Catheter Ablation

I don't know about catheter ablation for atrial fib, but had the procedure done for Wolfe Parkinson White Syndrome ten years ago. The Syndrome is caused by an extra electrical pathway on the heart muscle that causes arhythmia to the tune of 260 beats per minute, at least in my case. The procedure involves going in through the groin and carotid artery (on the side of the neck), inducing tachycardia and then locating and zapping the extra pathway with radio frequency, thus disabling it (basically burning that particular bridge). Some people are born with more than one of these extra pathways however and my EKG, after surgery, still showed the signature of the disorder but it was so slight, the cardiologist thought I wouldn't have any problems with it. Ten years to the day, give or take a week or two, this morning I woke up chest pounding and went to the ER with a heart-rate upwards of 260 beats per minute, no pain or usual sypmtoms of heart attack although the attending nurse said that heart attack symptoms in women are not always as apparent as those in men. I was prescribed beta blockers and advised to consult with a cardiologist again. The ER physician thought it could be a re-growth of the extra pathway or that it might be something else now, given that I hadn't had an incident in the ten years following the ablation. You should consult your cardiologist for the best information. I went with my condition controlled by medication for 2 years till one of the Navy doctors finally decided to refer me to a cardiologist and finally had a name put to my condition and some real relief. Hope this is of some help. I'm still looking for answers to my own situation. Dawn