30 years - progressing from one hour to 10 days - 60% of the time

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Posted by John Behle on November 10, 2001 at 13:35:26:

In Reply to: Thanks posted by Joel Smolen on November 10, 2001 at 11:50:00:

In my early teens the first signs of the Afib showed up. It would only last about an hour and sometimes I could just relax or even "will it" to go back regular. No matter what I did, even with many years of Propranolol, it increasingly got worse.

First it was Soccer, then track, then affected my skiing, then my motocross...... and on and on.

At about 19, my heartbeat hit 36 BPM one day and a "specialist" in Canada put me on Digitalis. I asked about the medicine and he was offended I even asked a question. Besides that experience, I was quite pleased with Alberta Health Care.

I was fed up with all of it and just dropped medicines and doctors for many years. It steadily became worse and would be set off by stress, lack of sleep, exercise, etc. Then it starts affecting work, I couldn't play racquetball any more. It affected parenting, social life, etc.

Some of the studies indicate that the longer a heart is in Afib, the more prone it is to do it again. That was my experience. It just got worse and worse. Finally in the early 90's it would go out for as much as a day. Then be good for a week or so and then out again. Exertion would almost always throw it out - badly. Shoveling snow, pushing a car, weight lifting. I quit the weight lifting. I couldn't jog. I couldn't ski. In 1993 it hit the first time that it went out for 3 days and would not go back. No question, I was working hard, stressed and run down. This time though, it just wouldn't go back. Finally someone convinced me to go to the hospital and as they were taking my blood pressure, all of a sudden the slow moving ER staff pepped up! They rushed me into a room and hit me with 250 Jules of excitement.

I want to phone the writers of every TV show or movie I see where they throw the paddles on someone and they just quietly look up and say "thanks". I don't think I had ever experienced that kind of pain before that, even with broken arms, legs, motorcycle accidents, etc.

The next day they called if "Wolffe Parkinson White" syndrome (WPW) and did a catheter ablation. The doctors were quite thrilled with their fabulous success. "Problem fixed, go home, take a half aspirin a day and have a good life."

NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I felt better for a week. Then the first episode during a game of racquetball. It went away soon and I still felt better - for a few months. It was downhill all the way from there. By a year later, it was worse than it had ever been and helped cost me millions in the loss of a business I had worked for for almost 20 years to build. Only I could do it - but I couldn't.

The AF grew worse and worse. Some biofeedback courses and exercises were quite helpful. A fascinating course from the "Institute of Heart Math" made a big difference - for a while. If someone has mild AF, it would likely controll it.

It continued to get worse. Even taking walks became too much strain and it went downhill even more. It hit a point about a year ago where over 60% of my life would be in Afib and the episodes would last as long as ten days.

We were fiddling around with new medicines and someone highly recommended Tambocor. It made little difference - except in one BIG way. In researching Tambocor on the internet I ran across an AFIB newsgroup. A post in the newsgroup from Jim Pope led me to his story and then this newsgroup.

As I read about people who had a chance to live their lives again. Jim who went back into his competitve swimming and others who were cured completely I was literally speechless.

My despair had hit a low point. I didn't honestly believe I was going to live even a year, let alone have the chance to raise two little boys. Both my wife and I were quite fearful and she didn't even know how serious a stroke risk I was running every time I was in AFIB. I had found the so-called specialists to be incredibly ego-tistical and un-helpful. Especially since I could have received better answers from Miss Cleo. At least her BS is cheap in comparison. How dare someone say "shucks I don't know, but pay the receptionist a thousand dollars before you leave."

Anyway, my bubble of despair was burst with a glimmer of hope. My wife walked into my office to find me staring at the computer in tears and speechless. I was ready for anything. I was ready to load up and travel anywhere in the world and pay any price. 30 years, 30 doctors, 30 "shucks, I don't know". Finally someone had an answer and a cure.

I looked on the list and Dr. Millar, one of the most qualified and experienced surgeons, was a few miles away. He examined me, looked a an EKG and essentially said "When do you want to end it?" I left there with a MAZE scheduled a few days later. The echo-cardiogram and other tests the day before showed my heart to be too weak at that time to attempt the MAZE. I was in Congestive Heart Failure. Interestingly enough there was a radical difference between when my heart was regular and when it was in Afib. A couple months of preparation and another test got it to a point where I could have the surgery.

I had the surgery April 12th 2001 and have not had heart problems of any kind since. I am stronger and more energetic than I have been in years. No AFIB, no meds, no dizzy spells, no pacemaker.

The odometer on my high mileage body is getting turned back. My children have a father again - instead of a vegetable........ and wer're heading off in a few minutes to have lunch and play laser tag.

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