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You are here: Home / My Afib Journey / Week 4: April 2, 2015 – Post Catheter Ablation Recovery Update

Week 4: April 2, 2015 – Post Catheter Ablation Recovery Update

Travis Van Slooten |April 2, 2015 | 8 Comments

ekg-4-2-15

It has been another peaceful week without any heart issues to speak of – not even a single heart palpitation. My heart rate continues to be much higher than my pre-ablation levels of 52 bpm but no biggie. I don’t feel any different because of it. I know it will come down in the months to come.

My supplement regimen hasn’t changed at all from week one but I will be increasing my magnesium to 900 – 1,000mg per day starting this week. I got the results back from my EXA TEST and I was shocked to learn my magnesium levels were low, especially since I’ve been taking 750mg of magnesium every day for the past year.

I still haven’t done any exercising or really any activity at all. I won’t start going back to the gym until the week of April 20th – a full six weeks after my ablation. Even then the first few weeks back will consist only of light walking.

My weight continues to hold steady at 175 lbs. I thought for sure my weight would be a little higher as I’ve been eating like crap lately. I need to buckle down on my diet before things really start going off the rails!


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  1. Jeffrey Patten ( Age: 70 / Male / Years with AFIB: 1997-2012 )
    Apr 07, 2015

    Glad to hear you’re doing so well Travis. I wonder if you follow Dr John Mandrola’s blog?
    http://www.drjohnm.org/

    He’s an EP who’s philosophy has been evolving very interestingly over the last few months. His idea seems to be that the way to address AF is “upstream”, namely, to attack the causes of AF rather than put the bandaid of ablation or medication on it. It’s counter to the approach of the medical profession in general and counter to what the patient has been led to expect. But it has logic.
    Another site of his, with this issue foremost: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/842739

    I was wondering how you might view his philosophy and to what extent you prepared yourself with “lifestyle” changes in your lead-up.

    Reply
    • Travis ( Age: 42 / Male / Years with AFIB: 9 )
      Apr 07, 2015

      Jeffrey:

      I do follow Dr. Mandrola’s blog but to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of his. I have noticed that he has been leaning more and more towards lifestyle changes as a “cure” for afib vs. ablations.

      While I agree with him 100% that lifestyle changes are important, I don’t think it’s the panacea he seems to think it is. The reality is, you cannot cure afib with lifestyle changes alone. I don’t know a single person who has been able to cure their afib with lifestyle changes alone. And by cure I mean having no afib episodes.

      By contrast, every person I know that has truly been cured – as in NO afib episodes for many years – has had ablations or more complicated procedures such as the mini maze.

      I did a ton of preparation for my ablation including losing 40 pounds and quitting drinking alcohol completely (although I’ll resume social drinking as soon as I’m out of my 3 month blanking period). I also did a lot of tweaking of my supplements. But here’s the irony – my afib actually got worse as I made all those lifestyle changes! I actually had far fewer episodes when I was fat and unhealthy. Go figure.

      I’m a firm believer that the only way to defeat the beast is to make lifestyle changes AND have an ablation. You need both for long-term success.

      The other thing that bothers me about Dr. Madrola’s philosophy is that I don’t understand why someone who does ablations for a living would be so against them. It makes no sense to me. If you don’t believe in them or you think there is a better way, then why are you doing them in the first place? I want my EP to believe in what he does and be a proponent of his treatment method. To that end, I wish he was a proponent of both lifestyle changes and ablations.

      Travis

      Reply
  2. Christian ( Age: 42 / Male / Years with AFIB: 1 )
    Apr 07, 2015

    Travis,

    Glad to hear that your recovery is going well !! I hope it stays that way!
    Today I hit the 3-month blank mark (ablation on Jan 13th). During this period i had no afib and almost zero palpitations. I say almost zero because I felt some in these last two days (prior to that, no palpitations).
    It’s a little frustrating experience palpitations after this period, but I hope they go away (or remain in a low number – about twenty per day, at night. Before my ablation the last holter showed about 14k PACs in a day, ).
    Regards,

    Christian

    Reply
    • Travis ( Age: 42 / Male / Years with AFIB: 9 )
      Apr 07, 2015

      Christian:

      Good to hear you had such a quiet blanking period. It’s awesome, isn’t it? I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing palpitations now just after the blanking period. That has to be somewhat frustrating. Is this your first ablation? And how bad was your afib prior to the ablation?

      One thing to keep in mind is that it’s normal to experience palpitations, PACs, PVCs, etc. even after the blanking period. Some people experience these things for months after their ablation. It can take up to a full year for things to settle down completely so don’t get too down.

      Travis

      Reply
      • Christian ( Age: 42 / Male / Years with AFIB: 1 )
        Apr 09, 2015

        Travis,

        Yes, this is my first ablation… I was having two or three episodes of afib per month (some short, some long-lasting). Due to my high anxiety (I’m very symptomatic) and the favorable prognosis (PAF), my cardio/EP suggested and I readily accepted to to go in the ablation path. (i have tried one antiarrhythmic drug before final decision)
        Before ablation, I’m having about 14000 PACs in a day. Now, I’m having very few, only at bedtime.
        Anyway, I have an appointment with my cardio in the next wednesday (my 2nd appointment after ablation).

        Regards,

        Christian

        Reply
        • Travis ( Age: 42 / Male / Years with AFIB: 9 )
          Apr 09, 2015

          Christian:

          Did I read that correctly that you had 14,000 PACs a day? That’s crazy! To go from that to just a few has to be a tremendous relief…holy cow.

          You definitely made the right decision to have an ablation. As I’ve said many times throughout this blog, I think it should be a first line of treatment. The drugs are worthless for long-term success in beating this crap.

          Best of luck to you on your appointment. Stay in touch and I wish your ablation a total success!

          Travis

          Reply
  3. Ryan
    Apr 06, 2015

    Interesting that your test came back with low mag Travis and you have been supplementing for a long time already…wonder if there was something that was slowing down absorbtion like PPIs? Not sure if you even take PPI’s but they can do that, I’ve been on them 20 years so I want to get that test done as well but damn that was expensive for you eh!?

    How have things been since your last update? Still pretty good? No breakthrough episodes at all? That’s encouraging and exciting if so!

    Ryan

    Reply
    • Travis ( Age: 42 / Male / Years with AFIB: 9 )
      Apr 06, 2015

      Hey Ryan! You bring up a good point…that I might have some absorption issues going on. I’ll have to look into that as well as increasing my daily intake of magnesium. I don’t take proton-pump inhibitors so that isn’t the issue.

      Things continue to go great. Not a single breakthrough episode. Not even a heart palpitation. I won’t start getting excited until June when the blanking period is officially done. Until then, I’m just taking it day-by-day and hoping things continue to go well!

      Travis

      Reply

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