First post-ablation afib - I think I made a mistake

This week I was at a conference for work, and as sometimes happens when traveling I caught a cold. I started taking pseudoephedrine (with l-theanine to take away the jitters), which in the past hasn't been a trigger for afib since mine is vagal. But Tuesday night I went out to dinner with other guys from work, had too much to drink, and woke up Wednesday morning in my first breakthrough of afib since my ablation 30 days before. It's hard to say exactly when it started since I was asleep, but I took 300mg Flecainide along with Metoprolol and returned to sinus rhythm in 1-2 hours.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have drank like that. I feel I need to take the warning about alcohol more seriously. I'm feeling somewhat ashamed now that my bad behavior triggered the afib, which might now lead to more since 'afib begets afib'.

I know about the blanking period, so hopefully I'm just overreacting about this one episode.

The past month has had its ups & downs, with many days feeling great while some days feeling on the edge of afib, and with a very occasional PAC or PVC.

I was wearing a heart monitor for the past month (just removed it today), so when I see my doctor in a couple weeks, I'll get to hear what he observed on the monitor.

Thanks for the feedback & support.

Mark

Yeah, go easy on the booze and the pseudoephedrine too. No big deal, just a bump in the road. You didn't do yourself any harm so there's no reason to worry about it.

Hi Mark,

I had an ablation 5 1/2 weeks ago at Bordeaux and Prof Jais told both me and my partner to be ready/to expect and not be concerned about some arrhythmia reoccurrence during the 3 months blanking period - particularly during the first couple months. After 3 weeks I had 20 hours of pretty hellish runs of atrial ectopics and bigeminy to deal with and Prof Jais told me to basically chill out and that such occurrences should settle down during the 3 months blanking period. I'd say that what you experienced this Wednesday morning is classic blanking period 'noise' that you moreover likely brought on yourself with the booze and meds!

Thats just life with AFIB. You didn't know the Booze, Medication would trigger an Episode at the time you consumed them. You converted back quickly, so no harm done. It's not an error to feel bad about, unless you keep on Drinking heavily causing more AFIB.

I often wonder if it's the booze or the dehydration caused by the booze that might trigger the AFib. Wonder if anyone had tried booze with other hydration (maybe Pedialyte?) at the same time to test it?

Could be either.

Heck, I downed a 12-pack about a month after my ablation because I was sick of being a tee-totaler for so long during football season. It didn’t do anything in the immediate sense but the next day I went nuts with PACs. Probably dehydration and magnesium loss. I was in my early days of learning about this.

You haven’t done any permanent harm. Don’t worry.