Exhausted after cryo ablation

I wanted to know if others who have had cryo ablation were exhausted after nearly two weeks home. I have paroxysmal a fib and only have had 4 “major events” lasting 4-8 hours and self converting, in 6 years. But in the last year, I found myself going into tachycardia with moderate jogging. I had never taken an anti arrhythmic drug, but was given one post ablation last week, amiodarone. I cannot shake this horrible cough and wheezing and exhaustion. I’ve never felt this bad in my life. I’m mid 60s, lightweight, have always been active, just started losertan this year for mild hypertension. I always had a lot of pacs which were becoming more frequent and were picked up on a zio patch twice. The incidence had doubled in 3 years. My doc has ordered a chest X-ray because of the cough. Is this how people feel after ablation? Wiped out, unable to walk comfortably more than a quarter mile? My doc is the head of EP at a major large hospital and has done hundreds of cryo. I believe she is good. But I never expected to be down for so long or to ever feel this bad. Advice?

It's the amiodarone, not the ablation. What you describe is not at all how people feel after an ablation, especially not two weeks out. With the cough, wheezing and exhaustion, I would stop the drug immediately if I were you. There are safer alternatives.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2021 12:29PM by Carey.

To me incredible you would be prescribed Amioderone! Esp given your few episodes etc. ive always thought of it as last ditch effort med.
carey is correct imo
T

Sam, I took amiodarone 10 years ago after lung surgery before my ablation. I did not notice what you are describing. What I do remember is that drug has some nasty and lingering side effects. My Doctors had me taper off the drug over a one month period. The drug stays in your system long after that.

I would go thru my Doctor before any changes to taking the drug. There might be problems with just stopping and taking a alternative drug once amiodarone is in your system.

Hope you solve this problem soon.

Ron H

Yes Carey is 100%.
In my Afib days my QWAK cardi....tried to put on AMI....my response...."DR. your offices are on the 14th floor i would sooner get up from this chair i am currently sitting in then use it to smash through this window next to me here....THEN JUMP.....rather then take AMI.
As it turned out that suggestion by the Qwak was the best thing that maybe ever happened to me as i never went back + proceeded to get on the correct path to a suc. Ablation + bliss that i live in today.
BTW my 1st ablation was a Cryo that only ablated 60% of my PV's due to a shaping PV problem + a 5th PV that i had.....then an RF Ablation cleaned it all up a year later but i never felt any diff. health wise generally after the Cryo....if anything i felt better (other then not fixing my afib yet) because i did not feel the constricted ability to get a breath like i did after the RF burns on my heart about 30 hours after the RF ablation.
Do not put that drug near your mouth again.
I strongly Q. why ANYONE on earth would take that.....that drug should go the route of the dodo bird.

I was hoping that is the case — this drug. I hope the cough goes away. I didn’t take a dose today and hope I don’t need it. Fingers crossed.

IMO, it may be the ablation too. You'll often read here that recovering from an ablation is an easy thing. Even if it's true for most patients, it's not necessarily true for anyone.
Doing a PVI requires a good amount of burns in the atrium. Some people may have a hard time recovering from that. It had been my case. I don't know why, I just know we're all different and, for me, it'd been really hard.
After ablation, I had no pain, but I was disabled. I had to ask for two more weeks off, before being able to get back to work (in the office - nothing physical).

Pompon, sure, but coughing and wheezing two weeks out? The only time I would expect symptoms like that would be if there had been a significant complication.

Wheezing is an side effect from Amio. If you get this side effect you are supposed to stop. I got wheezing after only 2 days on this drug. Literature said to stop so I did. Agree with Carey here. How many Mg are you on? 200 or 400? At least temporarily withdrawal to see if it helps.

I stopped the anmiodarone and had big improvement in my breathing in 18 hours, and more improvement after another day. I have slight asthma, which usually comes from the cold, or at the end of a bad cold. This was much worse. It’s now like I just had a bad cold and am recovering. My doctor ordered a chest X-ray and everything is normal but it does say “asthma”. Maybe a combination of the drug plus anesthesia for a few hours. The exhaustion went away stopping the drug. Little tiredness but that’s all. (And no major PACs! Just a few faint bleeps and bloops here and there. ). I’m not back to my regular exercise routine because I don’t want to push it. But I’m walking a mile a day. Just not very fast. No tachycardia while walking so far so good. Thanks for the support and info. This is a good forum.

Good decision and glad it worked out! If afib creeps back into the picture, there are other drugs your doctor can choose from. I would avoid the amio forever.