Getting over a cryo-ablation - four and a bit months post procedure (OCT 2020)

4-and-a-bit-month Post Ablation Update

So, I've been posting this to help all the sport loving folks out there see what they might expect post-ablation.

So just after three months I began to feel much better - I'm now doing all the weight-training, yoga and pilates I was able to do before. I can also walk up to five miles with little problem, which is kind of as much as I would walk in every day life anyway (further on hiking holidays, obviously, but no chance of that any time soon due to this flipping Covid situation).

Cardiovascular/endurance exercise-wise, I've not advanced much this month - I can ride my ebike (have been as much as 17 miles), did one ride of four miles on my human-powered mountain bike (hard work) and just begun a few tentative goes on a Concept II rowing machine. BUT some of the slowness of this recovery is due to three things: 1. I had a cold for a week 2. I managed to hurt my hip and so missed another week 3. If I do too much too close together I get about a week of strong fatigue afterwards. So last week in the first few days I did weights/yoga/pilates/e-cycling and a tiny row and a brisk walk. TOO MUCH. Been really tired until today which is six days later. Have to learn to pace myself better.

BUT really it's all good. Taken an age longer than my 'it's-gonna-take-an-age' worse case estimate and I think it will be another month or two before I try running again, but progress is in the right direction. Another thing to consider, of course, is that I am so much less fit than before (and fatter -ha ha)and so, naturally, everything will feel harder.

Had a belated 3-month consultation with the EP today and he is well pleased with how it has all gone and from TODAY(!) has told me to stop the amiadarone - I'm to take flecainide if necessary as a Pill-in-the-Pocket. I'm to stay on the Apixaban for another three months, just in case and then they will review that.

So, sorry, this turned into a long ramble, but just maybe it will help some of the younger (er-hum, I'm not as young as I like to think I am!) sporty Afibbers out there.


 

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