Ectopics one week after afib

Hi all. One more question please for today. Yes I'm probably worrying more than I should.

Eleven days out from afib ablation and I had very few ectopics up until yesterday. I have read these will die down over time, but I'm not clear if it's normal for them to start after a week. Couple a minute sometimes and then nothing for fifteen minutes. Mostly around dinner time (not due to eating) and when I get up to walk somewhere. Seem almost adrenaline based in one sense, and just "witching hour" in another. Is the the first week quiet followed by ectopics just part of the healing evolution? Thank you.

Yep, all part of a normal ablation. Everyone's experiences are different, so it's neither normal nor abnormal. In fact, if you're not taking any sort of antiarrhythmic drug and you haven't had any ectopics or even full blown afib for 11 days, then you're doing great and better than most.

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Carey
Yep, all part of a normal ablation. Everyone's experiences are different, so it's neither normal nor abnormal. In fact, if you're not taking any sort of antiarrhythmic drug and you haven't had any ectopics or even full blown afib for 11 days, then you're doing great and better than most.

LOL. I am on 100 mg Flecanide twice a day. Indeed, just the ectopics so far these last two days. My pre-ablation afib might have surfaced two times in one month, two times in one week, or go into completely into hiding for a couple months. Very unpredictable. So I'm not too excited about no afib for 11 days. But I've got my fingers crossed. Thanks for replying. Much appreciated.

Alost two weeks post ablation and I'm getting ectopics every day now. Might even get runs where there are five thuds in a row separated by the classic pause. But it only happens between 3 pm and around 9 pm. I take my100 mg of Flecanide at 6 am and 6 pm, so maybe that has something to do with it. Can't say I'm doing anything in particular at that time of day. I really think it's just more of a late day leaning for me. Anyone else get that as part of the recovery process?

Your experience sounds similar to mine. The first week post ablation was very quiet. The next couple weeks I had a lot of ectopy between 10 and 12 am, even some runs. It did eventually quiet. I had a short run that scared me right at the 3 month point, but then it's been pretty darn good!! I'm coming up on two years. Things are pretty quiet. I had one maybe 12 beat fast run a month ago, but otherwise just a rare ectopic beat. So, I wouldn't worry yet. You're just in healing process.
Wishing you the best!!

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libby
Your experience sounds similar to mine. The first week post ablation was very quiet. The next couple weeks I had a lot of ectopy between 10 and 12 am, even some runs. It did eventually quiet. I had a short run that scared me right at the 3 month point, but then it's been pretty darn good!! I'm coming up on two years. Things are pretty quiet. I had one maybe 12 beat fast run a month ago, but otherwise just a rare ectopic beat. So, I wouldn't worry yet. You're just in healing process.
Wishing you the best!!

Thank you for responding Libby. That's very comforting to hear. Today has produced more ectopy that any day over the last couple weeks. Runs of 3-5 heavy beats and then nothing, but maybe doing hat once a minute or every other minute. Maybe that patern for half hour and then quiet for 15 minutes or so. I very rarely get them late at night, and never in the early morning. It's the early afternoon until about bed time. So strange. This is similar to some past ecotpy I've had, so that concerns me. Like it didn't get addressed during the ablation. But so far in two weeks, no afib. Thanks for the well wishes. I hope mine calms down like yours did. If I have zero afib, and a run of ectopy every couple months, I'll be a happy camper.

The ectopy will most likely calm down over the coming weeks and you'll probably be able to stop the flecainide. This is all pretty normal and expected.

Carey, you quoted the same to me and my pvc’s are as active as since the week after my ablation when they started. I too get them all day but they are more violent between 5pm-12am midnight like the person who posted this question. Today my HR during the pvc freak show was 165. Yesterday was 124. I had 162 hr three and a half weeks ago and 205 hr three weeks ago. That lasted 3 minutes. I can’t walk around without my heart rate jumping..then I get dizzy. So I had to scrap my treadmill which I had worked up to 45 minutes at a time after my ablation. I got so dizzy I turned it off and sat down on the treadmill thinking I was going to pass out. I tried to sit on a chair outside Friday and paint my 5’ wide 6’ high outdoor shed and couldn’t complete one wall...and I was sitting with a roller. I was so dizzy and out of breath. I dread drinking room temperature water or drinking in general but I force myself. I tried a straw and a glass and both produce instant (if I was in nsr for the prior few minutes) pvc. I dread eating for the same reason knowing my hr will be freakishly high and mostly in the evening I dread going to sleep because I can hear the beast in my chest pounding. I know my heart will wake me up during the night. I started counting the times. One night I went to sleep around 10:30-11pm and was awoken 10 times. It was 2:16am so I gave up trying to sleep and watched TV until 4ish and tried again until my watch woke me up to take my multaq.

I’m just waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel for my health to improve after my ablation 3 months minus 3 days ago. Double chemo was a breeze in comparison...and at that time during the 11 months one week between 2014-2015 I was very weak never knowing it’s not the worst I am going to feel.

I've learned a little more about my specific ectopics. Two weeks out from ablation mind you. Zero at night while asleep or resting in bed. They fire up when I get up to go to the bathroom, or watch an action movie, or eat. But if I walk a long distance at some speed and get my heart rate moving pretty good (relatively speaking) they go away. It's like in initial adrenaline of moving or just adrenaline in my system from a visual stimuli will get them popping. When I sit down from a walk, they start up again sort of in the mid rest zone and then taper off a full rest. Hmmmm....

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susan.d
Carey, you quoted the same to me and my pvc’s are as active as since the week after my ablation when they started.

And it's what I'll tell the next person in the situation because it's usually true. Remember, what I said to Keefer was:

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The ectopy will most likely calm down over the coming weeks

I'm sure I said something similar to you. Nobody can predict outcomes, me included. All we can do is tell people what usually happens, and in the vast majority of ablations, ectopy following the procedure calms down during the blanking period and often goes away entirely.

Unfortunately, you have a ventricular source of ectopy, and that's not something an afib ablation addresses. Nor does it cause it either. Can your PVCs be ablated in a separate procedure? Yeah, probably, but whether an EP thinks it's advisable isn't something I can guess at. If you think you're in a situation that makes chemo seem like a breeze then you need to book another consultation with Natale or another EP to look into it. What you're experiencing doesn't even involve your atria, so it's not due to the ablation. There may have been some atrial ectopy combined with it initially, and maybe there still is some, but I've seen your ECGs and your ectopy is PVCs, not PACs.

More of the below today. Nearly zero ectopics when just sitting at my desk. If I get up to get a drink and walk some distance, by time I get back to my desk i get a long string of ectopics. I'm getting a dozen or more of them in a row. Then as I sit for a minute, they subside. Seems a bit excessive even two weeks out from ablation. Lots of people on here saying this can be normal. Anyone have similar symptoms as this many ectopics in a row? Thanks.

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keeferbdeefer
I've learned a little more about my specific ectopics. Two weeks out from ablation mind you. Zero at night while asleep or resting in bed. They fire up when I get up to go to the bathroom, or watch an action movie, or eat. But if I walk a long distance at some speed and get my heart rate moving pretty good (relatively speaking) they go away. It's like in initial adrenaline of moving or just adrenaline in my system from a visual stimuli will get them popping. When I sit down from a walk, they start up again sort of in the mid rest zone and then taper off a full rest. Hmmmm....

That's perfectly normal and will be for a while. It's nothing to worry about and could continue weeks longer. What's more important is that the ablation is doing its job by preventing those runs of ectopics from turning into full blown afib.

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Carey
That's perfectly normal and will be for a while. It's nothing to worry about and could continue weeks longer. What's more important is that the ablation is doing its job by preventing those runs of ectopics from turning into full blown afib.

They’re worse than afib. At least afib was only once a month. If these all day eptopics don’t settle down soon I want my money back. Thanks goodness they don’t happen at night when I sleep. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2019 06:18PM by keeferbdeefer.

They poked around and burned the tissue inside you. Think about how that might feel if it was on the outside, like your arm. It would be irritated and inflamed for a while. Your heart tissue has electric properties, which make the irritation show up as jumpy muscle tissue. It will get better. It will heal.
How's your diet? Read about anti-inflammatory diets. It might help quiet things.
Sending you good vibes!

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Peer report of onset of PVCs after an RF ablation for AF —patients in study who never experienced pvc prior to their ablation.

So I’m not the only one. I’m just sensitive.

Mayo Clinic should had mentioned it along with their blanket of ailments and risks associated with an ablation.

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libby
They poked around and burned the tissue inside you. Think about how that might feel if it was on the outside, like your arm. It would be irritated and inflamed for a while. Your heart tissue has electric properties, which make the irritation show up as jumpy muscle tissue. It will get better. It will heal.
How's your diet? Read about anti-inflammatory diets. It might help quiet things.
Sending you good vibes!

Does make sense, the analogy to how another body par would react if treated similarly. I wonder why it takes a week for them to show up in so many of us. Seems it would create a pissed off heart right away.

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keeferbdeefer

They poked around and burned the tissue inside you. Think about how that might feel if it was on the outside, like your arm. It would be irritated and inflamed for a while. Your heart tissue has electric properties, which make the irritation show up as jumpy muscle tissue. It will get better. It will heal.
How's your diet? Read about anti-inflammatory diets. It might help quiet things.
Sending you good vibes!

Does make sense, the analogy to how another body par would react if treated similarly. I wonder why it takes a week for them to show up in so many of us. Seems it would create a pissed off heart right away.

You never know on timing. I’ve had a catheter inserted into my radial artery for two procedures and both times after a week I started feeling a lot of irritation down the path of the artery. Doesn’t happen to most, but we are all individuals.

moved



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2019 01:53PM by keeferbdeefer.