Barry G. saga continued

Hi to all.
I received an email today from a nice guy who used to post on this BB 10 years or so ago and having much the same problem i.e. ablations not 100% successful we shared a few stories offline. Any way D...…..dropped the email today out of the blue so rather than reinvent the wheel I thought might as well post my email reply to him on this Forum. It may be useful for newbies on how important it is to understand this AFIB as best you can and not be 'fobbed off' by inexperience staff in the medical world.

Hi D...…..., I certainly remember you from our emails about 10 years back. A typical AFIB scenario you dropping a line today as our previous emails had quite a lot of discussion on cardioversion and today I went for a cardioversion for Atrial Flutter at my local hospital here in Hong Kong. I got back about 2 hours ago and it appears the procedure is still holding as just checked on my OMRON Heart Rate/blood pressure monitor and I got 126/ 70BP a nd 53BPM so exactly what I was getting before this new right atrial flutter started up, and never stopped once, over 2 months ago.

I got a new job offer the same week as the Flutter started after being out of work/retirement for 3 years typical of an afibber's luck. Because I am nearly 70 the hiring manager wanted to see me personally to ensure I was up to doing the job which meant walking around site all day and climb scaffolding / fire escapes on the new power station being constructed in my area of HK, still takes over an hour to get to work though i.e. out at 7 home at 7. As you will know the only person who knows you have AF or AFL etc is you so I passed the 'visual exam' with flying colours no doubt due the many years of physical training that belies that I am almost 70. Out on site I have to stop many times when climbing high scaffolding etc but then again even the none afibber's don't actually run up in 36C + high humidity.

Anyway down to the nuts and bolts of today. I went to the arranged appointment for cardioversion of Atrial Flutter with my wife who's main job was to take me home after the procedure if for any reason I was not well. To cut a long story short they rigged me up to the ECG machine which you will know is standard practice to get the low down on you ready for when to Big Doc turns up. Within minutes the nurses said you are in perfect NSR and we may have to cancel the procedure. Again only an afibber can understand the massive frustration of NSR appearing at the only time you would want it not to appear i.e. minutes before an ablation or cardioversion. I said please check again as I know I am in Atrial Flutter and the nurse quickly showed me the ECG readout, that could have been upside down for all I cared, and there it said Normal Sinus Rhythm. I would not let it go and explained that AFL on an ECG can easily be missed - learnt that from Afibbers.org. Along comes the guy who will do the cardio and says your ecg is very hard to understand possibly because you have had so many heavy duty ablations so we will try a drug first that should stop the AV Block??? and we will have a better picture of what is going on. As can be expected the drug did not work on me so I asked the doc if this was normal - the drug not working - and he said not really but I don't want to try again as the dose should have been plenty enough. Here I am again thinking why @#$%^&* me. I was not going to let it drop though and said I know I am in AFL, I have been living with this for years and have read everything possible on the subject and he admitted we sure have never met any local Chinese with your experience. "Shall we give it a go then but I must advise you of possible problems and you must sign this document???"I said just give me the docs to sign I know all the other stuff.🙂. They gave me the knock out drug and minutes?? later I woke up in perfect NSR of 50+ BPM?? - I could only see the 5 on the computer screen.

The cardio guy - not the top doc - said you must understand that the cardioversion may only be temporary and I said yes that's why I have booked an ablation in September.

So thats where I am now D...….. sending this email with BP 128/69 and 53BPM which would suggest my ticker is in perfect mechanical health but also understanding the ignition timing can be suspect when put under pressure🤔.

P.S. living less than a full life on drugs is not for me at the moment but no doubt that is somewhere down the line for me unless someone comes up with some better ideas than Flec, Solotol, Cordarone etc etc in the future.

P.S. A few photos. Kim 20 and Garry 15, Family at the local Plaza, Thuy (Twee)representing her brothers Cosmetic Company on Vietnam TV and a photo of me before being ravaged by the world of arrhythmia.

PPS to the forum, I would have included the photos but not sure how to do it.

Cheers,
Barry G.

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Barry G.

PPS to the forum, I would have included the photos but not sure how to do it.

Hi Barry, you could upload the images to a sharing site like postimages.org <[postimages.org]

Then click the "Insert Image URL" button - the second to the left of the "T" at the top of the editor screen and paste the image URL

This will surround the URL with img \img in brackets I've added spaces so the below will show up


[ img ] URL goes here - starting with http [/img ]

Cheers,
George

Many thanks George I will try tomorrow.

Barry G.

Yes, Medical Staff misread EKG/ECG's. In my experience, it's much worse, when dealing withe regular Doctors, or ER Staff, as opposed to regular Cardio Personnel in the Cardio section of the Hospital. The Hospitals, both in the ER room, and in the Cardio sections have expert Cardiologists on call, so as a patient, it would be warranted to ask for an expert opinion from am Cardiologist, preferable an EP, if you think your Nurse/Doctor is misreading your ECG. You should have the right to stop or delay a procedure untill you are satisfied the correct analysis is being made.

[postimg.cc]

Looks like it worked George.

Barry G.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2019 09:10PM by Barry G..

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Barry G.
[postimg.cc]

Looks like it worked George.

Barry G.

Wonderful, perfect! Great pics!