paroxysmal afib

[kevinw1969]

I suffer from paroxysmal afib i'm male 50 years of age non smoker light drinker and in good shape for my age(so i am told) had first attack three years ago,was told that it was svt,saw an EP he said the best thing for me was ablation,went for the ablation but sadly they were unable to trigger the problem,put me on verapamil 120 mg slow release.two years later came off the verapamil(my decision) things seemed ok but four months later had another attack but lasted only one hour and was not too severe. went back on verapamil.four months later had very bad attack lasting around twelve hours before nsr,during this attack my rate would fluctuate between 120 bpm and 270 bpm,took an injection of verapamil and slowly things calmed down,ecg showed afib and not svt,EP changed meds to flecainide 100 mg twice a day, was not too happy on this drug so dose was changed to 50 mg twice a day. Three months later had the worst attack so far back to a+e they put me on moniters for a while waiting to see if things calmed down without meds,they did although the attack was hard to cope with,was dicharged but on the way out of the hospital it all kicked off again so back in to a+e and on the moniters this time was far worse,they gave an injection of flecainide and put me on a flcainide drip then gave me morphene my rate was getting up to 300 bpm and this was verry hard to cope with,eventually things calmed down and was sent to IT for observation,they changed my meds to propafanone 175 mg three times a day.So here i am now five days after this latest attack wondering when my next one will happen and wondering what my next step should be. any ideas will be greatly wecome.

[kevinw1969]

Hi cindy
Had a pvi ablation for afib on march 4th,Not a nice experiance,woke up during the procedure and felt the burning. feel fairly rough now but things should improve over the next few days...hope it stops the afib...

[kevinw1969]

Hi Ken
Had a pvi ablation for afib on march 4th,Not a nice experiance,woke up during the procedure and felt the burning. feel fairly rough now but things should improve over the next few days...hope it stops the afib...

[kevinw1969]

Hi Ken
Sorry i am late responding,Just got news that i will going for an ablation on march 4,spoke to my EP and he feels it's the best path for me (50 years of age,paroxysmal afib) so fingers crossed for success.  Looking forward to the day i can finish with flecainide.and warfarin,and going for a few pints with the lads without fear of an attack.

[Ken65]

I recommend you read about surgical approaches to curing afib.  my research suggested the success rate (>90%) was better than the multiple catheter ablation procedures needed to get to 80%.  I chose a TTM/Five box which you can read about at www.ohioafib.com, and it cured my afib.  I had tried sotalol but it did not help and most research and articles say that medicines eventually fail as the body adapts to them.

Ken

[cindy707]

I live across the pond so can't help you there however i do know someone who can...the two docs that developed the ablation is a Dr. Natale based out of Texas and a Dr. Mel Schienmann based out of Northern California.  I have been told by alot of people that both docs are considered the top dog ablators in the world that if you contact them via e mail or telephone that they will give you a referral no matter what country you live in. The are the original docs....basically the inventors of the procedure for atrial fib and have trained top docs all over the world in the procedure so that may help.  You want to be in the 70% or above range for success is the earmark however if this EP is telling you that atrial fib is the most difficult to treat you need to look elsewhere because that is a huge red flag in that statement for their abilities,  With atrial fib in most cases you need a good doc and most times if they are good its a single procedure.  Every once in a while you will read where people had to go in numerous times but i was a one stop did it all situ even with all of the complications.  I will swear to my grave its not the issues you are having but the abilities of the ablater....you will know before the procedure what the odds are...use the earmark and ask if they have done 1500 or more then you'll know they have plenty of experience no matter what pops up....its like any profession believe it or not...you get good barbers...bad barbers....you get good car mechanics...you get bad ones.....at 60% and them telling you its difficult i would say you are getting the later...try e mailing or calling one of the two docs and get a referral...keep us posted.....

[kevinw1969]

Hi Cindy,thanks for your comment on my post. I have since had another attack EP took me off propafanone and back on flecainide 100 mg twice a day,he has now told me that i now need an ablation for the afib,but afib i am told is the most difficult of all ablations to fix,he quoted a 60% success rate and may have to go back for a second or third time. How to i find out how good or not my EP is,i live in the uk...does anybody know of any top EP'S in the uk.....got to get this sorted..as Cindy say's IT'S NO WAY TO LIVE.

[cindy707]

Boy o boy you are almost telling my own story.  I went thru something similar about 5 years ago and went into atrial fib with a pulse rate over 300 a couple of times...not fun i know.  I ended up getting a second opinion....did ALOT of research in my area and came up with the name of the best doc i could that did ablations.  I made sure there were specific requirements for him to meet...one was that he had to have done more than 1500 ablations or he was out...he met that one.....he had to have less then 5% of instances where he had to back out of the ablation because he couldnt generate the bad spots...he met that one.........he had to have had zero instances where he accidently hit the sinus node.....he met that one....he had to be not only an ablater but he had to be a heart surgeon, an ablator and a diagnostic cardiac doc...he met those.  I went in...i chose well....i had all kinds of issues that none of us expected....he didn';t give up and i got my life back on a golden platter.  Nobody likes a quitter as they say and it is my feeling that if they can;'t generate the bad areas and back out i don;t want that doc....hopefully your doc was smart enough to take you off of any beta blockers you were on three days prior to the procedure or that would be the reason why it was a fail.  I would fight for myself if i were you and get a second opinion from someone who isn't so quick to throw in the towel as we say because i know from experience its no way to live......