Angina and Exacerbated GERD common after an ablation?

Day 8. Yesterday I had a surplus of gastric acid. I have pre existing GERD but this was exacerbated since last week’s ablation and painful enough to limit eat or drink and when the pain was the highest, I couldn’t swallow and gasping and not talking (not being a chatterbox is not me). I was just spitting acid and waiting the 8 hours before I could take another Prilosec yesterday. Multaq does list GERD as a side effect. It’s no big deal because I hope it’s temporary but I think my GERD went to mild (some days not taking Prilosec) to post ablation painful to eat.

Yesterday I had mild angina (chest pains, running down left arm and in back and chest pressure). I just ignore it because it’s something I have had since 1989 and it was a 2-3.
However today is another league in level of pain. I can’t be a couch potato for my blanking period so I briefly left the house today as a passenger to go to a small family run butcher shop just to point which chickens I wanted and my husband did the lifting and driving. The shop is tiny and I was standing for my turn and my angina returned with a 5’ish. I was there maybe 30 minutes waiting for the butcher to take the chicken skin off and finish with the prior customer. It got better to a 2-3 when I sat down.

By the time I got home the pain returned to a 4-5 sitting on the couch so I ignored it until I stood up in the attempt to walk 20 feet to get my nitro just to have it if needed. I couldn’t stand. Pain shoot up to a 7-8 and I had pressure on my chest like someone was sitting on my chest. My husband got my nitro and the pain went away to a zero, only to return when I walked outside to my pond an hour later. I went back and am sitting like an idiot wasting time watching Netflix.

This is all new type of angina. Anyone have it a week after an ablation? It could be drug related (multaq lists angina, or healing inflammation, or simply I can’t go outside and walk yet.

Don't know about angina, but GERD is common after an ablation. Here, it's usual being prescribed a PPI drug for some weeks after the procedure.

I’m on a PPI for decades. August 19th the ICU restrained me taking it because they didn’t carry it and my Rx bottle had foreign language plus English “Prilosec” so they said it wasn’t FDA approved and I was forbidden to take it. Teva pharmaceuticals imports to USA. It was a Teva bottle. Every pharmacy dispensed drugs from them. At Los Robles Hospital where my ablation occurred, there was no problem. Hospital pharmacy stuck a bar code to my bottle and the hospital kept and dispensed until discharge. My GERD flared up after the ablation so I took my GI’s recommend 2/day dose instead of as needed and it’s improved a bit but I wake up every night from 2-4am in pain so I have to take a dose and wait out the pain. Multaq has GERD as a common side effect.

If it wasn’t for my ablation and lifting restrictions, I would add blocks by lifting my headboard to help GERD. But I cannot lift yet I am told. So pathetic. I go outside scouting for random gardeners and tip them to take our trash cans to the curb or to lift something. I have a 20 pound bag of worm casing fertilizer delivered last week, I made the mistake asking UPS to bring it inside. It is stinking up my living room without anyone who can move it to the backyard. So pathetic. It’s attracting flies. I have to wait until I can walk outside and down the block looking for paid volunteers to get it outside. It’s not worth the risk of angina. So my venting is not solely ablation complaints, it’s being a couch potato swatting flies, stinking worm manure because I am recovering.

You're something like 10 days post ablation, right? Unless you've been told otherwise you no longer have a lifting restriction.

There are 3 natural methods for stopping GERD.

I) Lie on your left side. Look at a diagram of the abdominal organs and you will see why acid is less likely to flow out of the stomach in this position. I haven't tried this because many posters find left lying is an AFIB trigger.

2) Raise the top of the bed. Lying like this means the acid would have to flow uphill. I tried this with partial success. I'm gradually lowering my bed toward level again because of 3.

3) Belly breathing. Google this to find out how to do it. Most websites show it being done while lying on your back; I find standing up is easier. I currently do this and my GERD disappeared quite quickly.

Sam

PS I'm currently lower my bed a little at the time

Stranger: I do sleep on left side.

If my GERD is bad I stop carbonated natural flavor water, sugar free xxx vitamin water, fruits, juices, tomato sauce and all spices. I stopped coffee and tea a long time ago. The only thing I can do is spit the acid out and suffer...if it gets very painful it feels like my throat is closing and I cannot swallow for a bit, or talk when the pain is extreme. I drink ice water...seems to help but sucking on an ice cube when it’s so bad I can’t swallow. If that happens I swallow a spoonful of vanilla “so delicious” sugar free dairy free coconut ice cream. (I’m gluten/dairy free) I try to avoid the sugar free chemicals but it helps the pain. I used to drink unsweetened almond milk but it now causes pain.

The best treatment for me is unfortunately Prilosec. I tried the other brands which didn’t help. In 2009 I took 2/day. If you call up their helpline they will take your name if you mention you have been on it for decades. They then recite a prescript how long use can cause cancer and 3 weeks is recommended. So I changed my diet.

I’m married to a pharmacist who got an email alert this week that Zantac is being removed from the pharmacy shelves because the pharmaceutical company either changed the formula or not but it causes cancer. I didn’t read the email first hand, so I don’t know much details. I just heard of it because I asked my husband if I could take a second 20mg Prilosec because of my GERD pain and he mentioned Zantac in passing and told me to wait 12 hours from last dose. So I took a spoonful of dairy free ice cream and later drank ice water until it was 12 hours.

Raising the bed: thank you Casey for telling me the lifting restrictions passed but I can’t lift without tachy and chest pains. My life is days of up to 30% pvc.

I am using a huge wedge I found from my 1997 broken leg and use that instead of putting blocks on my bed. I can lift a foam wedge. Usually gerd still wakes me up @2-4am so I sit on a chair and try to sleep sitting up. So I take my Prilosec in the middle of the night and take a 2 hour nap in the afternoons.

I can’t belly breath all the time. I set my Apple Watch to its breathe app and belly breathe 7/day. It lowers my HR, thus the reason I do it.