Stress Test - Post Ablation

Hello. 58 yr old male here. I had an ablation almost 5 weeks ago. Rythmol was proving to be difficult for me. I emailed my EP, told him my BP was very low and I was dizzy. My blood pressure remains low (110-100/70-60) so not sure it was the Rythmol. Does go up sometimes. Anyway, he set up an echo and stress test that I did today. Only drug I’m on now is Edoxaban BTW. The Echo technician told me my echo was good and I assume everything was the right size etc. I did catch a glimpse...SV is 92; EF IS 76. That’s all I saw. Stress test....did 10 minutes. HR up to 138. The technician Said my HRR is slow. It was only down to 116 after 3 minutes. I don’t know the one minute drop but I’m guessing not great. So this is scaring me as the prognosis for people with slow HRR recovery seems to be bad so I read. Does the ablation have anything to do with the poor HRR? My resting was initially 80 after ablation. It is now 70-75. It was 60-65 prior to ablation. My high intensity exercise HR has always been lower than most. Don’t think it ever went much over 150 when I was in my 20s and hasn’t been over 142 in ten years ( that I’m aware of). Can this new higher resting HR throw my HRR off? Can a recent ablation cause a bad HRR? I must say I’m a little scared. Any insight is appreciated as always. Thanks.

A slow recovery from exercise means pretty much one thing: You're out of shape. I see this every spring when I get back on my bike after the winter. There's a hill I use to judge my fitness, and every spring my HR is higher when I reach the top than it was the previous fall, and it takes longer to recover. But within a month or so, it's back to where it was. I predict that if you get on a regular plan involving cardio workouts, your recovery time will start dropping. I don't know what you do now but running, walking, swimming, cycling, whatever -- anything that gets your HR up and keeps it up for at least 20-30 minutes a day will fix this.

Ablations don't cause any of the issues you mention except increasing your resting HR, and that's perfectly normal and to be expected. It often lasts for upwards of a year, but it will return to normal.

Not a single thing you mentioned is alarming. (You have an outstanding EF.) The whole point of a stress test is to find scary things, and clearly they didn't find any. You're okay. Relax.

Thank you Carey. I feel a little better. I guess the whole game is to find scary things or who would do it