My friend who is 72 did her research and found a surgeon in Austin TX that she felt comfortable with....So off she went, thru all the papers she had to go thru et al, and now she's home and the fatigue is lessening, it's about 2 weeks since she did this. Now how long until she knows if it took? Another friend said could take 6 months to know and it's reported that often a re-do is ordered. Anyone?
If it was only the Ablation then about a week after they should be feeling better,having said that it would be different if it was during open heart,the level of activity the person does,and if previous symptoms have decreased.
I have had two abalation procedures, and if you do a search here on the forum, you will find several threads where i have talked at length about having the procedure and how it has helped me. The thing with an ablation is that they can scrape the heart and stop the bad electrical paths that cause atrial fibrillation, but the heart actually heals itself, and in that process, it can regrow the bad electrical pathways. Then, you have to have a second ablation. Your friend should have been out of a-fib by the time they were finished with the procedure, @Joy Martin , and she might not even need another one, or she might be like me, and have to have a second procedure done. Healing does not take very long, it is just a small incision, but I had to wait for at least a month before I was allowed to go to the fitness center and swim to be sure that everything was healed from the incision. My heart function was at 23%ef when they did the first procedure, and into the 40% bracket afterwards, with not having the a-fib; so I started feeling a LOT better almost right away.
Talked to my friend who had the ablation and it's been under 2 weeks since that procecdure. Well I called her last night to find that she went to the ER with a racing heart rate. Out came new drug and she's telling me the cost of the drug is $400/month. The doc's office who did the work is working to help her get the drug for a cost she can afford.. She seems to accept all the issues she's dealing with, as I've asked her if she regrets doing ablation. I am cocerned about her.
The ablation would not cause the racing heartbeat, but it might mean that they did not get everything taken care of properly when they did your friend’s ablation, @Joy Martin . I did go back into afib after my ablation, but not for a couple of years, and then they did the second ablation. Another couple of years, and I went back into afib again, but my doctor had already told me that they could not do another ablation; so they put in a pacemaker. My pacemaker completely controls my heart now, so it can’t go into afib, and it can’t go too slow or too fast either. I do lose energy from that; but I still have lots more energy than when I was in afib; so overall, it has helped me.
Yvonne, thanks for your story. My friend has to have fears. On the pacemaker, when my dad was in his early 90's and wanting to "leave" this world, he did not want a pacemaker and my sister and I followed his instructions, and no pacemaker, and 3 surgeons came to see him and offer a pacemaker. 3 different surgeons, 3 diff P.M.'s... Dad would not.
Joy, my heart failure was SO bad before my cardiologist sent me for the ablation that i could barely walk around the house. Even back when it first started (around 2002), I went from walking 3-5 miles a day, riding horses, and doing a lot of outside work every day (plus my job) to not even being able to walk to the mailbox and back. It affects each person differently, depending on how bad the afib and heart failure are and what stage you are at. I was scared that I would not survive the operation, because I was so bad off; but knew that i was going to die if I didn’t at least try to get the heart fixed. Hopefully, this will be all that your friend needs and she should be feeling a whole lot better really soon. I certainly did ! Even by the time I went home from the hospital, I was breathing better because my heart was not floundering with afib all of the time.
Wow Yvonne, my friend as I saw it was not that bad off, she walked, went to gyms, did work in her yard, went camping and it sure seemed like a quick decision on the ablation on her part. Just like with her knee issue, I'd love to do all she does and she's planning on Sept. knee replacement. She went to nursing school and has an RN and is very tied into Western Medicine ways. She does supplements, but her deep mindset in Western Med.
If your friend can go to the gym, she can probably help her knee with exercises. I have a really bad knee from injuries in car accidents and a couple bad horseback riding accidents. The specialist who did the X-rays said that there is really advanced arthritis in that knee (actually both knees); but he could not do a knee replacement because of my heart issues. He said that knee exercises could help. He gave me a cortisone shot in my knee, and said that would help the pain for maybe six months, give or take a bit. I started doing water exercises with my knees right away while the shot was helping subdue the knee pain, and now my knees are much better, and I only rarely have trouble with them, even though that one knee still wobbles and clicks and clacks around when I move it. It is possible that they might not be able to operate on your friend’s knee now that she has the heart issue, so she might have to think about doing knee exercises to help it instead, and maybe a change of diet.
Yvonne, she is of the Wed Med surgery and drugs mind. She's done other things, like I know PRP injections can work and she has the money, but she seems bent on surgery and she sees how crippled and damaged I am from the hip replacement. Steroid injections are a no no, they have help for a little, but long term damage the joints more. And if her heart doesn't quiet down that could put a damper on her knee plans.
Oh boy, all my friend has been thru with this ablation and going to Austin for it and all the moving around she's done, just the other evening, she tripped over her foot in her living room (hardwoods) and she fell, turns out fractured her left side, tried to walk with her neighbor's walker, but could not put pressure on it, and this morning she was getting a "fix" for the fractrue, hope it works. Amazing how fast these things can happen.
Well, just heard they did a hip replacement on my friemd, the break was worse than she thought. It will be interesting what this replacement will do to her troubled knees.. I know w hat that surgery did to my knee, so time will tell.
That is one reason we’re getting out of our current home. We are up and down a long flight of stairs multiple times every day. We’ve not had any serious problems so far but I can see it’s an increasing risk. I’ve caught my damn droopy left foot on the stairs numerous times, fortunately going up the stairs so I stumble forward. We just need to be accident free for a few more months. Hope your friend recovers well.
Now I see more sense for the Ranch style houses when they came on the market..... It will be interesting with my friend as she's heard for 10 yrs or so on all the problems I have from the replacement, shorter right leg is a big one.
Never had this procedure done but back about 10 years ago it was suggested for chronic arrhythmia.But then they decided to take a pass on that.