Follow up question Extreme fatigue after ablation

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Submitted by Dr T on June 2, 2012 – 11:22am

Question: 
Dr. T:Thank you for your response. I am including more info:5-25: 1 cm anterior pericardial effusion5-26: stable effusion, very mild early diastolic collapse5-27: resolving effusion 0.8 normal function5-28: stable effusion 0.85-31: home, primary care ordered stat echo. Informed that effusion is better, app: 0.5Records given to me at discharge, state: Early HD compromise based on early R ventricular diastolic collapse and respiratory mitral inflow suspicious for tamponade. However, she remained HD stable with BPs 100s-130s systolic, HR 90s. Discharged in stable condition. Follow up with EP physician. (in 4 months!)Today is the best day in 8 days. I still have some left sided pain and a little in my neck. I read that a person can have serious complications following an incident like this for up to 4-6 weeks later. Since my effusion  seems to be resolving, will it simply continue to go away? What would your immediate concerns be? After an experience like this, I am fearful and on edge that something more is going to happen. I am still lightheaded and sometimes see bright lights when I sit up. I have a kidney stone procedure scheduled for later in June and wonder if I should proceed? I will see my primary cardiologist on Monday, but he doesn’t even have the reports from this procedure. Any further feedback would be appreciated. thanks. lynn

Hi Lynn,
Sometimes the cardiac echo misses a pleural effusion, simply by not “looking” into the R or L chest. Since your heart function is normal at rest, sometimes a stress echo is necessary to detect a small localized fluid collection that only interferes with your heart function during exercise.
Thus, make sure there is no pleural effusion with another (stress) echo. If these are also normal, your fatigue is probably not related to your heart,
Hope this helps,
Dr T

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