Posted by Russell Boyce on April 27, 2001 at 19:59:20:
In Reply to: MAZE tommorrow??? posted by John Behle on April 27, 2001 at 19:50:17:
As the subject line says I have been there. The first time I traveled the 1000 miles to DC to have doctor Cox do the maze in Febuary 1998 my doctor sent me near death. Doctor Cox took one look at me and turned me over to the teaching faculty who spent 8 days saving my life. They did a double heart cath showing I was at 15-20% ejection fraction and in congestive heart failure. They put me on a very heavy dose of Vasotek plus a dozen other meds.I did the cardiac rehab and went on CO-Q-10 and no one expected me back a year later for the MAZE. They had to do a single bypass and a mitral valve repair at the same time and I flew thru it.Don't give up. You can go back and have the MAZE done successfully as I did it. I am nearly two years post MAZE and am back at work. I did suffer an MI from the AF in Febuary 1996 so I have permanent muscle damage and my mitral valve still leaks some but I had managed to get back to 50% ejection fraction before the MAZE and I have had no AF since the operation. Good luck.