Interesting….I went in for a pre-op for my shoulder surgery and because I was over 65 they ran an ecg. Thought my resting hr (pulse) was in the 30s the Dr told me I was in flutter at 300 beats. I was cardioverted for the surgery. The following summer I had an ablation to fix the fluttering and keep out of afib. During to surgery I went into afib and several times since. They called it low hr afib where my pulse was 40 to 50 beats. They also discovered wearing a holter monitor that I was avblock 2 heading to total block. I bought and used the Kardia mobile for readings every morning before heading out for a swim, bike or run. One morning this spring, it read that I was in afib with a hr of 30. All I could do was sit in a chair that day because I was so gassed. The next morning I was out of it but it took me two days to feel normal again. I found that when I exercised, especially running, I had to slowly build before I could even reach a pace I considered training. I shutdown any intensity because I was afraid it would send me into afib again and after the last episode decided I didn’t want to go thru that again.

Long story….I am now the owner of a brand new Medtronic pacemaker with a lead in the atrial and one in the ventricles to keep me pacing at 1 to 1. I am only a week into recovery and can’t exercise for another 3 weeks but I am sleeping so much better and not as tired during the day. Pre pacemaker in a 24 hr period my heart would skip beats over 1,100 x for up to 4 seconds.

I did have one extremely rare complication the day following the initial surgery where my right lung was punctured by the screw head from the atrial lead and partially collapsed. I was admitted to the hospital for four days on a rebreather oxygen face mask to stabilize my lungs so they could reposition the lead to an area where it wasn’t going to interfere with my lungs again. But all is good now and I am anxious to test out the new pacing zones they programmed into the pacemaker once the leads have scared into place at the end of my one month recovery.

Good luck with your journey, doctors and research. I did find a forum I thought was helpful if you do face having to go towards a pacemaker. It is the Pacemaker Club.

Nothing to add beyond what we discussed privately regarding my afib experience but will say again, you are going to be A-ok post ablation. :)

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

My experience is different from yours, but there are some similarities. Specifically, the narrowing of my heart rate response to training. My floor is higher and my ceiling is lower. It’s very hard to push toward my max HR anymore.

Background: I’m a 40 year old male and have been doing endurance sports for about 15 years. Prior to that I played soccer in college. Fairly good results over the years.

In June of 2022, I went into a-fib for the first time. I was cardioverted out, but about three weeks later I went back in. Another cardioversion and it seemed to stick. I raced Norseman that August with no issue. In May or so of 2023 I went back into a-fib. The doctor had given me the “pill in the pocket” to try, so I used that and it eventually put me back in rhythm. Over the course of the summer I had 5-6 more episodes, each time using the meds to bring me out, which generally meant taking 2-4 pills and coming out within 24-48 hours.

I didn’t like the idea of lifelong medication and feared for possible other health issues from the frequent episodes of a-fib, so I opted for an ablation. I had the procedure in November of 2023. The procedure went well and has been effective so far, but it was more recovery than I anticipated. They do say it can take 6-12 months to fully recover from, but my performance has definitely seen a bit of an impact. My resting heart rate is in the low 60s now, where it used to be in the low 40s. My top end threshold is harder to find and maintain. No matter what my effort output is, my HR trends between 135 and 160. And easy spin used to be 115 and I could still push beyond 180.

Like I said, my experience is different from yours, but there are some similarities as it deals with the heart. Best of luck as you try to navigate a difficult medical system.

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Instagram | Team Kiwami North America

my guys at UCLA Health are:

jeffrey hsu: plumber cardiologist
eric buch: electricial cardiologist

electrophysiology at UCLA Health is further bifurcated into (at least) EPs that specialize in atrial versus ventricular arrhythmias. my guy's speciality is atrial. if you go the EP route you may as well begin by simultaneously setting up appts with a cardiologist who'll handle all your general heart health modeling: ekg, stress echo, mri etc.

you can see if you can best my 60+ facility record in the bruce protocol ;-)

your EP (well, my EP) wouldn't even put me on the ablation schedule until i got all the other stuff done, as he wants to know what the condition is of the heart he's working with.

i don't know what you need, obviously. i can tell you what what sped up my journey-to-ablation was being ablation-ready way in advance of my own scheduled ablation. when my EP was convinced i needed an ablation it was scheduled 4 months out. they want you on blood thinners a few weeks before your ablation. so, i asked (and was granted) the ability (and the prescription) to go on blood thinners immediately, in case of a cancellation (and of course there are cancellations). i had my ablation 3 weeks later.

i take a lot of care when choosing a doctor. for this reason, there is no way i can be in an HMO and if there is one thing i could tell any and all of you it's to think hard about whether an HMO is right for you as you enter later life and the need for a specialist, and specialty surgery (like an ablation) is more likely. one of my best childhood runner friends has afib. he's with kaiser. what a nightmare! not because they don't have good EPs. it's because you'll die of old age before you get to see one of them.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Your afib article was helpful and my wife wants to read it to better understand what is going on

I’ve been on thinners since 2009 (I’m really just a mess) and have a decent but ultimately expensive PPO, so those are covered. EKG is done. Echo shortly. I presume I’ll be told what else is needed.

As you likely know, it’s very frustrating as basically everything I like to do has to be put on hold until this is handled.

this is a terrible season in your life, but you're fixable and it's temporary.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman