Ablation for arrhythmia

I had an ablation and was put on Flecainide (and a blood thinner) immediately afterwards to the point that I never had the chance to verify whether it was the ablation or the Flecainide that had gotten rid of the AFIB symptoms. it's been over four years now. I reduced my dosage on my own from 100 mg twice per day to 50 mg twice a day because I was getting dizzy spellsl (and even fainted once) which I attributed to the Flecainide. luckily, my symptoms didn't increase, and the fainting didn't recur. I'm 65, and I play vigorous singles tennis every other day for 1.5 hours or so. my new cardiologist wants to put me on a new blood thinner since I'm 65 and have only been taking baby aspirin to thin my blood after the first few weeks after surgery. the Ablation surgery wasn't problematic; it certainly was no cure though. I know that because if I stop taking Flecainide altogether, the symptoms begin almost immediately to recur. people talk about the need for multiple ablations. I'm hoping for some other breakthrough...

Hi, your story is very similar to mine of increasing dosage of Flecainide. I was also on a max dose of Bisoprolol. I found the side effects to be quite troubling and followed cardiologist advice to have an ablation. I am 76 and had the procedure in April 2015. I was most freaked out by having to stop the Flecainide and Bisoprolol for 4 days before the procedure, but need not have worried as the AF actually stopped! I was relaxed during most of the Ablation, but asked for extra sedation a couple of times. Home in 24hrs, I would happily have another if needed. My cardiologist advised that it can take 3 months for full benefits to be achieved, in my case it took 6, my only symptoms now are an infrequent Ectopic Heart beat. I remain on Warfarin as I have other risk factors. So my advice would be to "go for it," but accept that the success rate is 70 to 80% and thete are some risks your Cardilogist will advise you about. Good luck and best wishes.

I had my scheduled ablation yesterday (8/26/16) and am so glad I did it. Thank you all who encouraged me and said "go for it". Before the procedure I had to "swallow the camera" (TEE) to take pictures of my heart and make sure there was not a blood clot. This was rather unpleasant because I had to gargle a numbing solution for one and half minutes. I was then lightly sedated during the actual test. Afterwards I was prepped and taken to the lab where I was made comfortable and given general anesthesia. I was told to count to 10 then the next thing I knew the nurses were calling my name and saying the procedure is over.  After spending time in recovery I was taken to my hospital room and offered lunch which I declined because of a little nausea. Saltines and a 7-up took care of that quickly. Later I did have some pretty severe pain in the groin area where the heart catheters were inserted. The nurse gave me Tylenol which was not quite strong enough. A pain med did the trick and I have not had pain since except for some soreness. The electrophysiologist said he was successful in causing my heart to go into both quiver and a-fib during the ablation. This allowed him to zap the cells causing my arrythmia. He did cut my Flecanide from 150 mg 2xday to 100 mg 2xday and said he will probably reduce the dosage further when I see him in November. 

glad to hear all is well! camera swallowing? yikes! I'm glad it wasn't required in my case. trhink I would have had to go under sedation first. LOL

however, I still wonder if ablations are such a successful procedure, why Flecainide is required at all...