I'd like to loose 2 more pounds before the end of February and average 70,000 steps per week. That seems to be reasonable goals ... don't want set myself up for dissapointment.

The ablation went really well.I felt a bit like I waa entering Dr Fankenstein's Laboratory rather than an operating room because its all monitors and equipment. It's a lengthy (about 3-4 hours) then you must lay flat for about 12-15 hours so you will have a catheter (the urinary kind sorry!) in because you can not stand up or move around to avoid bleeding. If you have any back or neck issues see if you can get them to have an air mattress on the bed BEFORE you arrive back in your hospital room.

It will take about 3 months for your heart to recover from the "trauma " of the procedure so you will have a little chest discomfort but you will be back to regular activity in a couple of days. I have had almost no irregular heart rate issues since then and even those occurrences are less and less often. I've used a phone ap from Azumio to monitor- really cool, uses the phone camera to check your heart rate..

My dr says my experience is pretty normal for recovery. I have been a little more tired and get some occasions of feeling out of breath but that seems to be a normal part of recovery.

You will be on blood thinners for 2-3 months and its really important to take those because you don't want a blood clot to mess up your recover. My dr put me on pradaxa- outrageously expensive ($300 month!) so hopefully you have insurance to cover that. If you don't your dr can give you a coupon supplied by the pharm. co that makes it that gives you 1 month free. There is also coumadin but very hard to deal with food restrictions and constant monitoring of your blood required).

Interestingly my normal heart rate used to be around 60 beats a minute, now my normal rate is around 70. Don't know if there is any correlation but my weight loss has imroved since the procedure?!

Let me know how yours goes.