Advice and Recommendations before/after Ablation

Good Morning Everyone,

My husband and I are new to this forum and I cannot tell you how thankful I am to have found it. My husband is 36 years old and was diagnosed with afib and aflutter in March. He has always had heart problems (he can't remember the last time he was able to sleep on his left side), but we never knew why and visits to the Dr. never found anything.

In March his symptoms became so bad that he was feeling light-headed, blacking out when standing up so he went to his general practitioner. After taking his heart rate he was sent straight to the ER (his resting heart rate was 180). He went through tests and was given Metroprolol and Eliquis. Since then his doctors have been trying to figure out the right medicine. He was put on Amiodarone in addition to Eliquis and Metroprolol and he has been on Amiodarone since April.

He had a cardioversion, but it only lasted two days and during those two days he had a horrible headache, chest pain, and didn't feel right - as soon as he went back into afib the headache and these symptoms went away.

His echocardiogram showed a normal heart and his doctor was shocked to learn that my husband was still experiencing afib while being on the medication. He recommended ablation as the next option. I found this forum and because of all of your wonderful posts I was able to call get him on the wait list for Dr. Natale - with the procedure scheduled for early September. My husband went off of of the Amiodarone in July and in only on Eliquis and a low dose of Metroprolol until the ablation.

I know we are in great hands with one of the best, which has given us great relief. Since this has happened so fast, however we haven't had the opportunity to research any of his triggers. Is there any post you would recommend us reading, or any site with information on what we should do before the ablation and after that describes what will likely be experienced after? Any recommendations on what we should do after the procedure to ensure we are putting his best foot forward? Food/nutrition/supplement schedule?

Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Finally, one last question has anyone experienced a connection with afib and a slightly enlarged spleen? My husband's CATscan showed an enlarged spleen and the doctors believe it could be tied to the afib. Just curious if anyone else has had something similar.

Thanks again to all.
Jennifer

I will never understand why Cardiologists put individuals on Amiodarone as 1st line of defense. For him to have a Ablation, It will take months to get this poison out of his system due to its half Life. He needs to get off the Amiodarone now.
I will let the more experienced individuals talk to you about this. I was in long term persistent AFIB when I had my Ablation. I have had 2 Ablations since Feb 2014 by the Maestro Dr. Natale and I am doing great.
Amiodarone is some BAD medication with horrible side effects. I took it for 9 months before I found out thru this Forum how bad it was and how it would delay s Ablation procedure for months because it stays in your body so long.

I may be in the minority here but I have not found anything in the last three years that made a difference nutritionally. Drinking was a trigger for sure. So I try and do everything right, I take the supplements, I don't drink, I am not overweight, I am young like your husband about 43 with no other health issues and none of it has mattered. Afib keeps progressing for me. I do have a unique heart with a persistent left super vena cava (PLSVC).

So I would say try the main ones see if it helps but I would also say do not beat yourself up if you can't find a trigger. We're all different on this one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2017 01:57PM by Fibrillator.

Thank you both for your replies. He stopped it in July and the procedure is scheduled for early September - should we wait a few more months with him off medicine? The challenge is since he isn't on anything strong right now he is starting to experience the symptoms that brought him to his general practitioner months ago. Do we risk the ablation not working if we go too soon when it isn't fully out of his system?

Expert advice from the group would be appreciated!

Congratulations on your choice of EP. I can't speak to the amount of time the amio stays in the system, but I'm certain your team at TCAI can talk to you about this.

My advice post-ablation is to take it easy...really easy, for a few weeks. Because your husband is so young, I believe he'll recover faster, but still do not push it too much in the first few weeks minimum.

He'll be in the best of hands. Best to you both.

Ditto smackman's comment regarding the amiodarone. It's insane to put a 36 year old patient on that. The drug does not clear renally (via the kidneys) and builds up in every cell in every tissue in the whole body. Sometimes it turns people literally blue. Think Smurfs. It also is linked to pulmonary fibrosis, which is fatal. If ami makes sense for anybody, I'd think it would be a patient of very advanced age who cannot otherwise tolerate a procedure.

Again, this is one of the reasons my first cardio got dismissed. He said the word "amiodarone" (as well as "pacemaker"). Nonsense!

Hi Jennifer,

I share a bit in common with your husband, in that I am also 36 and was diagnosed a month prior to him. Luckily, they caught my episodes with ECGs on both occasions at the A&E dept. So there was definitive proof of what it was and I was more or less offered ablation as a first course of action. Only drugs I have ever taken for it were apixaban and that was after.

My advice, as many have already said, take it very VERY very easy for the first few weeks. 4 days after mine I had a GP appointment and decided to walk as it's barely 15 minutes away. By the time I got home in was exhausted, my heart rate was through the roof and I was genuinely worried I may have made a huge mistake. Took me days to feel "normal" again.

7 weeks (to the day, actually) since my ablation and I'm managing 10-15 thousand steps a day and only experiencing slight activity. At his age, it may be the best course of action but just be careful how much he allows himself to do afterwards and having a caring and supportive partner helps hugely. I know from experience.

It turned my left wrist area bluish. It is some BAD medication.

Quote
wolfpack
Ditto smackman's comment regarding the amiodarone. It's insane to put a 36 year old patient on that. The drug does not clear renally (via the kidneys) and builds up in every cell in every tissue in the whole body. Sometimes it turns people literally blue. Think Smurfs. It also is linked to pulmonary fibrosis, which is fatal. If ami makes sense for anybody, I'd think it would be a patient of very advanced age who cannot otherwise tolerate a procedure.

Again, this is one of the reasons my first cardio got dismissed. He said the word "amiodarone" (as well as "pacemaker"). Nonsense!

Hi Jennifer,

Do Not postpone your current ablation schedule for your husband with Dr N.

Since he only started Amio in April the two plus months off of it will be enough time so as not to mask triggers under isoproterenol (Isuprel) challenge phase toward end of the ablation procedure (Isuprel is very strong uber adrenaline-like drug used to reveal acute reconnection and immature triggers that may be partly suppressed by anesthesia.)

Get him started now on his expert ablation process with the best team in the business, period.

And yes it's nuts to start a man in his 30s on amiodarone. It is an effective AAR drug for a good while for most people but with a very challenging potential side effects list as you have learned here above. Should never be a first line option for a young man except in extraordinary circumstances and only then for a relatively brief period of use.

Keep us posted too!

Be well,
Shannon