I'd like to hear from all of you who have had a cardiac ablasion, why you had it, what it was like, and whether it's helped you. I'm especially curious about whether ablasions are ever done on those who suffer ONLY from PVC's and not SVT, VT, or any other underlying heart condition.
Regardless, whatever you can tell us about ablasion, we'd like to hear about it so that we can learn from your story.
To read a bit about cardiac ablasion, click here.
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37 comments:
Hi!
Great blog, thank you very much for keeping it up!
I'm quite sure ablation treatment is usually recommended to those only who have PVC's exceeding 10000 extras per 24 hours monitoring. At least that's what I've read from medical articles published in my native Finland.
I suffer from PVC's too, but even at worst I "only" get a little over 5000 extras per 24 hours (estimate, has not been Holter monitored).
At 10000 or more, PVC's can start to affect the hearts ability to pump blood and also affect the structure in harmful ways.
I will follow your blog in future and hopefully participate in the conversations too! Thanks a bunch!
BR, Lars
Hei Lars!
Hilsen fra Norge. :)
Thanks for that great info about ablasions. A few people in the Facebook group have recently had one, and found it to be very helpful. But they had more serious underlying issues than benign PVC's.
Thanks for stopping by and we look forward to sharing advice!
Hi Claudia: I'm very nervous about my PVC's! I am so scared about these things and it would be helpful to be able to exchange emails. Do you have an email address? Please let me know! I'm getting better at handling my PVC's, but I'm very interested in controlled the "fear" and love your site.
Hi there, Anonymous. You can e-mail me at severusen at gmail dot com.
I highly recommend that you read through all the comments on all the posts on this blog. We've talked about PVC's and anxiety at length and we may have already answered some of your questions. :)
I would thoroughly recommend an ablation if you are suffering from very frequent PVC's. I used to have 1000's a day, they were so bad I couldn't function and were really affecting my life. I had 2 ablation procedures (as the first one didn't help to reduce the PVC's) I had the second ablation 3 years ago and since then my PVC's have been alot better. Don't get me wrong they have not gone completely and I still have bad days however I can at least live with it now.
If you are really suffering with PVC's I would not hesitate to recommend speaking to your cardiologist about an ablation as it could really help you.
Thanks for that info about ablasion! Would you mind telling us a bit about the procedure? What to expect? Whether there was any pain or discomfort? What the risk factors are?
Haven't posted in a few weeks but, of course, like the rest of you, still "suffering" from time to time. It never does end but I still try and go about my business, particularly running. I also still niravam (a relaxer).05mg when i need it to calm down...usually take it at night to help me sleep...I think many of you, like me, have our worse times at night...niravam seems to work when i need it - you need a prescription but, according to my dr., at that low dose and just occassionally at night, you won't get caught up in the habit of using it. I really wanted to wish all of you a great 2010 without fear and anxiety about these darn things. Special wishes to you Claudia for creating this great blog.
Thanks, Runman, and a Happy New Year to you all!
I had a nice holiday, though I've been a bit plagued by my PVC's the past few nights. Have had about 3 pretty sleepless nights the past week. But I think that one of those was due to overeating, which tends to be a trigger for me.
I've been reading about ablations because I'm probably going to get one.
When you have thousands of PVCs/PACs per day or atrial tachycardia/a fib ablation is the only cure. The medication only works so-so.
The safest ablation method is the cryoablation (freezing). It doesn't have the risk of damage to the heart the radio frequency (RF) method has. (Damage that can lead to requiring a pacemaker.)
Tawny, RN
Tawny, I can't remember, do you have AT and A-fib?
I am having PSVT (atrial tachycardia) and now, apparently, episodes of A-Fib. This on top of premature contractions.
Honestly, what worked best for me was the CardioRythm supplement. The heart medication I've been on hasn't worked well.
Hi,
I had my cardiac ablation (Jan 31)to eliminate SVT that with me for more a year ago.
The procedure is successful to eliminate my SVT but not PVC as my cardiac electrophysiologist refuse to treat it. :(
Also, during the 1 hour procedure he couldn't spot any PVC. :(
For my case, I can catergorize it as excercise incuded PVC as most of the time it happened during the heart rate is started to elevate. E.g. stand up and walking. This thing really make me stay away from any move, I would rather sit down as PVC is much lesser during this period. :(
Right now, my puncture side is in the process of healing. Once it is recovered, I would start back up my excerise in the hope of to knock out this PVC. I really hate it so much. :(
Malaysia, Khai
Hi!
I was constantly researching on the ways to fix this PVC.
Here is the supplement info that I commonly found in the web for PVC : -
1)Fish Oil
2)Magnesium
3)Potassium
4)CoQ10
5)Vitamin D
Has anyone of you have tried out these supplements and managed to knock it out ?
http://www.insidershealth.com/glossary/definition/supraventricular_premature_beats/1153
Malaysia, Khai
Hi,
Adding more supplement info : -
aloe vera
taurine
arginine
glutamine
evian water
Cordyceps
Quote from other website : -
Optimizing Heart Health
A combination of CoQ10, taurine, L-arginine, L-carnitine, hawthorn and salvia (as found in CardioCare) can support the health of the heart during stressful times.
Coenzyme Q10 is essential to cellular energy processes and thus assumes importance in cells with high-energy requirements such as the cardiac cells, which are extremely sensitive to CoQ10 deficiency produced by cardiac diseases.
CoQ10 is a vasodilator (widens the blood vessels).
It inhibits LDL oxidation and thus the progression of atherosclerosis and decreases blood viscosity, which is helpful in patients with heart failure and coronary artery disease.
Researchers have noted significant improvement in exercise tolerance in patients with heart failure, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and other cardiac illnesses who were given adjunctive CoQ10 in doses from 60 to 200 mg daily.
Other nutrients important for cardiac health include taurine and L-arginine.
Deficiencies of these nutrients are linked to heart arrhythmias.
Case histories of people with very frequent arrhythmias have shown that 10-20 grams of taurine per day reduced premature atrial contractions (PACs) by 50 percent and prevented all premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), but did not prevent pauses.
Adding 4-6 grams of L-arginine immediately terminated essentially all remaining pauses and PACs, maintaining normal cardiac rhythm with continued treatment.
L-arginine also has been found to enhance endurance exercise tolerance in heart failure patients.
Carnitine is another nutrient important to proper cardiac functioning and has been shown to reduce LDL oxidation, the process by which free radicals damage lipids in the body and play a role in LDL’s heart-damaging effects.
Hawthorn has proven itself to be equally important to healthy heart function. A review of the medical literature found that hawthorn extract may improve symptoms in patients with mild to moderate heart failure, significantly enhancing exercise tolerance and reducing shortness of breath and fatigue.
Hawthorn extract also increased the maximum workload in a small number of studies and patients.
Salvia miltiorrhiza is another botanical important to cardiovascular health.
Salvia protects cardiac cells known as myocytes from damage and has protected animal hearts from injury after oxygen deprivation.
Malaysia, Khai
I want to know more about ablation!!!!! HELP!!!!!!
uncle louie
I have posted before and I have had PVC for more than 16 years. I wont feel any for a few months than I feel them all the time for a few weeks and they go away. Recently I hav noticed something different. I am usually relaxed and in the centre of my chest I a sinking feeling or as if my heart makes a puff and it usually makes me gasp for air (just a sec). I check my pulse and it seems to be beating normally. I was thinking it could be something related to my stomach. I dont think so. I sometimes but its rare that I feel a short pinch bewteen my chest, just above the heart. Its enough to make be worry its a heart attack. Does anyone else feel these? I have had a holter and all is ok.
I had an ablation done about a year ago. I had been suffering from pvc's for about 2 years and then I suddenly began having short runs of vtack. This is what led to the ep study. They found 3 bad spots in my right ventricle and were able to alate them all. The procedure wasn't bad at all. In fact I don't remember much. The only pain was similar to heart burn which lasted for a few hours after the ablation. I was sent home the next day. Pretty sweet deal. Afterwards I was pvc free for about a year but now I will occationally have a single pvc. My doc isn't worried about this so I'm okay with it. If anyone has any questions about the ablation procedure, feel free to ask.
Hi, this is Tawny again. I was having thousands of ectopics a day and incessant PSVT episodes (atrial tachycardia.)
Supplements help, the mag, the CoQ10, the carnitine. When I stopped taking them before my ablation I had much more intense sensations.
I just had an ablation. This is what it's like:
They give you IV sedation and put catheters into your veins. My doctor uses the groin veins and enters both sides of the heart.
The doc watches on a huge X-ray screen as he moves the catheters around and maps your heart. When he finds a bad spot of electrical activity he burns (or freezes) it. It hurts.
You are given heart medication to speed up your heart. This is called "pacing" and it is unpleasant. For one thing, my diaphragm was moving up and down rapidly. (They must do this to catch the bad rhythm.)
Most non A-fib cases take less than two hours. A-fib ablations can take 8 hours.
You will spend the night in the hospital on a monitor and go home the next day.
It takes weeks for the heart to heal and settle down. People report feeling worse before they feel better.
My heart was instantly fixed. I went from thousands a day to one or two ectopics and no PSVT.
Even though slightly risky and unpleasant, I would do the ablation again.
like everyone else have elliminated a lot of foods from my diet. I even had to stop taking synthroid and Levoxil because it would make my heart race. I have to cut my armour thyroid to a 7.5 because a bigger dose will make my heart race. I have had SVT's for 3 years, with them getting worse, the last spell, where the beats went to 305 and would not come down. The ambulance have to give me meds to bring it down, and then the hospital gave me meds to bring it on down to 74 beats a minute, very scarry. I not have panic attacks and anxiety, because the last three attacks, were my worst even thought the last one is the only one that would not drop back down. I have been on several meds, even some killer one's. The doctor attempted an RF ablation a week ago, but was not able to do it because the hospital I had it done at, which is a good size hospital, did not have the equipment to do mine because mine was in the back side of the heart and was in a conceled bypass tract, My heart doc did not want to take a chance and attempt it. He said I would have to go to a bigger hsopital, he suggested UAB (University of Alabama Medical Hospital in Birmingham and have Dr. Neal Kay dot it).
How it felt,
My procedure went as follows:
They gave me some IV meds I think for relaxation, but it does not put you to sleep, they numb the area that they are going to go through, the neck was painfull, he made several unsuccessfull attempts through my neck, this area hurt a little, but it still hurts a lot after a week. He then went to the groin area, no pain there, didn't even feel the thing untill he got into my heart, then I could feel it moving around and the skipped beats, but this did not hurt just uncomfortable. because you could feel it moving around. Since the ablation was unsucessfull, He put me on Tambacor and Digoxin, (very bad drugs, had to go back to emergency room, they took me off these drugs and put me back on a beta blocker at a higher dose. (waiting to see if it is going to work), I also am taking Xanax for the panic attacks, hope to come off of that, but have to have it right now.
Will keep you posted on my next ablation attempt at the bigger hospital.
Has anyone had good results with zebeta and CQ10, I am not currently taking CQ10 but have orderd some that is suppose to be good to give it a try.
Thanks Ana
Hi all
I'm Clare. I had an ablation in 1992 for svt which worked great :) a long time ago I know but even then it was painless and easy enough.
Now, however, I have started getting pvc's on a huge scale 10000++ a day. This started last year and is so very frightening. I think I'm dying.
Cx
I was have 11,000 PVCs a day I got worse as I got older. The Docs Said there was nothing I could do. Just live with it. I took tenormin 15 yeas...Then I went to Cleveland Clinic. They gave me an ablasion and GONE all of them. I might have a couple a day when under stress. I thank the Dr. and God for such a wonderful Life Change.
I have been suffering from PVCs from about 3 months and have really stopped my active life. I have no breath or energy to even climb stairs. I have been scheduled for an ablation at a major Heart Center in MN on 1/10/11.
I really hope this gives my back life. I am a long term Cardiac survivor of Heart Attach at 41, two angioplasties, One open surgery and finally a coated stent recently 14 years post surgery. These pvc's have stopped my activity longer than all of my previous heart issues combined.
Im not sure if I am posting this in the right place but heres my story. I am 25 years old with constant PVCs. Ive been to the cardiologist and I wore a heart monitor, had an echo ultrasound, and getting a stress test next week. I was in the ER because I was getting them in bigemeny. Every other beat was a palpitation. These are truly ruining my life. I am glad I found this website because I finally can talk to people who understand. My doctor told me that theres nothing wrong with my heart and its healthy but we have to get to ghe bottom as to why its happening so ofter.
I remember reading online that having PVCs in bigemeny is terrible but my doctor explained to me that its not bad at all. Do PVCs cause other arythmeias? Has anyone on here had them as often as I have them? I get them everyday day almost all day long. They started 3 weeks ago and they havent stopped yet. I dont understand. I am being tortured. I am very stressed out and I am a very big worrier as it is. I almost went into a full panic attack when the dr told me I get pvcs everty other heart beat. Just shoot me now I felt like saying. Are these dangerous? I have a very good cardiologist who is rated top 10 in the country but I am afraid my stress test might say something bad. He said my heart rate is good i just have so so many PVCs... Do i have to be on medicine forever? Anyone can you relate? Thank u so much
@Young and PVCs
I'm with ya, you are not alone. It's currently 4 in the morning, I need to be to work soon, haven't slept yet and it's all thanks to these damn beats. I'm actually only 22 and having the same problem. Scariest thing is right when I lay down, I feel my heart beating very hard and therefore feels a massive beat when one occurs. Really makes me feel like my heart is going to quit. I've had every test you named and my doctor says these are normal. Every so often, I get several right in a row which I've read could lead to death yet my cardiologist says it's fine. I'm terrified, and I don't want to sleep because I know how badly I will feel them which is just making it worse. Glad to see there are sympathetic people out there who know what I'm going through, though not glad that any of us have this. Will check back soon.
I'm a 22 year old female and have been getting PVCs for the last couple of days quite often. I had SVT from ages 5-17, and at 17 I had ablation. Before the ablation, I had to wear a heart monitor, have EKGs, echocardiograms, and I was on atenolol, which didn't help. The ablation was fine, they put me out for about 7 hours. They inserted the catheters in my arteries near my groin and burned away the fiber that was giving me the palpitations. I'm worried that the PVCs are associated and I don't have health insurance. This makes me sad.
Hi
I am 53 and have had these pvc's for 20 years and they have really affected my life. My EP doc said he is going to do an ablation. I have all kinds of tests, MRI, echo, stress tests and my heart is fine. I am so hoping this is going to stop them. I have hundreds a day, which i know some of you have more then that.
christa
Hello, i am 23 and I have had PVC's since i was 14. They scared me for many years, and just in the last few years they have gotten increasingly worse. I do not have them as often as some of you do.. but I am also "much more aware" of my heartbeat as my cardiologist said. I feel my heart beating in my chest atleast 90% of the time and am aware of every single beat.. most of the time I feel like its pounding and really its beating normal. I have been in the cardiologist office and felt that my heart is pounding and he said it sounded normal to him, i am just more aware than others of my heart beat. The problem with this is it makes me even more nervous because I notice any difference, then when I have PVC's it feels very strong. When I was 14 doctor's pretty much told me I was crazy, and my parents played it off to anxiety, agreeing with the doctors. So, all these years I have lived with this with everyone telling me im crazy. Recently I discovered that I had to have my wisdom teeth surgically removed and be sedated. I have never been put under anesthesia of this kind before and was terrified because I knew I had some kind of underlying heart condition that had not been diagnosed. I mentioned it to my surgeon and he told me that I should have this checked out before surgery. The cardiologist just like other doctors told me because of my age it probably wasnt anything.. I asked to be tested anyway. Turned out to be PVC's. They are SO scary and sometimes they are so strong that I feel a pulse all the way to my feet from my blood pumping so hard when it pounds to make up for the skipped beat (as my dr explained). There have been times when its happened several times back to back but most of the time it happens one time, but literally causes a pain in my chest and makes me gasp. I also feel a pinching in my chest from time to time as someone else described on this site.. I explained this to the doctor and he said that it is probably something else, like nerves. ? I feel as if this condition is played off to be nothing so often by doctors. It is a very scary thing to live with! I am currently on no medication but Im wondering if trying it may help my way of life. I am very scared about the surgery still, its only a few days away and I found this site while researching things concerning PVC's and being sedated. If anyone knows anything about this please reply to this post! :) thanks, SARAH
Sarah, you are going to be fine!! Remember, PVCs are simply an electrical irregularity, NOT a structural problem. I had to be put under for a minor procedure a few years ago and was worried about it for the same reasons you stated. Everything was fine and it will be for you also! :)
Thank you Claudia! It is so nerve racking! Your site has helped me greatly, its sort of comforting in a way to know that other people are dealing with this issue!
Hi, I had an ablation done in July 2000. Had been on drugs before but that made me worse! So I decided to have op. Best thing I did, it took 3.5hrs and was a bit sore and bruised for awhile, but do it if you can. Have been tested since and been told that I have an extra heartbeat?? I have given up alcohol and coffee ect but I find when I get very tired they start and Ihate them!!! or had to much chocolate. Your all right about the Dr's saying your ok but I know how they would fell if they where put in our shoes, I only get them every 4-6mths and a few in a row ect it is still hard. Good luck everyone I understand. Leanne
I had a cardiac ablation as i had wolff parkinson white syndrome
Claudia, is your site still up and running?
Hi Kirk. Yes, it's still active, with people commenting almost daily. I don't really get time to answer everyone, but the site gets a lot of traffic, as does the Facebook group (see the sidebar for link).
Hi Claudia!!! I was diagnosed with pvcs 7 months ago. I have gone through all the tests and as most of you everything is fine with my heart, so the cardiologist prescribed lopressor. It really works well for a while then the pvcs come back and we up the dose. Tonight I can't sleep because of the darn pvcs. It makes me wanna go to the emergency room because I'm so desperate I don't know what to do. I'm in bigeminy right now and it just won't stop!!!!
Had eptopics around 20 years after a closed head injury.tried every drug known to man but with little sucess,get around 5-10 a day.makes me sick,hard to breath,miserable,touchy,been sacked 6 times in 2 years because of collapsing,cardiologist are most unhelpful as there book says"it shouldn't do that"! Im 46,constantly having these and to be honest id rather not wake up in the morning.im not a nut,nor do i imagine these things,my ecg proves my point.i went from an amateur boxer to a wreck who couldn't climb a flight of stairs in one week.its something they no little about.ive had enough and because there aren't ways forward i cant wait to leave,if u no what i mean.anxiety? Crap,only if your weak minded.at least ive said what you all really no.ive no advice for anyone,get used to it but it will pull you down.
Hi
So no pain at all during the procedure ? Im scared about something painful
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