Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group

Hey everyone,

I have had a few now for 3 1/2 years and it has been slowly but progressively getting worse. I had some dental work done in the end of December and every since then my heart is been going crazy. I get the hard thumping PACs out of the blue, dayand night, they do seem to be worse after I eat and first thing in the morning.

I use the pill in pocket strategy to convert my episodes but I haven't had one long enough to convert since December 1. My heart keeps flipping in and out of afib and I am having these short episodes probably twice a week. The rest of the time I'm getting strong palpitations that feel just about as bad.

My electrophysiologist says the next step is to go on a daily dose of antiarrhythmic drugs but when I take them I feel so awful it feels like I'm going to die and I can't imagine taking them every single day. My EP won't do ablation until you have failed on at least two antiarrhythmic drugs. As well they don't do a lot of them so the success rate say "are in the range of 40-60%. He also warned me about serious side effects such as esophageal fistula, stroke and death.
As a result of this if I decide to go I think I will go to bordello for the procedure. The last time I read nobody had ever developed an esophageal fistula or died in the center.

I would very much like to hear of other people around my age who opted for ablation just to compare how serious their situation was and what kind of results they had with it. I realize one of the limiting factors here is the fact that those who get better tend to disappear off these boards after a time so you tend not to get a host of long term experiences.

Still I would love to hear from whoever takes the time to answer.

Monty
Posted on 02/14/13, 12:41 am