Going to try and make this brief as i can-I am 72 year old who has a very long history with heart arrhythmias. I started with an episode of paroxysmal atrial tach at age 14
had several more of those going forward. I had my first episode of afib at age 21-had subsequent events at 27, 32 and age39. From that point, i did not have another episode until age 55 but they became more regular until age 66. It was at that point that i decided to have an ablation. During the procedure, the EP discovered that in additions to having to do the pulmonary vein ablation, he also discovered that i had AVNRT which was also ablated.
In addition to the afib, I also have a long history of skipped beats-some PVC's but mostly PAC's. After the ablation , the skipped beats became extremely bothersome. I was on flecainide and toprol which didn't seem to do much to stop them. After about 10 months of this I was pretty frustrated about what was happening and, as a result, they took me off Toprol and replaced it with Ditiazem which really did the trick! I was really doing well for close to 4 years- no need to take anything additional. Then, about 2 and a half years ago the SkIps returned. Subsequently I also had 2 episodes of afib which were, for the most part, relatively short and converted with an additional dose of the flecainide. I have not had another episode for a year and a half. However the skipped beats have returned with a vengeance. I was on a 3 week monitor back in feb. of this year which showed almost all PAC<s with no afib. I also just completed a 2 week monitoring with the ZIo Patch. I should get those results at my appointment this week with my EP.
By the way, I had a stress echo done in Jan of 2017 which did not show any issues other than elevated pulmonary pressure from the undiagnosed sleep apnea. That has since been resolved through dedicated use of CPAP. I also had a echo done in August of this year which also was ok- no significant issues.
I guess the question, after all of this, would be what OPTIONS are there for me to go after these bothersome skipped beats-would it be different meds or could an ablation be the answer? It's getting to the point where I am fearful of going to bed at night for fear of having a break through or something worse.
THANKS VERY MUCH FOR THOUGHTS OR INSIGHTS.
