AN update (mid-December to late-January)

 

2026!

Happy New Year, dear Reader,

There is always something about a new year to lift the spirits – most of all, if you are an incurable list-maker and archivist like me, then there is a shiny new Exercise Log to record all my workouts PLUS a diary to record the minutiae of my dull life!  Nowadays it is called ‘journalling’ and is said to be very therapeutic.  I certainly let my feelings out in my diary – it is often peppered with heart-felt comments and extremely bad language!

(If you have never read this Blog before than all you need to know is that I am an ATRIAL FIBRILLATION WARRIOR – in the last 6.5 years I have had four catheter ablations to stop Afib plus a surgical ablation (Minimaze) for the same reason plus 13 DCCV (cardioversions) to stop and restart the heart in correct rhythm.  I’ve also been in hospital another five times with Afib, some of which reverted with chemical intervention and a couple that self-reverted.  My Afib (before ablation #4) was always fast hence the visits to hospital. My heart rate would 150 – 195 so pretty uncomfortable.  One time I had such severe pain the medics thought I was having a heart attack (HA). While treating me for the HA the medication crashed my blood pressure to 53/33 and I began to “slip away” – a rather worried Crash Team brought me back and I was gave me an emergency cardioversion right there on the AAU ward.

That time wasn’t a HA, but I have also managed to squeeze in time in May 2025 to have two SCADs – a type of HA which mainly effects peri-menopausal or post-partum women! 

When I am not draining the NHS’s resources I (used to) work as a gym and class instructor specialising ironically in people with medical conditions.  I also run, cycle, hike, row, do weight training and read!)

Anyway, the purpose of today’s Blog is to update my recovery since the Surgical Ablation (MiniMaze/MM) which I had on 13.10.2025. I just love the recovery period from two months post-op to three months – progress suddenly speeds up.  I started the month of December just managing to walk two miles and cycle my electric-assisted bike on its mid-level.  By the end of that month, I was able to walk FOUR miles AND ride the e-bike with its lowest (very low) assistance level!  I also began weight-training.  Honestly, I am so weak following months off following ablation #4 in Oct 2024 and the two SCADs in May 2025 and then the MM in October.  It can all get a bit disheartening.

January saw even more progress – I actually felt well again, rather than exhausted, though it took over three months!  I finally braved an unassisted cycle which was surprisingly not as bad as expected (I’d been riding the e-bike on its lowest level but turning off the motor for 50% of the time – not only is the bike very heavy but you are also peddling the motor round – hence why a normal bike felt better!!) AND I managed to walk a hilly five miles at a decent clip too…

BUT – there is always a BUT – just as I celebrated three months post-MM I had a bout of Afib in the night.  I was pretty gutted, to say the least, and as I could not sleep, I went to lie on the sofa – I was awake a while and then slept a few hours – I woke up all delighted to be back in Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR) before I realised that I had dreamt I had reverted to Normal Rhythm and had run to my husband to tell him. I felt a bit gutted!  But when I checked I really was in sinus rhythm!!!  It had happened at about the time I had dreamt about it!  Weirder still, my husband had a dream where I told him I was in NSR!  Obviously, we are both so stressed by it that its foremost in our minds, but it’s still a bit spooky!  So, the Afib was only two hours and Sheffield Hospital were not bothered – they felt it was a reaction to weaning off of Amiodarone.

It’s been over six weeks off the Amiodarone drug now and I seem to be getting more runs of fast HR and ectopic beats, but lasting under a minute.  I’m hoping this is as bad as it is going to get – maybe a short bout of Afib now and again which self-reverts and is not that high.  But I also fear that this is just a precursor to the Afib returning as it has so many times before.

Sheffield Hospital have passed my care back to Papworth and I see my lovely Electrocardiologist this week.  Today I am wearing a 24-hour heart rate recorder for Mr Hunter in Sheffield – then my local cardiologist will make a decision about taking me off of the blood thinners (sic) and the betablockers – oh yes please!  They make everything such an effort – if I go from doing nothing to going upstairs, I feel like I am running a 100m sprint.  Hills feel like mountains.   I loathe betablockers…

I’ve had a scan on my liver too!  This is to do with my hereditary bleeding disorder (HHT) – they have spotted the liver is not plumbed properly.  This can increase pressure going from the liver to the heart and this can cause the heart to misshape and precipitate Afib.  However, there is nothing they can do about it (except a liver transplant in life threatening cases of heart failure) and I’ve known about this for ages.  I just don’t want to be given a whole load more scary and bad news to be honest.  I feel like I already have enough to worry about.

To be REALLY honest I am suffering from can be called Health Anxiety. I get a few ectopics and I immediately think “OH no, the MM hasn’t worked”; liver scan will mean heart failure (especially as I keep suffering water retention and swollen ankles; I just had a growth removed from my arm (“must be cancer”) – I’m a hypochondriacal wreck at the moment….

Ironically, I was recently told by someone that my Dad would be proud of me for how brave I have been.  Odd, isn’t it? I don’t feel brave – I feel like crying sometimes and have felt quite depressed earlier in the month too.  It seems very strange that people think I am bold and brave, when I think I am feeble and self-pitying!

 

Afib has meant that I no longer drink alcohol (I used to risk one glass when I was amiodarone pre-MM) or frothy coffee (ditto).  But here’s the ULTIMATE TRAGEDY!

I’ve been suffering terrible bloating – I’d had some for a few years but it got much worse after my SCADs and then the Minimaze.  I wonder if some of the drugs they gave me (especially the Colchine after the MM) have messed up my gut biome.

I had spent a year trying to follow the Zoe diet – all full-fat dairy, fermented food, masses of vegetables, 30 plants per week, less carbs, less cheese, 12-hour window without food etc.  This year overlapped with the SCADs when the bloating got worse…, but I didn’t feel it had changed me much as I was already pretty good except I do  like my cakes and biscuits.

Now I am following the FODMAPS restrictive diet to try and find out what is causing this bloating  problem:

·         No biscuits, cakes, sweets or chocolates (there are two boxes of Christmas Present Lindt cooing at me from the cupboard… plus a homemade Hot Toddy Christmas Cake…)

·         No dairy (except hard cheese)

·         No bread or wheat products

·         Limited veg portions and no onions or garlic! Nor mushrooms

·         Limited fruit in small portions (a third of a banana, anyone?!)

 

It feels like all the years I have been trying to cut down my cheese, decrease starchy carbs and fill up with veg is now being reversed.  I didn’t realise how much of my life revolved around going out for a hike followed by tea and cake.  I mean, I can’t even have milk in my tea.  Honestly – it’s just cruel!  I love my grub!

Worse still, I have been following this diet for 3.5 years (did I say years? I meant weeks – just feels like years) and it has made next to no difference! Though I have lost some Christmas weight.  I HATE IT!!

I’m hoping that if I get off the betablockers it will make a difference to both my gut bloating and my ankles swelling (FINGERS CROSSED!).  Naturally, my hypochondria is telling me I have HEART FAILURE OR WORSE!

 

On a more positive note - this year, I am trying to cram in as many holidays as possible to make up for cancelling so many last year and so, with that in mind, I phoned my insurance company – the excellent Travelinsurance4medical.com.  They are super-helpful and paid out promptly when I had to cancel my 19 days Baltic trip last year (sob).

I updated everything and she said there would be an extra charge – I held my breath as my credit card trembled in my hand while some AI-bot decided what to do with me.  Final charge? An extra £1.98!!  I think it must cost nearly that for the company to process the payment!!!

 

Bit of a boring blog this time – no blue light trips to hospital, no near-death experiences, just steady progress and quite a few worries.  I’m learning that a boring life can be a good life!  It’s like the Chinese Curse: “May you live in interesting times”!

 

Toodle-oh and Happy New Year!

 

PS GP phoned today – my cholesterol is slightly high and he wants me to take statins.  I took these post-SCAD and they played havoc with my HHT nosebleeds making them heavier and more frequent and so I politely declined.  People, even doctors and ENT specialists, really do not understand HHT.  They think of a nosebleed as a red stain on a tissue – I usually have a very fast drip for anything up to FIFTY minutes (about 1/2 of a pint of blood, or 300 mls) and my HHT is only rated as MODERATE.  Some people are having blood or iron transfusions every few weeks with HHT.  This meant the doctor felt it was a poor reason to not take the statins – he has no concept of dripping blood into a sink for 10-40 minutes up to three times a day (with the associated stress, faintness and anaemia this would cause).  Anyway, I agreed I would think about it….