Posted By: QuietButDeadly
Goodbye Atrial Fibrillation - I Hope! - 07/10/14 03:09 AM
I was diagnosed with A-Fib, as it is commonly called, in 2007. The kind I had would come and go away on its own. I never had to be shocked to get back in normal rhythm. The first cardiologist I went to seemed to be more interested in collecting money for stress tests than he was in helping me manage my condition.
During a conversation with a friend who had a heart valve issue, I got a number for his cardiologist at Duke. This Dr. stays booked 3 or 4 months ahead but when I called, he had had a cancellation the next week. He put me through the wringer and did not find any heart problem other than the A-Fib and the fact that I had been on a low dose of Lipitor for slightly elevated cholesterol. He recommended a fairly new medication that was more effective and had less risks/side effects than others on the market. The only catch was that I had to be monitored in the hospital for three days when I started taking it. I evaluated the alternatives and told him to schedule the hospital stay. He then told me since I had to be in the hospital anyway, he was going to schedule a couple more tests just to make sure he had not missed something with the non-invasive tests. The first test was an echo-cardiogram of the back of my heart. Everything was fine there. The second test was a heart catheterization and it was amazing to lay there and watch the doctors thread that wire through my blood vessels. I had seen an area that looked different and my Dr. pulled the image up on the monitor and explained that my right coronary artery was 90% blocked at that spot and recommend placing a stent. And if I recall correctly, I asked him what he was waiting on. Do it!
So you might say that having A-Fib actually extended my life because that blockage would have surely led to a heart attack.
Now back to the medication. I did not have any complications with it and it certainly helped reduce the frequency and severity of my intermittent episodes but it did not eliminate them all together. Most of the time it was not a quality of life issue but occasionally it was. And A-Fib patients are definitely at a higher risk for stroke since it allows pooling and possible clotting of blood in the heart. Most patients are on some type of blood thinner to reduce the stroke risk. With the improved control with the medication, after much discussion with the Dr., I took a calculated risk by staying on an aspirin regiment rather than warfarin and my Dr. and I sure were glad I was not on warfarin when I had my fall in 2011 and broke my pelvis.
All the research I have done on A-Fib indicates that it tends to get worse as you age. The Dr. and I have had several discussions over the years about an invasive procedure that can possibly eliminate the A-Fib all together. We discussed the risks and the advances in technology that have been made to reduce the risks and improve the success rate of the Catheter Ablation procedure versus staying on the medication with the stroke risk.
I decided to have the ablation. Spent most of Monday at Duke getting pre-op tests and paperwork done. Checked in at 6:15 yesterday morning for the procedure. They rolled me into the electrophysiology lab about 7:00. That room was around 20' by 20' and jam packed with monitors, machines and people. They turned me every way but loose in the few minutes before they sent me to the twilight zone and beyond. The procedure took about an hour with another 4 hours in recovery then another 4 hours flat on my back and that was no fun. At around 6:00 yesterday evening a nurse had me up walking the hall. Then I had some issues when I tried to eat but finally worked through all of that.
It is amazing to me that yesterday morning they were threading wires around inside my heart and burning tissue to create scars to block the extraneous electrical impulses that cause the A-Fib and today, I am sitting at home on my couch.
It will take about 3 months before we know for sure whether it was 100% effective or not but so far, so good. I hope my A-Fib is history!
During a conversation with a friend who had a heart valve issue, I got a number for his cardiologist at Duke. This Dr. stays booked 3 or 4 months ahead but when I called, he had had a cancellation the next week. He put me through the wringer and did not find any heart problem other than the A-Fib and the fact that I had been on a low dose of Lipitor for slightly elevated cholesterol. He recommended a fairly new medication that was more effective and had less risks/side effects than others on the market. The only catch was that I had to be monitored in the hospital for three days when I started taking it. I evaluated the alternatives and told him to schedule the hospital stay. He then told me since I had to be in the hospital anyway, he was going to schedule a couple more tests just to make sure he had not missed something with the non-invasive tests. The first test was an echo-cardiogram of the back of my heart. Everything was fine there. The second test was a heart catheterization and it was amazing to lay there and watch the doctors thread that wire through my blood vessels. I had seen an area that looked different and my Dr. pulled the image up on the monitor and explained that my right coronary artery was 90% blocked at that spot and recommend placing a stent. And if I recall correctly, I asked him what he was waiting on. Do it!
So you might say that having A-Fib actually extended my life because that blockage would have surely led to a heart attack.
Now back to the medication. I did not have any complications with it and it certainly helped reduce the frequency and severity of my intermittent episodes but it did not eliminate them all together. Most of the time it was not a quality of life issue but occasionally it was. And A-Fib patients are definitely at a higher risk for stroke since it allows pooling and possible clotting of blood in the heart. Most patients are on some type of blood thinner to reduce the stroke risk. With the improved control with the medication, after much discussion with the Dr., I took a calculated risk by staying on an aspirin regiment rather than warfarin and my Dr. and I sure were glad I was not on warfarin when I had my fall in 2011 and broke my pelvis.
All the research I have done on A-Fib indicates that it tends to get worse as you age. The Dr. and I have had several discussions over the years about an invasive procedure that can possibly eliminate the A-Fib all together. We discussed the risks and the advances in technology that have been made to reduce the risks and improve the success rate of the Catheter Ablation procedure versus staying on the medication with the stroke risk.
I decided to have the ablation. Spent most of Monday at Duke getting pre-op tests and paperwork done. Checked in at 6:15 yesterday morning for the procedure. They rolled me into the electrophysiology lab about 7:00. That room was around 20' by 20' and jam packed with monitors, machines and people. They turned me every way but loose in the few minutes before they sent me to the twilight zone and beyond. The procedure took about an hour with another 4 hours in recovery then another 4 hours flat on my back and that was no fun. At around 6:00 yesterday evening a nurse had me up walking the hall. Then I had some issues when I tried to eat but finally worked through all of that.
It is amazing to me that yesterday morning they were threading wires around inside my heart and burning tissue to create scars to block the extraneous electrical impulses that cause the A-Fib and today, I am sitting at home on my couch.
It will take about 3 months before we know for sure whether it was 100% effective or not but so far, so good. I hope my A-Fib is history!