Posted by TC on November 13, 2001 at 15:49:27:
In Reply to: Thanks posted by Joel Smolen on November 10, 2001 at 11:50:00:
Joel, My situtation is very much like yours. I have A- Fib and Flutter for about 1 1/2 yrs. I think I had had some episodes before but had been short and I just let it go . I now have episodes that last from 4- 12 hrs. They happen in the evening or early morning hrs. I have had them happen as often as 4-5 per month and as infrequent one every 2 months. This last summer I had some episodes about every 10-15 days. As of now I have gone about 60 days without one. I do have "skipped beats" that have increased and these worry me as I'm fearful I will go into A- Fib.
My first Dr. put me on Atenolol and this dropped my pluse rate really low. ( I have a slow resting rate of about 55-60 anyway). He then tried Cardizem CD this medication seemed to really increase the episodes of A- Fib. Had about 5 in a month and a half.
Saw another cardio. and he took me off the Cardizem . It helped and redused the numbers. The orginal Dr.then wanted to try Cardrone. I refused to try that and he and I decided things weren't going well. I then went to another Dr. in the same group ( mistake). He wanted to do TEE, Sterss test 2 holters. I did thoes and then he recommended heart cath. At that point I went to a medical center in Houston. I live in a small town and didn't like the ideas of poss. heart sugery here. Really upset the Dr. locally. Heart cath. done and was negative. Tried Rythmol and that seemed to cause some Junctional Rythum. So stopped that. Local Dr. wanted to do pacemaker so that I could try someother meds as Batapace. ( didn't do pacemaker.)only on coumidin at this time.
To make this shorter I found this site and learned about the Maze. I went back to the medical center and discussed my situtation with an E.P. and surgeon. They reviewed all my medical records and indicated I would be a good candidate for the Maze. I'm very seriously looking at it and may decide to go that route. As you can see I've not had near the long history of A- Fib. & Flutter as a number of the others. But I don't think you have to have something wrong with you for a long time to realize that what you have is a problem re: life style. The history of the meds are not to good and the information I have gotten about ablations don't seem to have a high sucess rate.
So as you see, I have hot been suffering a long time but it is sure interferring with my quality of life. I'm about ready to take the chance of the Maze as a options to CURE this thing.
Sorry about the long post. This site has many more qualified to respond to you than I am. Your story sounds like mine as I'm in that gray area also.
Good luck,
TC