Posted by Anne Kidd on March 01, 2002 at 20:06:51:
Hi everyone,
I met Jack Drum back last summer on the Maze message board and we have stayed in touch ever since. He called Mayo to check on Courtney while she was there for her surgery and I truly appreciated that. I have sent him updates on my daughter Courtney and he tells me he has shared some of them with the board. I have read some of your replys and I would just like to say that I really appreciate your prayers during Courtney's hospital stay and recovery and for your words of encouragement. I have had many people recently tell us that we are an inspiration to them. It truly touches us to hear that. I hope that by sharing our ordeal with Afib it can be of some use to someone else suffering with fib and considering the Maze. In my opinion the radiofrequency ablations are a waste of time. Courtney had 2 very long ablations (8hrs and 11hrs) last March, ablating 8 pathways in all and it didn't help. We were told at Mayo, that the radiofrequency catheter ablations to treat Fib are simply putting a band-aid on the problem. We lost a lot of time by messing around with the RF ablation. I wish we would have had the Maze sooner and maybe we could have preserved some of her left ventricular function.
Jack you are a wonderful soul and we appreciate all the work you put into the Afib Maze Board!
Take Care All,
Anne