One yr anniversary post ablation, event monitor and question

[Guest guest]

Greetings,

I am 4 years post ablations and have just finished a month on the monitor.

It recorded fast and slow heart rates, PVCs, PACs and afib. If I moved

suddenly, it caused false recordings. Hang it from your neck, as this seems to

quiet

it down.

All seems well. When the Doctor contacts me next week, I will give the

group the final verdict.

, cured? by ablation #2 in 2002, no meds

[Guest guest]

Well, I'm at a milestone. 2 weeks past my 1 yr anniversary and I am on

an event heart monitor. For those of you who may be having continued

fib post ablation, have patience. I suffered with events for 6 months

(and even added tachyacardia to my experiences) before I came out of

the woods. I've periodically written aspects of my experience here so

some of this will be recap to encourage others and then to get to my

question. Brief history:

Pre-ablation:

Afib for about 3 years, at first infrequent and for last 6-8 months

before 4/05 ablation, continual. Fortunately it was not a significant

quality of life impact, except I had to stop running (only a mile/day,

but even that was more than I wanted to suffer thru with the fib).

Took nothing for it except blood thinner.

Post ablation up to February 2006:

Went fine. For 1st few of weeks did nothing of significance. After

about 1 month got clearance from EP to resume normal activities. I

started building exercise pre-ablation routine into my activities,

eventually walking 3+ miles/day. I then started my running, 1/4 mile,

1/2 mile, working up to 1 mile/day. But, frequency of fib events and

added tachycardia seemed to be increasing so I stopped running. After

about 6-7 months, I was not having any events (or if I did they were

of short duration, so, back in February of this year I started working

running into my schedule, working up to a mile/day. No events! Then

about 2 weeks into it I had a tachycardia event in the evening, but I

hadn't run that day, so I decided to chalk it up to a 'sport'. Since

then, no events and I'm up to roughly 10 miles/week, running 3 miles

one day and anywhere from 0-2 miles the next day and alternating so

there is some muscle rest between the 3 mile runs.

Feb 2006 to present.

In view of no events since I've started back running other than the

sport, I saw my EP last week to have him call me 'cured' and get me

off of rat poison. Being the conservative fellow he is, he decided to

put me on an event heart monitor and do an echogram. So I've been

wearing an event monitor since 4/25. Wouldn't you know it, kicked it

off the first day I ran with it. Sent the data in and later in the

afternoon told a new monitor was being sent; mine was too sensitive.

I've continued to run with it and the new one still records events

everytime I run, which brings me to my question for anyone who has

worn one of these and exercised. At first I thought it was recording

because it detected a fib event, but I had no symptoms. Now I believe

it is self-activating because of a setting for HR> some bpm level.

Does anyone in the community have experience wearing one of these and

running or being involved in other higher heart rate generation

activities. At first, when it was event recording I was a bit stressed

by it, but now I'm am of the opinion that it is programmed to capture

events that are not necessarily fib events. Anyone know from their

experiences?

Thanks.

[Guest guest]

My husband, , wore the event monitor twice, one month each time, pre-

and post-ablation for flutter, which was in July 2005. Like you, he is a

runner and strength trains almost daily.

From what his EP explained to him, the event monitor that was sent to him

was programmed to set off at a certain HR level. It will not necessary

record just fibs or flutters. He was told that it will go off automatically

on detection of " abnormal " HR, but he also had the option to manually record

when he felt that he was in flutter (he had flutter when he was wearing it,

now he is 9 days post PVI-ablation for fib).

When he sent in the recordings (his was able to record about 5 recordings

before he had to send it in and reset the device for new recordings), the

person at the other end of the line will ask him questions like, " how do you

feel when it went off/when you record the event " , " what were you doing at

the time " , etc. was also told that the person at the end of the line

has the authority to discuss the EKG readings with you IF your EP has

approved prior authorization to the event monitor company to do so with you.

It will also be wise to tell your EP that you run, so that he/she can order

the monitor to be programmed to set off at a higher HR, since

exercise-induced tachycardia is normal. So, you are doing the right thing

by just continuing your runs if you have no symptoms related to fib.

Congratulation on being " cured " of afib.

Shye

>

>Reply-To: AFIBsupport

>To: AFIBsupport

>Subject: One yr anniversary post ablation, event monitor and

>question

>Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 12:16:13 -0000

>

>Well, I'm at a milestone. 2 weeks past my 1 yr anniversary and I am on

>an event heart monitor. For those of you who may be having continued

>fib post ablation, have patience. I suffered with events for 6 months

>(and even added tachyacardia to my experiences) before I came out of

>the woods. I've periodically written aspects of my experience here so

>some of this will be recap to encourage others and then to get to my

>question. Brief history:

>

>Pre-ablation:

>Afib for about 3 years, at first infrequent and for last 6-8 months

>before 4/05 ablation, continual. Fortunately it was not a significant

>quality of life impact, except I had to stop running (only a mile/day,

>but even that was more than I wanted to suffer thru with the fib).

>Took nothing for it except blood thinner.

>

>Post ablation up to February 2006:

>Went fine. For 1st few of weeks did nothing of significance. After

>about 1 month got clearance from EP to resume normal activities. I

>started building exercise pre-ablation routine into my activities,

>eventually walking 3+ miles/day. I then started my running, 1/4 mile,

>1/2 mile, working up to 1 mile/day. But, frequency of fib events and

>added tachycardia seemed to be increasing so I stopped running. After

>about 6-7 months, I was not having any events (or if I did they were

>of short duration, so, back in February of this year I started working

>running into my schedule, working up to a mile/day. No events! Then

>about 2 weeks into it I had a tachycardia event in the evening, but I

>hadn't run that day, so I decided to chalk it up to a 'sport'. Since

>then, no events and I'm up to roughly 10 miles/week, running 3 miles

>one day and anywhere from 0-2 miles the next day and alternating so

>there is some muscle rest between the 3 mile runs.

>

>Feb 2006 to present.

>In view of no events since I've started back running other than the

>sport, I saw my EP last week to have him call me 'cured' and get me

>off of rat poison. Being the conservative fellow he is, he decided to

>put me on an event heart monitor and do an echogram. So I've been

>wearing an event monitor since 4/25. Wouldn't you know it, kicked it

>off the first day I ran with it. Sent the data in and later in the

>afternoon told a new monitor was being sent; mine was too sensitive.

>

>I've continued to run with it and the new one still records events

>everytime I run, which brings me to my question for anyone who has

>worn one of these and exercised. At first I thought it was recording

>because it detected a fib event, but I had no symptoms. Now I believe

>it is self-activating because of a setting for HR> some bpm level.

>Does anyone in the community have experience wearing one of these and

>running or being involved in other higher heart rate generation

>activities. At first, when it was event recording I was a bit stressed

>by it, but now I'm am of the opinion that it is programmed to capture

>events that are not necessarily fib events. Anyone know from their

>experiences?

>

>Thanks.

>

>

>

>

>