2 week follow up with Dr. Hongo after ablation

I had a phone conference for a 2 week follow up with Dr. Hongo after my ablation surgery, and was happy to find out that all of my Lifewatch monitoring has reported only NSR. I have felt no afib at all, but have noted some skipped beats and a few flurries of rapid beats lasting about 10 seconds every now and then. I listen to my heart with a stethoscope before getting out of bed every morning, and my HR has been between 75 and 87 for these 2 weeks.

He said he was surprised to find that I had three trigger areas for my afib, and he was able to isolate all of them and could not induce afib, flutter, or tachycardia in these areas by the end of surgery. The one area of tachycardia he could not get was under the phrenic nerve, and he said he had to use adrenaline to induce a HR of 140-150 before it acted up, so he doubts that I will have much of a problem there. If it does act up, he would use medication for it as he said it is a serious surgery to fix it. He would have to go into the chest from the outside, put a balloon under the phrenic nerve to lift it up, ablate the area, and put it all back. Doesn't found like fun!!

I discussed my two episodes of TIA/stroke-like symptoms with Dr. Hongo and referenced a Mayo Clinic study that Shannon had discussed in an earlier posting here. The study found that new onset migraines occured in 22 out of 2,069 patients due to puncturing the atrial septum during ablation surgery for afib. Dr. Hongo felt that I was one of these rare cases and that I had new onset migraines, not a TIA. He said the hole in the septum he makes is extremely small and will close in 2-3 months, and my symptoms should end by then also. Very good news! He spent a good deal of time stressing how important not missing a single dose of Xarelto is. He said a stroke is possible, especially during the first three months after ablation, if the blood thinner is stopped, so this something everyone should be aware of.

I then told him that I just found out I have an infected front tooth that has a root canal. He said many dentists want the patient to stop Xarelto for 3 days prior to working on a root canal, but that I could not do this. My nutritionist said he could kill the infection using three treatments of cold lasers, so for now, I am opting for this rather than a possible problem with bleeding during a root canal removal and replacement. I just read some research on using lasers to kill periodontial infections that worked better than traditional treatments, so this sounds good.

Another issue I've had is a sore/stiff neck since the surgery. Dr. Hongo said that because the patient has to lie on his back without moving for many hours, 5 hours in my case, and then lie on his back for another 6 hours without moving to seal the groin incision from the catheters, that a stiff neck or sore back is quite common. My sore neck has resulted in some TMJ as well. The TMJ has caused my teeth retainers to be tight and not fit right, so my chiropractor used a cold laser treatment on my neck. This helped somewhat, but I will need more treatments. He thinks my neck is causing some of my headaches as well. When I asked Dr. Hongo about a chiropractor manipulating my neck, he said absolutely not. It could break a blood vessel and cause bleeding due to the xarelto. Yet another thing I didn't know that others should be aware of as well.

A final issue that I forgot to discuss with Dr. Hongo is that I still have a sore spot on my back between my should blades since the surgery. I would guess that this is common considering all the burning that was done on the atrium. Has anyone else had this?

Nancy M

So glad the ablations turned out well for you, Smackman, and Tim. Hopefully Smackman can pin down the source of his jitteryness, and Nancy hope that your sore neck and dental issues can resolve sooner than later.

Nancy:

I would never have a chiropractor work on my neck, I have heard of people having had a stroke after having that done.

Liz

Very good news, Nancy. I was also very achy for a couple of weeks after the procedure.

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Lone paroxysmal vagal atrial fibrillation. Age 62, female, no risk factors. Autonomic instability since severe Paxil withdrawal in 2004, including extreme sensitivity to neuro-active drugs, supplements, foods. Monthly tachycardia started 1/11, happened only at night, during sleep, or when waking, bouts of 5-15 hours. Changed to afib about a year ago, same pattern. Frequency increased over last 6 months, apparently with sensitivity to more triggers. Ablation 6/27/13 by Steven Hao.

Thanks, Iatrogenia, for that info about your own achiness. I had a cold laser treatment of my neck and back muscles last Monday and seemed better, but by Wednesday my neck, back, and TMJ pain were back again. I will probably need a couple more treatments, and I've got to learn to take more breaks from the computer and sit up straight, not letting my neck fall forward when my eyes get tired. I've been doing lots of research on glutamate toxicity as that is my newest problem, possibly causing my insomnia and digestion issues. I ran a report on MTHFRSupport.com of my 23andMe raw data from my gene testing and found out that I have 5 homozygous GAD1 SNPs, causing my glutamate to build up to toxic levels rather than being converted into GABA as it should. The question is, how does one fix the problem? My nutritionist wonders if there is an enzyme that can divert the glutamate to the ornithine pathway, but hasn't found an answer yet.

Nancy M

Eventually, I found osteopathic manipulation therapy to help the most with my achiness.

Ginger has helped my digestion.

Good luck.

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Lone paroxysmal vagal atrial fibrillation. Age 62, female, no risk factors. Autonomic instability since severe Paxil withdrawal in 2004, including extreme sensitivity to neuro-active drugs, supplements, foods. Monthly tachycardia started 1/11, happened only at night, during sleep, or when waking, bouts of 5-15 hours. Changed to afib about a year ago, same pattern. Frequency increased over last 6 months, apparently with sensitivity to more triggers. Ablation 6/27/13 by Steven Hao.

Thanks, Iatrogenia, for your help. Unfortunatley, I am presently sensitive to ginger and cannot use it. Many afibbers have mentioned how much it has helped them. I hope to get the ginger cleared by my nutritionist soon, but probably won't be able to use it daily as the sensitivity will just come back.

I have gone to my chiropractor for the achiness, and this has helped. Right now, I have neck pain from being at the computer too many hours, trying to research my insomnia and digestion problems, most likely due to my gene defects, in particular my glutamate toxicity.

Blessings to you,
Nancy