Posted by Ken Willis on June 10, 2002 at 19:00:08:
In Reply to: Help.I don't know what to do ! posted by Laura Wood on May 21, 2002 at 18:20:07:
Hi, Laura. I just had a maze at the Cleveland Clinic on May 23rd after an ablation (12/01) and dual-site atrial pacemaker (3/02) failed. The atrial pacemaker made absolutely no difference except once when the cardiologist tinkered with the slope and sensitivity, and then all I had to do was move quickly and it would throw me into afib. I really don't know why it didn't work, but I think that the high percentage success rate reported in some of the scientific papers was among older, sicker people than you or me. I've been active in climbing, hiking, backcountry skiing, etc. for over 40 years and have spent a good amount of time sucking lots of air, so I suspect that you and I may have stretched our atria and gotten afib while many of the beneficiaries of atrial pacemakers got afib from a heart-disease process that makes them more amenable to pacemaker therapy. This is total speculation on my part, of course.
I left the Cleveland Clinic on 25 mg. daily of atenolol but no antiarrhythmic drugs. I had two bouts of arrhythmia this past weekend, 16 days after surgery, but I was a 3-times-a-week guy before the maze, so I feel good about the 16 days and optimistic that I'll be free of the afib (and atrial flutter) demon before too long. I hope you are able to get the maze without having to fail on a pacemaker first. Good luck to you.Ken Willis
Mount Vernon, WA