Posted by Carl Plaskett on November 25, 2003 at 18:07:42:
In Reply to: Re: Should I just go for it? posted by Carley Mill on November 25, 2003 at 16:57:58:
Carley: If you actually have CHRONIC afib, it is probably not likely that drug therapy is going to help you for long. If your doctor has not yet put you through the drug regimen, he is to be commended for not doing so, given the side effects you might expect with dosages enough to help you short-term with chronic afib. I wonder why he has waited until now to try drug therapy, if that is what is happening in your case. I HOPE you have had some drug therapy and failed it, as many surgeons might be reluctant to try the Maze as a first effort, although if it is chronic for 2 years, they might recognize the likely futility of trying drugs.
I tried the alternatives, including diet, relaxation, meditation, trying to avoid as many "triggers", and after 8+ years, opted for the Maze. I had to go to the Cleveland Clinic. You are fortunate enough to have Dr. Barnes in Boise, who has successfully
"Mazed" a few posters here. Of course, if you have insurance which would allow you to go to the CC, I would opt for that, since they will evaluate you for whether the Maze or a PVA would be best for your condition.
My FORMER cardiologist, whom I left in January of '99, but still run into socially, STILL thinks the Maze is "experimental"; but of course he doesn't read the literature or go to meetings which might lead him to change his mind. When I asked about the Maze in '97, he said only a dozen or so had been done (many 1000s had been done by then and probably a 1000 or more had been done in the US by then. In 2001, after I was cured six months, I asked him at a social gathering how many he thought had been done, and he said: "Oh, probably about 100 or less." (My surgeon had probably done over 300 by then, with NO deaths among LAF patients).My point is, the Maze is not radical if afib or the anti-arrhythmic drugs are materially affecting your quality of life. "Living with it" under those conditions is easy to say, for someone who hasn't done it, but darned hard to put up with if your lifestyle has gone downhill.
Had I been familiar with the internet and Jack Drum had started this site a few years earlier, I would have gone for the Maze sooner. A day doesn't go by that I don't marvel at how far I have come from my reclusive, depressed, tired/wheezing pre-maze condition. I am now still at work after 6PM, having started at 7AM. I am approaching age 63, and feel 50. Unless you are elderly, infirm, have other significant medical problems, or don't mind having chronic afib, I would urge you to ask for a consult with Dr. Barnes or at the CC. Perhaps one of Dr. Barnes' Maze patients might tell you who their referring physicians were, so you could go to a more progressive doctor for a second opinion.