One Year Anniversary 2/27

Feb 27 was my one year anniversary for my ablation surgery with Dr. Hongo in San Francisco. I have been afib free this entire year and am ever so grateful. I only wish I had done the ablation sooner as my life was miserable when I would have an attack, which was getting to be every two weeks before my surgery. My arms and legs would become weak, and I could not walk nor stand. I would faint if I tried to stand. My attacks usually lasted from 6 hours to 12 hours, but it would take several days before I was strong enough to resume normal activities, even when taking d-ribose and all the other heart supplements suggested on this board. I also had bad side effects from the meds, especially the beta blockers. I love to garden, but when I was on a beta blocker, my strength and energy were drained, and I'd easily get out of breath on my daily 45 minute walks. What a relief to be free of those meds!! My one minor complaint is that my HR since my ablation is around 84bpm even when I'm resting in bed, and I can't get used to this. My HR used to be 65pbm before surgery. But this is insignificant compared to the blessing of being afib free!!

I want to thank everyone on this board for helping me become informed about afib, what supplements to take, how best to get through an afib attack, what surgeon to use, how to prepare for and recover from surgery, and so much more. The love and support I received was a true blessing, and I am so grateful. I especially want to thank Jackie for all her long hours of posting replies to my questions and emails. Her profound knowledge of so many areas of health has been extremely helpful, and I can never thank her enough.

Many blessings to all,
Nancy M

Great to hear Nancy!

And with the 84bpm post ablation HR it will reduce further as well, just give in more time and in some cases it can take up to two years to drop down to a true new baseline normal. Mine was 109 of NSR about 4 weeks out from the ablation though I went on sotalol for a few months and that kept it down at my pacemaker setting limit of 65 until I dropped the Sotalol at 5 months post ablation and I was then around 96bpm ... but I had a full kitchen sink persistent AF ablation. Now when I wake its around 62 bpm give or take a beat or two and often pegged at my pacemaker limit setting of 60, but it took me a full two years to reduce to that new baseline. I took a low dose 2.5mg Bystolic just for mild rate control during that early period after dropping Sotalol, to keep it nice and comfortable and it was fine. I dont know if you could tolerate that but Bystolic is much more cardio-specific than most general beta blockers like Toprol whose BB action effects the whole body much more. Anyway, you could ask Dr Hongo for a brief trial and even see 2.5mg is still a bit to noticable for you , then try breaking the small 2.5mg dose in half too. That might be something you could tolerate for now while keeping your resting HR a good deal lower and more comfortable while the last phases of your pacing recovery continues.

Also, if even Bystolic in such a low dose still give you too many BB-like symptoms, have you ever tried a low dose calcium channel blocker for a temporary period to see how you do with it? If not, you could see if that doesn't knock your resting rate down by 12 to 15bpm more while the underlying pacing cell recovery slowly improves.

In any event, it almost certainly will continue to creep back down toward your prior more normal range. Some still have around 5 to 10 beats higher than their pre-ablation normal longer term, but that is pretty rare.

The vast majority return within 2 to 5 beats of where they started if not spot on back where they were before ablation.

Best wishes for many more NSR years and with a gradually slower resting HR,
Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2015 02:08PM by Shannon.

Congrats, Nancy. Here's wishing you many more years of NSR!

Nancy – I am so pleased to read your report. Thanks for your kind words; I am always happy to try to help.

My most sincere wishes for continued good progress and special blessings to you,

Jackie

Shannon,

It is such good news to hear that my HR will eventually return to near-normal. For now, I think I will just try to endure the current HR rather than taking any more meds, but I have made a note of the Bystolic you recommended and will keep that on hand. The only med I am on now is 15mg of Armour Thyroid every other day; however, I am on so many supplements that it consumes my whole day just trying to keep up with when to take what. My nutritionist is still trying to find something that will help my chronic insomnia as well as the constant burning from my weak LES. At this point, I am even considering LINX (titanium band) surgery for my weak LES, and have emailed the company to find a doctor somewhere in California that performs this operation. I have a gene mutation that is most likely the cause of this weak LES, so I'm not optimistic that much else can be done. I don't want to go on PPIs, and I have tried changing my diet for 6 months and that didn't help. I've had chiropractic adjustments on it four times and laser treatments as well, with no improvement.

Thanks much for your good news about my HR.

Blessings,
Nancy M

Nancy:

I'm new here to the forum so I don't know your back story but I just want to let you know I'm happy to here of your success story. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be free of heart drugs after they were making your life so miserable!

Your comment on chronic insomnia struck me because I have fought insomnia on and off for the past decade. I reached out to a natropathic doctor and he tried a couple different tinctures and suggested various supplements. The only thing that worked was a very low dose of melatonin (1mg). I take it nightly to this day.

But here's the crazy thing...I was trying all kinds of supplements and tinctures to sleep better and nothing worked. One night I stopped all supplements and tinctures except the melatonin and within a couple days I was sleeping better than ever. I suspect all the other supplements and tinctures I was taking to sleep better were actually making things worse, but I have no idea. The point is, you might want to try not taking any supplements for a week or so and just see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I would also recommend this book as it helped me immensely with my insomnia:
www.amazon.com/Say-Good-Night-Insomnia-Drug-Free/dp/0805089586/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425266738&sr=1-2

Travis

Great to hear that you are doing well. Best wishes for continued NSR.

Congratulations! It feels good to be in NSR. The PVC's can be a nuisance but I was told my linq transmission showed they were benign.

Travis,

Thanks for your help regarding my insomnia. I have been working with a nutrtionist/chiropractor for a couple years now and have tried just about everything out there including prescription meds. I also stopped all my meds and supplements for two weeks a while ago, and that did not work either. I am currently taking 1 mg of sublingual Superior Source melatonin at bedtime and 1/2 tsp phosphatidyl serine powder (Designs for Health) before dinner and at bedtime. I am very EMF sensitive, so I've had to drastically alter my lifestyle to accommodate that. I now sit 6 feet from my computer and monitor, I cannot use my magnetic induction cooktop, we cannot have WiFi in the house, I sleep with a grounding sheet, I cannot use my Nook, and the list goes on. I have three major gene mutatiions that are affecting my sleep: my glutamate does not convert to GABA, my serotonin does not convert to melatonin, and my supplemental progesterone was building to a toxic level because it wasn't being methylated properly. I also have high cortisol levels at night, which is why I am on PS. All these factors cause brain inflammation, so I guess I'm just not an easy fix. If I find something that works, I'll be sure to post it on this website as I know there are others suffering from insomnia too.

Many blessings to you,
Nancy M

Congratulation Nancy. Wish you continued NSR forever.

Duke