Posted , 5 users are following.
My daughter was advised by doctors to have a cardiac ablation. I would like to know if there's anyone who has done one a long time ago and has never had another SVT episode or take any medicine, in other word, someone who has been cured after this medical procedure. Thanks.
0 likes, 14 replies
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betty415 vera38933
Posted
hi good afternoon my name is Betty and I had a cardiac ablation on April 12th of 2016 I had the normal symptoms immediately afterwards and I wasn't totally back to normal until maybe a year later. up until about 6 months ago I would get skipped heart beats and that has disappeared. I have never had another episode of SVT since the ablation. I hope this helps you to make your decision. It was the best decision I ever made because I lived with SVT all of my life and I am 55 years old now. Good luck to you and hope for you to have a future without SVT. God bless
vera38933 betty415
Posted
vera38933 betty415
Posted
My daughter is twenty-four years old and she has had svt since she was 12, however her episodes were short and ended without her doing anything. Two years ago episodes became more frequent and lasted for hours only stopping after she takes adenosine. She doesn,t complain about symtoms except feeling tired when she is having an episode. Although doctors say it's a benign condition all of them say she should have an eletrophisiologiy study and an ablation. It's a hard decision because she feels very well when she is not having an episode and she says it's not very bad when she is with svt. She doesn't want to take any medicine. Thank you for your help.
rickper vera38933
Posted
Hi, I just had a ablation on Friday. I was on a Beta Blocker which helped control the SVT but it eventually broke thru the Medication. I would suggest that she go ahead and get the ablation. It is only going to get worse and she should just try and get it over with. The SVT really bothered me when it kicked in but with your daughter if it doesn't bother her all that bad then the procedure won't be bad for her because the worst part is when they make your heart faster and trigger the SVT. The chances of anything bad happening is very remote, the worst outcome is they can't trigger it but if she is not on medicine yet the chances are good they will. Try and find a doctor that is very good and has done a lot of ablations. In the case of this procedure, a good recovery and outcome is much better with a really good doctor.
vera38933 rickper
Posted
Thanks for your answer. We have already tried to find the best place and doctor to do the procedure when she makes the decision, but it's always good to hear from people who have experienced the same problem. Do you know anyting about long term results? I mean do you know anyone who did the ablation and has been completely cured? Thank you for spending your time answering this post. I wish you the best.
rickper vera38933
Posted
Yes most people are completely cured, it is 95 percent of the people that go in are cured, I talked to a few people that when in with my doctor and had good results. I can't speak for myself yet because I have not ramped up my normal activities and put a lot of stress on myself but I am very hopeful.
vera38933 rickper
Posted
annie56356 vera38933
Posted
I wish more people would reply to you Vera with the ongoing problems they have with runs of PVCs or ectopic beats. Some find it debilitating and end up on medication (which is what the ablation is supposed to fix right?)
Personally I don't need medication for SVT and have decided to just manage it. I'm 45 years old but remember it way back when I was 13. I was diagnosed at 24. I may opt for an ablation in the future but for now I'm comfortable with managing the episodes when they happen, going to hospital for adenosine or whatever it requires. The key is truly understanding the Drs when they say it's a benign condition.
PS check out the youtube video called "modified valsalva manouevre" which shows a study on a new simple technique to convert SVT back to sinus rythm without drugs. It's quite amazing and has worked several times for me.
vera38933 annie56356
Posted
Thanks for your answer. The doctors say it's a benign condition. However the episodes are longer and more frequent lately. Last month she had to go to hospital and take adenosine twice, doctors then prescribed some medicines, but she refuses to take them. Some doctors, the eletrophisiologists, say medicines don't solve her problem. I wish she could live with the problem without doing anything, once a doctor said that, but at the time the episodes were not frequent. It's a real dilema.
Best wishes for you.
annie56356 vera38933
Posted
I've found over the years that I've had periods of time where they happen more frequently and other times where it's very quiet.
I don't think it necessarily increases exponentially.
annie56356 vera38933
Posted
PS if you search through more of the threads on this page you will find some of the no so great results of ablation including ectopic beats which are debilitating, even a year or two post ablation. I think it's important for her to go in with her eyes open.
The way I see it an SVT heart has an electrical problem but it hasn't been permanently scarred. Once the ablation happens there is scarring and although it heals there is always scar tissue there so the ablation changes it permanently.
vera38933 annie56356
Posted
My aim when I posted here was to read some long term success stories of people who had ablations at a young age. Cristiano Ronaldo, the football player, has had an ablation at fifteen. We have to trust doctors and taking adenosine at the hospital frequently or taking medicines has also risks, besides limiting her life. To sum up. It's not an easy decision and of course she'll not make it based only on other people's experiences, each case is a case. Thank you all the same. Feel comfortable with your decision, if it works for you.
annie56356 vera38933
Posted
Sorry I didn't realise you were only looking for success stories and not wanting to read the others.
I made my decision after I read the other stories on this page over the past 5 years. The fact is that lots of people have had to have this procedure more than once and others live with problems due to the ablation. That's an important thing to know before you have a procedure which can't be reversed, whether that's convenient to know or not.
We do have to trust Drs but not blindly. We need to gather all the information and make our own decisions as adults as I'm sure your 24 year old daughter will be able to.
vera38933 annie56356
Posted
Thanks for the advice. You are right when you say we shouldn't trust doctors blindly and when you say it's my daughter's decision. But I was really looking for success stories, because those are the one's hard to find. This may have two meanings.Either people who was cured after the procedure don't write on these kind of foruns since they are free of the problem or there are more cases of failures which doesn't correspond to all statistics I've read or was told by doctors. Have a nice day and thanks for bothering to write to me.