weight lifting problems post ablation

[kw6]

It has been over 3 months since i had my ablation for WPW. Ever since the ablation I can barely lift any weight without a squeezing sensation in my chest. When this occurs i have trouble breathing. Sometimes I can last longer but sometimes it occurs even after just 10 pushups. I was in the best shape of my life before this ablation. Now i can barely do 40% of what i used to without haveing this sqeezing and shortness of breath. Has anyone had similiar problems?

[kw6]

I still have pvc's and pac's. Thos are going away little by little. The thing I'm worrying about is the squeezing and trouble breathing while excercising. My cardiologist says i have a lot of abnormal rhythms and has now referred my to a new EP. The EP told me he has never seen the severity of my problems this far post ablation. He told me there is a chance that my coronary artery was damaged during the procedure and is causing a lack of blood flow to my heart (angina). I have every symtom of stable angina. Now I'm waiting for a holter and then a nuclear stress test.

[LBBBguy]

Hey kw,
I see you're still having issues, eh? Sorry to hear that. I think there's some confusion around ablation recovery times. I'm not that shocked to hear that your doctor told you 3 weeks, 100%. He should have, however, put some big caveats in there. SOME people are able to get back at whatever they were doing before in three weeks (or even less) without any issues, but for a lot of people, that's not the case and complete healing takes much longer. It took me about two months to start working out vigorously, and another month before I felt like I was more or less back to "normal." It's unfortunate that a lot of docs aren't a bit more clear on this. Of course, that's not much help to you because you're still wondering what's going on I'm sure. Hopefully you get to the bottom of it soon. If you're still feeling like you're getting anywhere with your current doctors, you may want to consider going to UCSF if possible. Very good EP department there.

[cindy707]

Well that statement totally shocked me kw....your doc must know something that all of the big dog ablaters don't.....there is no way anyone out there can be 100% w/in 3 weeks it is almost physically impossible......the heart structurally itself takes longer than that to revert back to its norm......that is wishful thinking!!!  I had one of the best heart docs in the actual world literally and he told me it takes up to 6 months and if its a fail they know within 90 days on the outside.   I understand that my doc has now surpassed over 3,000 ablations with no losses and was one of the top students of the two doctors who developed  the procedure from day one....him i would take his word to the bank....yours not so much if you were told that.....how anyones electrical pattern can be diverted or zapped and be back to normal within 3 weeks is a crazy statement and i have a pretty heavy duty medical background so my thought is...................

[kw6]

Thank you for the advice. I have seen my doctor and they are going to do a holter monitor and nuclear stress test next week. I know i have to back off like you said. It is hard for me becouse like you i was a gym rat before this procedure. I'm just a little upset becouse my doctor told me i was going to be 100% winthin 3 weeks of the procedure.

[cindy707]

To me this is a situation where you really need to call the heart doc and tell them exactly what you have posted here.  Your body is obviously speaking to you and now you need to listen and back off just like your muscle groups when they speak and burn you back off...same theory.  To me if you are feeling a squeezing sensation when lifting then obviously your heart is still swollen from the procedure after being poked prodded and penetrated.  The shortness of breath could be from anything including fluid around your heart but that is for a doctor to tell you not me.  If you are free weighting at 40% your norm you have to remember that docs tell us it takes up to six months before our heart and electrical patterns return to normal.  Before my ablation i was a gym rat working out 7 days a week 3 hours a day and cut back after the ablation and basically built back up my stamina in free weights.....naut. was not a problem but the weights were so my doc had me back track and build back up to my normal work out and reps.  it worked for me but you want to be checked to make sure that there isn't anything else going on with you since your ablation was only done 90 days ago...good luck