A-fib with a dual chamber pacemaker?

I am a 31 year old female who has had an aortic valve replacement due to aortic stenosis and subsequent pacemaker placement due to my AV node accidentally being cut out.  I also have had three aneurysm repairs including my aortic arch and inominate arteries.  I have had my pacemaker for app. 10 years now and have been told that my battery life is anywhere from less than a month to 2 years but it cannot be replaced until I go into pacemaker syndrome or insurance won't pay for it.  After the history, here's my question.  I have also recently been diagnosed with A-Fib that was found due to increased mode switches.  I used to have about one-two a year and now have had 23 in 3 months and then 11 in two weeks.  My doctor says it has nothing to do with the battery life, is he right?  Is A-fib dangerous?  I also have complete heart block and a dual chamber pacemaker.  I also take a 100mg of Toprol XL daily, shouldn't that take care of A-fib problems? I'm having an echo done tomorrow to see if anything is structurally wrong in my heart but if not, what medications would you reccommend other than toprol to treat the A-fib and will my pacemaker always put me back into a normal rythm after A-fib occurs?  I know there's a lot of questions in that but I need a lot of answers, thankyou so much for your time.

[Jerry_NJ]

Sorry you didn't get any help to your April post.  I don't have a lot of help, but do have some experience with Afib and interest in what can be done with a pacemaker.

Afib is itself not life threatening, but it does dispose one to the formation of clots which can cause a stroke, with is itself real bad news.  Most people suffering Afib take a blood anticoagulant (warfarin or coumadin) to minimize the formation of clots.  There are downsides to warfarin (etc.) but some people tolerate it well, I do.  Toprol XL may convert Afib back to sinus, it does not work for me, nor does Propafenone or Rythmol, I'm on the latter right now.  I have had 4 electrocardioversion in my life, the last one on August 29, 2008.  This last one was the least effective and has already failed, I'm back in Afib.  There's more to "my" story that may be of interest to you, but I'll wait to see if you respond, are still reading this forum.

A neighbor of mine had a new design pacemaker installed a few days back and he's in a study group and gets a lot of follow up attention/monitoring.  I watch his experience with interest because he said one of the functions of his pacemaker is to defib, i.e., stop Afib.

Do you have any new information?

Best,
Jerry

To my question