1 Month since MAZE at Mayo

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Posted by Ron Kidder on August 21, 2002 at 16:13:39:

Hello,
This is my first posting as a MAZE alumnus. My procedure was done by Dr. Dearani and his gifted team in the Cardiovascular Surgery Dept. at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. After 10 years of enduring A-fib events and meds to keep me slowed down, my wife found info on the MAZE procedure on the internet. We found this website provided a unique perspective for a candidate like myself. Through it I met "Bud" Viren, who generously shared his experiences with me over e-mail and phone. It was particularly valuable to me to find a fellow engineer who had the same surgeon I was considering for the same operation.

I had my surgery at age 57 on July 23, after an angiogram on the 22nd. On the 29th and 30th I endured a long, 2-day ride home, even though it can be driven normally 4-5 hours, as I found that I couldn't ride in the back seat for too long with out being exhausted.

Things went well until August 5th, when I went into A-flutter (130-150 bpm). I never needed cardioconversion for any of my A-fib events previously, but the flutter would not convert to SR, despite attempts at our local ER. I got shipped back to Mayo, where I was converted on Aug. 7, two weeks ago, and have been in SR since. After an extra day or two at St. Mary's to work out my meds, I made a much easier 1-day trip home in the same back seat again.

I'm doing fine now, knock on wood, and have noticed a huge change in my recovery in the last 3 days. I think I underestimate how useless I'd be for the firsrt weeks back home. Now I'm even looking forward to getting back to work. It hasn't been the break from work I thought it would be. But I'm very glad to have had the procedure, and look forward to eventually getting off all meds completely.

I offer a special thank you for this site, for all of you have contributed to it. I hope I can assist others, as you have helped me.

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