Ablation Scheduled with Dr. Natale

My wife and I fly to San Francisco April 6 where I'm scheduled for an ablation by Dr. Natale April 9, at California Pacific Medical Center, much to my delight. Prior to the procedure, I will have an EKG, heart CAT scan, and consultations with Dr. Natale and his intake staff, and then the ablation if there are no contra-indications. This will be achieved in a one-week visit..

In preparation I have undergone an ultrasound exam of the heart and a blood workup here at our home medical center in Idaho. Though I am self-referred to Dr. Natale (with the help of friends), I have seen a cardiologist here, who subtly tried to discourage me from an ablation, suggesting drug management instead. He did review the potential adverse side effects of the current roster of anti-arrhythmics. But his attitude was "we can't expect to treat all A-fib with ablations".

And of course, he's right. Life style modification, dietary modifications, certain nutrients and supplements, along with anti-arrhythmics if necessary, can provide good management and quality of life without ablation for some of us.

But I've been through this before. Twelve years ago I previously was diagnosed with paroxysmal lone A-fib and was "cured" (until now) by an ablation. I was out of NSR then up to 70% of the time. Anti-arrhythmics did not help then, and I don't want to depend on them now. I also do not want to remain on Xarelto or any other anti-coagulant. I had a very successful ablation the first time around, by Dr. John Marcus Wharton at MUSC, which bought me 11 years of NSR. My lone A-fib returned last November, and currently I'm out of NSR 40 to 50% of the time, and I feel very unpleasant "pounding" of my heart much of the time that I'm in A-fib.

At age 73 I'm in good general health. I have no signs or symptoms of organic or structural heart disease and no diabetes or other significant health problems. I live in a mountain resort community where I like to hike, bike, kayak and ski regularly. And I want to continue that life style.

So, I offer my "heartfelt" thanks to those of you who helped direct me to Dr. Natale. I will update you after my San Francisco pilgrimage.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2015 02:51AM by jpearre.

jpearre,

Congratulations on your decision.

My ablation with Dr. Natale was on February 26th, 4.5 weeks ago, in Austin. My recovery is going very well.
In my opinion, you can be confident that you are to be treated by "the best of the best" in Dr. Natale.

Please "keep us in the loop" as you travel this road.
All the Best to You.

JohnB

Glad to hear it's all set jpearre!

And you are more then welcome on behalf of all of us here. You'll do just fine. It's not unusual for a caridiologist to subtly or not so subtly recommend against an ablation. Their whole specialty is built around drug management and as such they typically (with exceptions) are inevitably behind the curve when it comes to nuanced understanding of EP issues and as such they typically only get the more general watered down view of what ablations can do, especially in highly skilled hands, and thus resort mainly to the mean average of stories of ablation success and complications they have heard in the past mostly from their local regional area colleagues. Alas, your neck of the woods isn't renowned as a elite level Ablationist hotbed so it's not at all surprising to hear of him tryng to get you comfortable with accepting ongoing AFIB with the very likely slide now into persistent AFIB if nothing was done about it to alter that course.

There are exceptions of course, but when it comes to AFIB management insights, I've received the worst possible advice in the past from a hand full of very nice and well-meaning frontline Cardios during the early years of this slugfest and I've heard countless similar reports here and elsewhere over the years as well.

With your highly symptomatic and frequent AFIB now and what sounds like a marvelous mountain life style in Idaho and especially after your long run of success with the first ablation, you are a near ideal candidate for an expert follow up procedure ... Not to mention that you have just made the best possible choice you possibly could for the man to guide those catheters in round two.

You've got my number so please keep me posted before and after your procedure is over and let me know how you are doing.

Best wishes on your imminent return to blessed NSR.
Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2015 09:51AM by Shannon.

Thanks, John and Shannon. You have provided just the encouragement, and help, that I needed.

I'll be updating this very supportive community soon.

Jim

JPearre,

Even though others have already said it, I have to agree. The cardiologist who first treated me for Afib discouraged me from ablation and recommended meds. After of year of trying different meds and continuing to fail with the ever progressing afib burden, I moved forward with the ablation. That was a little over two months ago and other than a few early hiccups, I've been in NSR ever since.

Best wishes to you for your upcoming procedure. You are in very good hands.

Ken

Hello JPearre,

Your story sounds quite similar to my own. I too reside in the Idaho panhandle in a resort community. The various cardiologist I have seen in our local region were all over the board regardinng drug treatment vs ablation. One common denominator, they all know of Dr Natale. After being in and out of the hospital several times I finally decided to self refer to Dr. Natale. Boy am I glad I did! He and his staff gave me my life back. I had an ablation by Dr Natale in Austin last May. Nothing but NSR since. My recovery wasn't as smooth as others but in hindsight it was no big deal. At about 6 months I felt totally back to normal with full energy and capabilities.

A little humourous side note. As I mentioned, in the months immediately preceeding my ablation I was in and out of the hospital several times as a result of afib. My primary cardiologist put me on a 30 day monitor. It was during that period I decided I had had enough of this nonsense and self referred to Dr Natale. We sent him my recent medical records. After reviewing the records I was very fortunate in that Dr Natale was able to get me in with-in two weeks! As a result my primary cardiologist had no idea I had an ablation. He was one of the cardiologist who supported ablation over drugs. So when I went to see him for the results of my now useless holter monitor he entered the room with an obvious stressful look. He greeted me with the normal greeting and said we needed to discuss my results. He started to speak but I interupted him to tell him about the ablation. It looked as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. I think he replied, " you did"? He said that was the best thing I could have possibly done based on the horrible results on that monitor. He was so elated we forgot to discuss what he found. He was now more interested to learn of my expeiences with Dr Natale! It turned into quite a pleasent visit.

Best of luck to you!

Craig