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Catheter Ablation for SVT - any success stories as I'm so scared?
Hi, I'm a 32 year old female, diagnosed with SVT in December 2011. I saw an Electrophysiologist in March and he advised that I have a Catheter Ablation due to possibly having AVRNT or a concealed accessory pathway...
I am absolutely dreading it to say the least. I understand that I may be sedated and I have never experienced that before. I don't want to be awake and know what they are doing as the whole thing freaks me out. I am als petrified that something will go wrong. Can anybody share anything that will make me feel a little better? I know I need to have it done as I am living with constant fear of the SVT. Many thanks :-)
I am absolutely dreading it to say the least. I understand that I may be sedated and I have never experienced that before. I don't want to be awake and know what they are doing as the whole thing freaks me out. I am als petrified that something will go wrong. Can anybody share anything that will make me feel a little better? I know I need to have it done as I am living with constant fear of the SVT. Many thanks :-)
No I haven't taken anything for any of my heart issues. My doctors aren't big on meds though I was told they would prescribe beta blockers if my pvcs did not get better but they did so there is no need. I can't say that I enjoy the ectopics. I will have some that occasionally take my breath away and I will get headaches and feel tired on days that I am having a lot of them but for the most part they are more of a bother than making me really sick so I mostly just try to ignore them. Well best of luck. I will keep you in my thoughts.
Thankyou Michelle, hope mine is a 2 hour procedure like yours. I have my pre-op on the 18th May so will ask them about ectopics. Did you have any medication to help with them? Mine havent been so bad since taking Flecainide. I think thats what they were anyway where i'd feel something funny in my chest then it was as though the air gets sucked from my throat and chest. Horrible feeling. Ive always tried not to read on forums but this one has been pretty useful.
I see you have gotten a lot of good responses but I will add that I had probably the most successful ablation ever. I was in and out in 2 hours and have not had an episode since (last september). I was terrified to do the ablation but was almost kicking myself for being so stressed about it because it really is a piece of cake for the patient. I felt a little uncomfortable while they paced my heart and the ablation part did hurt a bit but for the most part it is basically like going in and having an IV put in. I had 2 full on abdominal surgeries and the ablation was nothing compared to them. It did take a good 6 months for my heart to finally feel calm, I am in my 40s and was pretty active prior to the ablation so my heart was probably pretty stressed out at the time. But even with the long recovery to get back to normal the physical toll abdominal surgery had on me was much harder to recover from than the ablation.
I had avnrt as well. It is actually one of the easiest ones to fix so chances are good they will find your spot and be able to ablate. They have to tell you about possible complications but if you really think about it, 1% is extremely small so the odds are you will not need a pacemaker. More than likely they will stop and leave you with the svt before they do anything to cause you to need a pacemaker. But odds are you will come out cured.
That said, I did have a lot of ectopic activity after my ablation. I was actually a bit peeved at my doctor for not forewarning me about them though I am not sure they knew I had them but I did ask about a fluttering feeling and they just blew me off so I was a bit taken by surprise by them. I felt them prior to the ablation but thought they were related to the svt but I also don't recall feeling them to the extent I was feeling afterwards. They actually made me very sick for a time. But now 7 months out the ectopics are almost unnoticable. I still can feel them especially on stressed days but they aren't as intense as they were. I believe that the stress of going through the ablation and simply years of having fast beat episodes likely stressed out my heart and as such I was having and feeling more ectopics but as the heart heals your body will adjust. You will likely not totally get rid of the ectopics but you should eventually stop noticing them as intensely, at least that is what is happening with me. I did initially blame the ablation on all my ectopics but I can see now that it is possible I was having a lot of them prior but just didn't feel them and now that my heart is resting from years of tachycardia I am not noticing my heart as much as I had for a while. So be prepared to continue to have the ectopics (ectopics are one of the biggest triggers for avnrt) but also take heart that with a bit of time and distance your heart will be much better for having done the ablation and with a little time and rest you too may stop noticing your heart so much. Though it sounds like you already know what to expect if you are interested in reading about my ablation you can click on my name and read my journal entry . Take care and let us know when you are scheduled. I will send good thoughts your way.
I had avnrt as well. It is actually one of the easiest ones to fix so chances are good they will find your spot and be able to ablate. They have to tell you about possible complications but if you really think about it, 1% is extremely small so the odds are you will not need a pacemaker. More than likely they will stop and leave you with the svt before they do anything to cause you to need a pacemaker. But odds are you will come out cured.
That said, I did have a lot of ectopic activity after my ablation. I was actually a bit peeved at my doctor for not forewarning me about them though I am not sure they knew I had them but I did ask about a fluttering feeling and they just blew me off so I was a bit taken by surprise by them. I felt them prior to the ablation but thought they were related to the svt but I also don't recall feeling them to the extent I was feeling afterwards. They actually made me very sick for a time. But now 7 months out the ectopics are almost unnoticable. I still can feel them especially on stressed days but they aren't as intense as they were. I believe that the stress of going through the ablation and simply years of having fast beat episodes likely stressed out my heart and as such I was having and feeling more ectopics but as the heart heals your body will adjust. You will likely not totally get rid of the ectopics but you should eventually stop noticing them as intensely, at least that is what is happening with me. I did initially blame the ablation on all my ectopics but I can see now that it is possible I was having a lot of them prior but just didn't feel them and now that my heart is resting from years of tachycardia I am not noticing my heart as much as I had for a while. So be prepared to continue to have the ectopics (ectopics are one of the biggest triggers for avnrt) but also take heart that with a bit of time and distance your heart will be much better for having done the ablation and with a little time and rest you too may stop noticing your heart so much. Though it sounds like you already know what to expect if you are interested in reading about my ablation you can click on my name and read my journal entry . Take care and let us know when you are scheduled. I will send good thoughts your way.
Hi ReggieEve.
I was a little bit apprehensive, but what I was really afraid of was what would happen to me if I didn't have the ablation done. My episodes had been getting more and more frequent and severe over the years, to the point where my medication was no longer working. The last episode that landed me in the ambulance and the emergency room was the worst ever and I swore I was never going to go through that again. I had reached the point where I felt I had nothing to lose. My EP gave odds of success in the 90% range. Glad I listened to him, wish I had found him sooner.
I hope your procedure goes well and wish you a speedy and uneventful recovery. Please don't hesitate to contact me by message if you need to talk.
I was a little bit apprehensive, but what I was really afraid of was what would happen to me if I didn't have the ablation done. My episodes had been getting more and more frequent and severe over the years, to the point where my medication was no longer working. The last episode that landed me in the ambulance and the emergency room was the worst ever and I swore I was never going to go through that again. I had reached the point where I felt I had nothing to lose. My EP gave odds of success in the 90% range. Glad I listened to him, wish I had found him sooner.
I hope your procedure goes well and wish you a speedy and uneventful recovery. Please don't hesitate to contact me by message if you need to talk.
Thankyou Barbie1999 good to hear these success stories. I just hope the meds zonk me out so that I dont panic as i have become quite a panicker about my heart. Hope that you continue to recover and be SVT free :-)
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