Almost 3 months post ablation

I'm 58 and I had a PVI ablation performed in Vancouver Canada on Feb 11, 2016. It was the best thing I ever had done. I've been in continuous NSR since.

I developed AF about 12 years ago and had it progress from perhaps once every few months to once every day or two. Dr. Matthew Bennett did the ablation and I have absolutely no regrets. I have experienced zero heart/chest pain and only a minor about of pain at the catheter insertions sites for a day or 2 (I didn't bother with any pain killers). I'm still on Xarelto (3 months before and I believe 3 - 6 months post) and have already come off the Flecainide (my heart rate may have come up about 10 points after coming off the Flecainide). Hopefully I will also be off Metoprolol soon as well.

The evening of the procedure we had people over for dinner (I admit, I laid on the couch and ate off a tray in my lap), but 2 nights later I attended a formal fund raiser that a friend had organized (I was home by 23:00). A week later I was back at the gym and am now regularly out on my bike going up fairly substantial hills (if you know the area - the hill up to the University of BC).

I don't know if I was lucky, or whether ablations are becoming this 'standard'. Regardless, I'm very pleased that I finally decide to have one.

Thanks

Rick

Glad to hear you are having great results! Hearing the good stories helps to give me an idea on how things should have gone for me.

I had an ablation done My Dr. Natale in 2003 and with the exception of an isolated episode 9 months ago, have been AF free (with no drugs) for almost 13 years. The procedure itself is, in the hands of someone like Natale, easy. The procedure was done early AM, I left the hospital that afternoon and flew back to Denver 48 hours later.

Gary

Great to hear Rick and Gary! And this kind if report is more the norm when choosing a highly experienced ablationist.

And sometimes even with a moderately experienced but well trained EP doing a more straight forward paroxysmal ablation the out come can
Be outstanding as well.

You simply stack the odds in your favor by going for the most experience operator and center supporting staff that you can arrange for your self from the outset. Expect two procedures with the second one being a true touch up with minimal added ablation burden on the heart for long term success, assuming you do partner with a highly experienced ablationist up front, and then just be pleased as punch if you turn out to be one and done. The simpler your case of AFIB, the greater the likelihood of being one and done.

This reality also reinforces our strong recommendation to first adopt all appropriate life style risk factor reduction methods your unique body and heart might benefit from, along with robust adoption of The Strategy electrolyte/nutritional repletion protocol and improved diet and balance exercise routine for a minimum of 6 months to one year maximum in order to determine if you might be one who can achieve durable freedom
from AFIB via these self directed and largely natural means alone

If, your AFIB is increasing rapidly in frequency and/or symptomatic intensity then make that 6 months or less with the various protocols before adding in and expert ablation process. And if after up to a full year of robust adherence to the various protocols appropriate to your body and situation, you are still having any even mild to modest number of repeat breakthroughs, then do not delay any further past one year with the protocols alone, but add in partnering with a top level ablation expert without any further procrastination to your on-going life-long committement to these smart self-health protocols and good habits in order to get on top of this largely progressive condition prior to any further structural and electrical remodeling has a chance to set in and make the whole process even more of a challenge for you.

That's the basic blue print we ha e found over the last 17 years to work the best for the greatest numbers of folks and it very handily will
help each person who embraces this protocol to discover just how much help they can achieve from RFM and natural electrolyte restoration while also self directing each Afibber when it us in their best interest to include a catheter ablation along with all the RFM efforts without eating too much time in procrastination once it becomes clear that RFM alone is not going to get the job done to a satisfactory level.

Best wishes
Shannon

Hi Rick

This is good news for me (see my lonely thread/post titled "Dr. Matthew Bennett")
VGH would like to schedule me for an ablation with Dr. Bennett and I've heard nothing but good things about him.
I had a consult with him three years ago. We decided to run things along at that time as my afib was occurring about every two months or so and generally converting to NSR in three hours with propafenol PIP.
Now the afib is showing up every two weeks or so and the propafenol won't touch it. I use metoprolol for rate control and convert to NSR in about 3 days.
I think it's time to get my life back like you did, or at least give it a try.

I've also considered Bordeaux but don't like thought of the long airplane ride home if things go awry. I had an ablation seven years ago and didn't do well on the postop AAR drugs. It was a short but difficult car ride home, can't imagine being stuck in an airplane for 8 or 10 hours in that condition.

Glen