to his office, he ran an EKG, looking at the results, he commented that he thought I had experienced a heart attack. Without even blinking an eyelid he called 911, and I was taken to the ER. After bloodwork and chest xrays I was told I didn't have a heart attack, but was experiencing PVC's. They sent me home 4 hours later after observation. In August, I was at work, suddenly felt a heavy weight across my chest for a few seonds, went into an anxiety attack that sent me to the floor in panic, I was convinced again that I was going to die. An ambulance was called again, and I was taken to the ER and spent four days in Hospital. After 4 MRI tests, echocardiogtram, nuclear thallium tests, stress tests and all the blood work you can imagine, i was again sent home and told my heart is structurally fine. Right after this experience I saw my PCP again, he referred me to a Cardiologist, who over the next 5 months tried a barrage of medications to regulate my heart rate. I was experiencing severe PVC's...she had me wear an event monitor for 30 days, tried me on toporol, verapimil, flecainide and sotalol - none of these were able to calm my heart down. She referred me to an EP Specialist. At his office, a new EKG was performed. He took a look at it, asked what medication I had tried, and then recommended me for PVC Ablation. The first procedure was performed on Christmas Eve 2007, and as soon as I came round from the procedure I instantly felt the PVC...I was very discouraged. Looking up at the monitor and seeing the skipped beats was a let down. When the Ep Specialist came and saw me he told me that he was unable to successfully ablate the entire location that was generating the faulty electrical impulses. He suggested a second ablation, and assure me that this would be more successful, and so I didn't hesitate. During the first ablation study he discovered that I had RBBB (right bundle branch block) and Ventricular Tachycardia. Every third beat was a PVC, resulting in more than 28000PVC's per day!!! So, last week Wednesday, February 6th I had the second ablation procedure done. this time when I woke up, I felt a perfect heart rate! It was beating pretty fast, but the beats were regular without any skipping, flip flopping or palpitations! Through the night I kept looking at the monitor, and felt no missed beats. The Ep Specialist came and saw me and told me that the monitor had not revealed a single PVC! The second ablation is successful!!

Since the procedure I have not experienced a single PVC, no palpitations, no flip flop, no weird blackout feelings, no severe dizziness, no pre-syncope - nothing!

I have taken it very easy since last week, in no rush to be up and about, and have been resting as much as possible. I do feel weak, and have the usual discomfort in my chest, but for the most part feel pretty good, in comparison to the events described above.

Sometimes, it is not only in our "Head" as many would think and say. I do believe sometimes we genuinely encounter a medical issue, and the anxiety that hits can have a pretty bad reaction until we figure out what is going on. Since may of last year I have lost 42 lbs, and the quality of life i enjoyed totally vanished. I was totally consumed with the irregular thumping in my chest, couldn't understand what was going on, and why i was feeling dreadfully ill all the time.

If you are considering an ablation, or if it has been suggested, I would encourage you to seriously consider it because the success rates are high 90%, and the complication rate is less than 1%-3%.

My question is to anyone who has had a similar experience, and post ablation, how long did it take before you felt really well enough to return to work, to do the things you did normally?

Thank you soo much for reading my lengthy post, I hope to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience and is able to share on your results.

Thank you, and take care,
vicjay  

[JACQUI10]

So wonderful your doing well.  I'm 33 yrs old and was diagnosed with VTach a year ago. I had a lot of anxiety  attacks when I was younger. I had a endocardial ablation a year ago. It was found then through the EP study that the focal spot causing the episodes, is on the outside of my heart. We decided to see how I did and not take any meds. I was doing fine until 2 months later I quit a job after 8 years and foot surgery 2 months after that, put stress back into my life. I had mini VT episodes in which I wore heart monitors and did stress tests in which nothing was caught. I then had a episode in April that was sustained VT and was hospitalized for 3 days. I was placed on Metoprolol. The plan with my EP was to loose 20-30 Ibs and do the epicardial (outside of the heart) ablation. This I'm told is a riskier procedure. I then  had anothet sustained VT episode and was hospitalized again. I was then put on amiodorone (sp?) and metoprolol by the ER doctors. I was immediately placed off the toxic meds and put on Sotalol. I've now been on this medicine with no episodes. I'm just focused on loosing weight and getting the second procedure done.

[sueinns]

So happy to hear you are doing well.  As far as the success of an ablation, a lot depends on the type of arrythmia you have.  Atrial fibrillation or multifocal PVC's can be harder to treat.  A friend of mine was only given a 50% chance of success for his particular type of atrial fibrillation but he went for it anyway. - luckily he had a great outcome and has his life back.

I had an ablation for SVT one month ago.  I did light workouts two days later and was back running within a week.  They did not ablate the PVC's as I can tolerate those (I don't get them in the thousands).  Since the ablation, I have been symptom free of the SVT which was very adversely affecting my quality of life.

For a large percentage, these arrhythmias are an electrical problem with the heart.  Therefore, it is not "all in our head" but a real condition.

Hope you continue to do well.