LAF After Surgery for Ovarian Cancer

My wife who is 78 years old had surgery for advanced ovarian cancer 3 weeks ago. She was about ready to start chemotherapy last week but went into AFIB last Wednesday presumably for the first time. She was taken to a hospital CCU. They restored her rhythm within a few hours with medications but she has lapsed back into AFIB for brief periods twice since then.

She developed severe edema from the waist down after the operation. Perhaps as a result of the edema, her food intake is almost zero and she required 2 pts. of blood to get her blood count up. They are bringing the edema down slowly with a diuretic. An echocardiogram found no damage or any other problems in the heart. An echogram of the edema area detected no blood clots. She is taking Heparin and/or Warfarin. She is taking Synthroid for a slightly under active thyroid. Her other blood tests and other blood tests are normal.

The cardiologist told us that about 10% of elderly patients have AFIB after major surgery.We have a dilemma because the chemotherapy should be started as soon as possible for the cancer but recurrence of AFIB makes this difficult.

What are the chances that the AFIB will stop quickly? Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any other ideas about stopping the AFIB recurrence? Any other treatments?
This is all new to me so your help will be much appreciated. Joe

My first afib episode occurred one month after hysterectomy for uterine cancer. I'm 51. I do not know all the biophysiology of this, but hormonal changes due to "surgical menopause" can be a trigger for afib, even in a woman your wife's age, whose ovaries might have still been producing some estrogen.

One thing that might help is for her to use natural progesterone cream. There is convincing evidence that it is a lack of progesterone that leads to gynecological problems in women, not so much estrogen. Supplementing with estrogen or having a condition called "estrogen dominance" can cause more problems, including cancer.

A helpful book on this whole subject is by John R. Lee, M.D., called "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause."

For myself I am still trying to figure out all the triggers and causes of my afib, but what I suspect is a combination of adrenal burnout, hormonal imbalances and improper diet, i.e., too many years of eating sugar and dairy products and free glutamates. I think they all tie in with each other.

K