Posted on 03/24/2012 6:02:18 PM PDT by calex59
Better to find out from your surgeon how his patients are doing.
I had an extremely similiar procedure that was an ablation of my sinus node (the heart’s pacemaker). I was SO nervous but several hours after the surgery I was able to walk through the hospital and through the parking garage to go home (I didn’t drive!).
If your doctor feels you need it, I would definitely get it if he/she feels it will help you.
Good luck!
There is about a 24% chance that a second procedure will be needed on any given patient and about a 3.4% chance that a 3rd try will be needed. The more experienced the physician doing the ablation the better chance of success on the first try. Generally it takes 3 months to fully recover from the procedure.
These are the things I have found out so far. Maybe your dad should have went in for the second go round. Odds are it would have cured him.
Many interesting afib stories on this thread.
First afib episode, I thought I was dying. Cardioversion jolt, all OK. Second cardio, same story. Third episode, cardio didn’t help and the coumadin effects were awful.
My cardiologist said open heart was the only remedy. So they did single bypass, MAZE, and a Cosgrove loop on the mitral valve. Pitt Medical Center in Greenville NC. Recommend highly.
That was a year ago and I have been fine since after the first month and I am off that #@$#!! coumadin.
Good luck & G-d bless to all afib sufferers.
That’s NOT how my cardiologist explained it to me. . .and why I was so relieved to have converted chemically.
1 pill a day ever since: Sotatol AF . .
“That’s NOT how my cardiologist explained it to me.”
Then your cardiologist is a fool, liar, or extremely poor communicator.
I’ve been electrocardioconverted three times and all three times my wife was present and watched the EKG the whole time I was under the Propofol. No flat-lining, period. Just the reappearance of the blessed p-waves that signal proper beating of the atria.
In our local hospital, electrocardioconversion is now so common that they no longer necessarily have an attending anesthesiologist administer the Propofol,or even necessarily have an attending cardiologist present, though when I had the procedures done they had both an attending anesthesiologist and an attending cardiologist.
When I was having heart problems, I found a little humor to be helpful.
Obviously, others disagree.
I'm going off-topic here; have you had an honest discussion with your cardiologist about the true necessity of coumadin?
I was caregiver to my late dad, and his numbers kept getting out of whack requiring blood tests a couple of times a week - and he'd gotten entirely too feeble to haul back and forth to the lab ---- I explained the dilemma to his doc and he just switched him to one baby aspirin a day.
End of situation, period. The local pharmacist concurred that this whole lab/coumadin thing is almost a "make work" scam.
Like my friend, you were lucky to figure out what was causing the problem so that you were able to avoid surgery.
Yes I feel very fortunate. It was the allergy doctor that suggested that I watch for food chemicals. The cardiologist said “I don’t know what is causing it but here take this pill and this one and this one” LOL!
Yes, I know I need coumadin. I have had blood clots without it and I know aspirin doesn’t do the job. Thanks anyway.
Well I have found that when a person posts a serious topic on health they don’t want some smart a**ed response from someone who thinks they should be a stand up comic. I have a great sense of humor but I know when to apply it and when not to. Wanting serious answers to a serious question has everything to do with how I react to attempted humor.
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