Posted by Ken Willis on August 29, 2002 at 00:34:07:
In Reply to: New Involuntary Member of AF Club posted by Mike Ware on August 15, 2002 at 07:35:06:
Mike,
This is kind of a late response, but I thought that I'd add something that may or may not help you. I found that the antiarrhythmics that I have taken (sotalol and Rythmol- diltiazem didn't work and flecainide was terrible for me) didn't prevent me from getting afibs, but they did allow me to convert to NSR with exercise. Usually I'd have to endure a few hours of afib before I could convert. The best time for me to convert to normal rhythm was an hour or two after taking my pill. The ability to convert myself at least gave me a little control over the afib monster. Sometimes it would take two minutes of exercise, sometimes twenty or thirty. On very rare occasions I couldn't convert and had to wait until they converted on their own or for my next pill and another chance to convert with exercise. Without antiarrhythmic medicine, I can't convert to normal rhythm with exercise.Like you I'm 57 and have led a healthy lifestyle my entire life, and also like you afibs were preventing me from doing the things that I loved doing. I was ready to do anything to get rid of them. I had an ablation which made my afibs much worse (I went from 3-4 episodes a month with medication to 3-4 episodes a week on medication); I had a dual-site atrial pacemaker which didn't have any effect, good or bad, on my afibs. Then I had the maze by Dr. McCarthy on May 23rd of this year. I'm back doing those things that I love and hope to be able to say before too long that I'm cured of afibs. I can't tell you what's best for you, but I would have been much better off by getting maze surgery right off the bat.
One thing I have learned is that you need to educate yourself and be your own advocate. I suffered with this problem far longer than I should have because I didn't speak up about what a problem it was for me. Good luck on getting this problem solved. You've taken a big step toward educating yourself by soliciting the experience and expertise of people on this board. Hearing from Carl and the others helped me make the very good decision to go for the maze. I hope that it gives you insight so you can make a decision that will help you, too.
Ken