Posted by Ken Willis on July 05, 2004 at 00:08:58:
In Reply to: AFIB episode - 4 years after Maze posted by Shearin Johnson on July 03, 2004 at 21:59:28:
I hope Paul gets squared away soon and resumes life in NSR and free of drugs. I had a maze at CCF a little over 2 years ago, and after being free of afibs and aflutter for many months, I started getting bouts of both. They seemed to be triggered by a variety of things, but I think that I get them without specific triggers as well. These arrhythmic events are much milder and shorter than they were pre-maze, and I'm not restricted in my exercise regimen or in the outdoor activities I love. Nevertheless, they shouldn't be happening and have gotten much more frequent, so several months ago I scheduled a touch-up ablation by Dr. Schweikert at CCF for the end of this month.
I hope that Paul can be off of drugs since they seem to fail eventually in most people and can cause problems. Rythmol worked well for a while, but now it causes rather than prevents afib in me. I'm successful at converting episodes of arrhythmia back to normal rhythm with mild to moderate exercise, changing positions and/or Valsalvas. Maybe something like that would work for Paul. I take some atenolol, which keeps my heart from being quite as twitchy as it might normally be and slows the rate when I do get into an event. PACs almost always get my arrhythmia started. Sometimes they just don't have the voltage to start self-sustaining afib or aflutter and sometimes they do.
I'll be hoping that Paul can get back to life in NSR without drugs.
- Good luck with the touch up Mike Ware 22:23:55 7/05/2004 (0)