My follow up visit to Austin

I am a frequent reader on this forum but not very frequent poster. Not sure some of you may recall that i had a touch up ablation with Dr Natale last August and finally had my follow up appointment on May 30 with TEE. TEE was done because my CS was ablated and LAA was ablated and delayed ( as i understand not completely electrically isolated). I did not see Dr Natale right away but spoke to cardiologist who performed the TEE on me and he said that my LAA flow was on a "slowish" side (report says 34cm/sec) and we spoke about different ways to approach the issue including Watchman. Then i went to the office. Dr. Natale was not there yet because he was performing the procedure on somebody. I spoke to his nurse and she could not determine from the actual report that if needed to continue Eliquis but she also said that flow was a bit slow. Dr Natale came after a while and looked at the report, then as he left somewhere ( i guess to see the actual images) and cameback saying "Nah he is OK just baby aspirin" I was surprised and asked him if he was sure he nodded his head and said "yes". "Just baby aspirin because i see it contracting" I guess he was referring to LAA. But I am being a little hesitant about stooping Eliquis. Do not get me wrong i trust Natale he is a very smart doctor. But what are the chances him being mistaken since the flow is not that great. I remember people on this forum were talking about natural ways to thin your blood. This is what i wanted to report about my progress. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Dennis



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2019 12:41PM by dartisskis.

That's great news. Headed to Austin myself in July for a touch-up.

Dennis, I had a score of 34 after my only TEE. He told me to come back and re-check in 6 months, that was 3 years ago. I am on schedule for the 2nd TEE this summer. Better late than never.

I might consider a half dose of Eliquis if you can get a local cardiologist to prescribe it. You will probably need to touch base with him once a year though to renew.

One question though....Why would you go to Natale at Austin and then not follow his advice ?


Best of luck, Ron

Thanks Roketrich, I do have a mixed feelings about it. Being a little chicken at stopping Elquis.And from the other hand I am happy to be drugs free.

I hope your touch up procedure is going to be the last one you need

Ron. I probably will follow his advice. It is just inner me a bit worried that what if he was in a harry and mistaken. Although he seemed sure that i should be OK. It has been almost a year since my procedure

Ii'm in same boat. Had 4 ablations . 2 local. 2 Natale. 1st natale Feb 2018. 2nd April 2018. Natale worked both left and right atria. Ablated LAA and worked extensively in CS. He told my wife after 2nd that he couldn't be as aggressive as he would have liked in CS area and AF may return he thinks probably in flutter. Had TEE performed at St Davids Dec 2018. Cardiologist said insufficient flow and that I would need to stay on Eliquis. However, meet Natale later on and he said he needed to check the report and would get back to me. was having dailey PACs. Actually, had a bunch of PACs on the EKG while Natale was there. Was told PACs were benign but could annoying (to say the least). went back to New Orleans and didn't hear anything so called Dr Natale's office. Received email Jan 2019 saying that Dr Natale reviewed TEE and I could switch to aspirin, which is great news. In January I thought it a good idea to ween myself off of Eliquis by splitting 6mg and thereby splitting the cost for a couple of months and then switch to aspirin. However, in February episodes of ectopics significantly increased to an intolerable level, so went to dailey low dose atenolol and flec. For the most part the Rx has been working. Meanwhile... my neighbor had a stroke, along with a friend. So, do I trust Dr Natale's advise...unquestionably! However, I'm 64 yrs old; pretty good shape; been on blood thinners for the last 15 years and have had no ill affects from taking them. At this point I still feel that my heart is abit "unsettled", and decided to stay on the Eliquis 6mg BID. I believe it comes down to what is your price for peace of mind. I intend to take Eliquis for the rest of this year and hope my heart settles down. Plan on doing another TEE early 2020, and will take it from there. Hope this helps. Joe

Had second local ablation Feb 2017; 1st Natale ablation Nov 2017. Sorry!

I will definitely follow Dr. Natale´s instructions and believe 100% in his diagnostic, it is impossible that he might misinterpreted the TEE images. I have done 3 TEE´s after my ablation and currently only under baby aspirin.
Cheers!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2019 03:17PM by fravi.