I'm 3 mos post Maze and doing great

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Posted by Tim Hawkins on June 30, 2002 at 14:19:57:

I am certainly long overdue with a how-goes-it post to this site. I have been reading several posts lately about post mazers who have had problems and it naturally concerns me to hear about so many who seem to have problems. Someone posted and said that he went several months without problems and then bang, he was suddenly back in afib/flutter. I really hate to hear about things like that because I want to believe that afib is behind me forever.

I’ll start from the beginning to bring some of you up to date and as a reminder. I’m a 55-year-old pilot who has had afib for several years. During the last couple of years before my maze I was “sort of “ controlled with drugs. I was taking 100mg of Atenolole and some Norpace (don’t remember the amount). I was still having problems with afib every few days but was not yet chronic. I had the feeling that in time I would become chronic. Because of all the posts and help from this board I decided to go ahead with the Maze at the Cleveland Clinic. On the 25th of March 2002 I started getting the required tests at the CC. I was lucky and after all tests no problems were found except for my afib. Dr McCarthy operated and performed the Cox Maze III on 3/29/2002. Everything went fine and I was discharged in 5 days drug free. On April 5 my heart went into a very fast rhythm of at least 160bpm. I went across the street from the GuestHouse to the emergency room at the CC and with a drug IV my rate went back down and back into normal sinus. I started on the standard CC drugs of Rythmol 150mg 3 times a day and 100mg of Toprol and left the hospital the next day. Recovery was rapid and normal until April 13 when I went into afib for about 3 hours. Then on April 14 I had another 1-hour run of Afib. I called Dr. Hammer at the CC and he said to increase the Rythmol to 225 instead of 150. I stayed on the 225 until mid May and then dropped to 150mg twice a day. At twelve weeks I reduced the Toprol from 100mg to 50mg.

I went to see my EP and had an EKG on 5/3 and again on 6/24. The ECG on 6/24 actually reported borderline ECG! My EP tells me that I am doing great and that I won’t have any problems passing my FAA physical. I still have to wait another 3 months before I can take the required tests to apply.

I haven’t had any problems since the short 1-hour run of afib on April 14th. I don’t think I have had any PVC and have had very few PACs. I am back to walking and jogging again. The main thing that I now notice is that my resting heart rate is high. I would say that high 80s in now common. It use to be about 60 before drugs, afib and the maze. When I start to exercise my rate goes up only very slowly. What use to take 15 sec now takes 5 min. While jogging on flat ground my rate is usually in the mid 120s. When I stop and rest the rate is very slow to come down.

There is a road in the mountains with a 10% average grade. Just before my Maze I walked for 30min up the road and recorded my heart rate. When I stopped the rate was 105. After a 1-min rest it had dropped to 86. That was a 19bpm recovery in one min and was fairly normal for me pre-maze. Two days ago I walked up that same road at the same pace as before. At the end of 30 min my rate was 115bpm. My heart was beating 10bpm faster than pre-maze to move my body at exactly the same pace on the same road. After a one-min rest the rate was 113. After two min the rate was 108. After three min the rate was 105. This slow recovery is now normal for me 3 MOs post maze. It does seem to be getting better.

At 3 months after the maze I feel great!!! It is so nice not to go into afib and worry about it. I can’t believe how good this feels! In another week I’ll reduce my Toprol from 50mg to 25mg and in a couple more weeks stop all drugs. Will my resting heart rate go up even more? How long will it be before my resting hate gets down into the 60s or even 70s? When will I get faster heart rate recovery?

If anyone is interested, I use a Polar monitor model 810 to record my heart rate and record the results to the computer. I also have a holter monitor. I would be glad to send samples of my own stuff if anyone is interested. I could also send my last ECG as a .JPG file if anyone would like to read it for me. Best of luck to everyone and again thanks for the continued support.

Tim

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