What I learnt from three ablations - so far...
What have I learnt from my ablations so far
I have now had a trio, a triplet, a triumvirate of ablations.
My first in May of 2020 followed a one-off Afib in August 2015, cardioverted within 48 hours, then an episode in August 2019 which saw me hospitalised locally for a total of 20 days, left drugged up and in Afib, barely able to walk for 5.5 weeks and finally cardioverted and referred to Papworth for an ablation. It was about THREE months before I felt well enough to run again.
Whilst waiting for the ablation I went back into Afib in March 2020 and spent another 8 days in the local hospital and left drugged up, barely able to walk for another 5.5 weeks – it was like Groundhog day. After paying to see a private EP who arranged for me to be cardioverted at Papworth as an urgent case on the NHS. I recovered much quicker this time and spent the day before my ablation out on my posh racing bike! The first ablation came a month after the cardioversion and lasted 1.5 hours. They cryo-ablated each of the pulmonary veins using a sort of ice balloon. This was done under sedation.
My plan was to walk for a month, then cycle and row for a month before starting running in for the third month. The plan was rubbish.
I felt great the first week and then rubbish after that. I could barely hobble for about five days due to the groin insertion site and even when I walked, I had to keep stopping. Naturally I forced myself to walk a mile after the first hobble and it was hellish. I was able to add in some back exercises and stretching and yoga within the first few weeks. Other milestones were as follows:
|
First walk |
4 days – hobbling badly – just a few minutes |
|
First one mile walk |
7 days – bad idea. Barely made it back home |
|
First two-mile walk (with plenty of rests) |
7 WEEKS post ablation. Just to give an idea of how hard it all was, it took 6 weeks to improve from one to two miles of walking |
|
First three-mile walk (with rests)
|
12 weeks P.A. (post Ablation) |
|
First four-mile walk (with rests) |
14 weeks P.A – see how once you get to three months progress speeds up |
|
Very light weight training
|
5 weeks P.A. |
|
Riding an electric bike |
9 weeks PA, but I could have done that much soon, but I only bought the e-bike then! |
|
First E-bike ride of over 10 miles |
11 weeks PA |
|
Riding a ‘proper’ bike |
17 weeks, but could have ridden sooner if I hadn’t been using the E-bike |
|
First cycle of over 10 miles on a ‘proper’ bike |
22 weeks |
|
First go on the rowing machine
|
18 weeks |
|
First time to row over 2500m |
19 weeks |
|
First run – just a few jogging steps while out walking
|
20 weeks |
|
First one mile run (jog/walk)
|
25 weeks |
|
First two mile run (jog/walk)
|
27 weeks |
|
First three mile run (jog/walk)
|
30 weeks |
|
First four mile run (jog/walk)
|
33 weeks |
As you can see my plan to be running after two months was wildly array! The other thing I learnt was, in my desperation to get fit again, I was trying to build up my exercise too quickly. I could do great weeks of running and cycling and walking and then crash and burn and have to take two weeks of doing practically nothing to recover. One step forward; two or even three steps back.
The EP had told me I could run after two weeks (!) but then on the Health Unlocked forum I was slaughtered when I merely said I was doing yoga and stuff after a few weeks! The arrythmia nurses (as usual) were marvellous and provided the voice of reason – I was doing everything “perfectly”, exercise was good, but don’t do too much too quickly.
I had done some research and seen the NCBI paper on recovery from ablation (see link below) and also done some reading on the Cardiac Athletes Facebook page. From this I saw that 4-6 months is roughly how long it takes most people to begin to feel themselves again. A year to return to full athletic endeavours.
In some ways, this was a good time I have an ablation – we were in the first Lockdown and the weather was glorious and my OH was home with me. I was able to sit in the sun and read and it made taking it easy so much easier. Plus, I couldn’t go holidaying even if I had been well so I didn’t feel I was missing out on too much.
By January of 2021 I was feeling fit and strong before managing to get one of those long-lingering viruses. I just got over that when I went for my first Covid jab and woke up the next night in Afib. This is when I discovered that Addenbrookes’ Hospital is the place to go as they will go as they are a major trauma centre and think nothing of doing a cardioversion there and then. They read through my notes (which I always carry with me) and saw that drugs did nothing except make me feel even more ill and so cardioverted within a few hours, meaning the recovery was so much quicker. Another cardioversion followed a month later. 18 days after that I felt so ill OH was reluctant to risk the one drive to Addenbrookes and so I went by ambulance to the dreaded local hospital. As usual, they insisted on giving me drugs nda for the first (and last) time it actually worked.
At this point I was already back on the waiting list for a second ablation and it was decided it needed to be done urgently and so I was one of the first people to get one when they reopened after the lockdown! So just 11 months after #1 I had #2. This was an RF ablation where they redid two of the pulmonary veins and did some other work.
This time I knew what to expect. Take it easy. Take it easy. Take it easy. Not such a nice summer and OH was back at work. And this time was even harder to recover from. I suppose that is to be expected since this procedure was six hours versus the first 90 minutes.
In short, I was about a month behind my recovery from the first one. Sacre Bleu! Like the first one wasn’t slow enough!! The only thing I was able to do sooner was ride my electric bike and that was only because I now owned it! I was on that, on its highest setting, after three weeks which was brilliant. I discovered that riding an electric bike was much easier than walking and meant I could go further and actually see more than half a mile from my house! In fact, I’m such an enthusiast for my E-bike that I wrote another post about it.
Once it got to three months post ablation and I went on holiday my walking increased in leaps and bounds. At month three I was struggling to walk half-a-mile, a month after that I walked up the Eildon Hill outside of Melrose in the Scottish borders. I wondered if I had been too relaxed with my recovery the second time round and I should have done a little more walking. I think I was suffering a lot of deconditioning. Or did I just get to the magic 3–4-month stage and my recovery accelerated? It will be interesting to see what happens after number three…
So far, I have been less sore in the groin insertion site than the first one. This time it was better within five days. So, I could walk sooner. Walking felt dreadful though! My main problem this time has been a real feeling of hopelessness. I’m normally quite a jokey, bouncy person but his time I have felt unmotivated, miserable and sort of colourless. I guess this may be depression. It only lasted a few days and I caried on with the tasks I set myself (this blog, learning Italian, studying, reading, knitting etc) but with no feeling of interest or joy. That’s been tough and the messages of support from people really helped.
So just why does it take so long to recover from an ablation? And why does the EP say you can run after three weeks yet at my three-month review when I told the arrythmia nurse I was still ever so tired she said, in a kind way, “What do you expect – you’ve had a serious heart procedure!”.
Here are some reasons I have found out:
· It’s a BIG procedure!
· They do 50-75 burns inside the heart!!
· The heart is stunned!!!
· Deconditioning
· Drugs
· Ablation alters (and intends to!) the neurons and thus the function of the heart
· Inflammation of the heart
· Effect of anaesthetic
· Stress
According to medcitynew.com "Radio frequency ablation takes 4-6 weeks to heal with regrowth of blood supply, rebuilding of tissue factors and prolonged inflammation"
Abbreviations
Afib Atrial fibrillation – a heart arrythmia
PA Post Ablation
EP Electro-cariologist or physician. An expert in heart arrythmias
Addenbrookes Huge major trauma hospital in Cambridge, East England
OH Other Half
NCBI National Centre for Biotechnology Information
LINKS
Symptom Challenges after Atrial Fibrillation Ablation” Woods et al 2007
Comments
Post a Comment