Robotic Ablation

I am a 56 year old healthy female - other than the fact that I am a vagal paroxysmal afibber... and am considering getting a robotic catheter ablation.

My episodes have increased this year, so far 6 episodes usually starting in the middle of the night 3am or early in the morning 6am. I always convert to NSR in about 2-4 hours - with one episode being 10 hours. I had 3 episodes in 2019 and 3 in 2018 so they are increasing. The only meds I take is Diltiazem during an episode which seems to help. I have a low heart rate (bradycardia) at night in the 30s so EP didn't want to put me on beta blockers. I take many supplements based on the list recommended on this site and really don't want to take meds...

That is a long way to get to the point that I am considering an ablation. My insurance won't cover Dr Natlae. I recently moved to Boise, ID and am looking into getting a robotic ablation done by Dr Margot Vloka. She has done over 1000 of them.

Has anyone had a successful robotic ablation done or anyone familiar with this doctor? Any insights or suggestions are appreciated!

Ingrid - since you're not in a rush consider getting an insurance plan that does cover Dr. Natale and has him in network. Exactly what I did. And knowing that the ablation was likely, I picked a plan which capped my maximum costs for the year.

Worked out fine.

HR in the 30s? Wow. When I was vagal and para - I used an O2 ring that has HR and alerts hi/lo with vibration. After catching a vagal middle of the night event, I was able to put off a few of them by jogging in place/ doing squats before I went persistent in Oct.

After 2 ECVs that gave no lasting relief (2 and 9 days) I scheduled the ablation. So far so good. (with a few hiccups)

Lastly, if you're really considering a robot ablation I would watch this very informative commercial about robot insurance.

[youtu.be]

It's just a question of time before those robots come for your diltiazem. And they will.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2020 08:07PM by NotLyingAboutMyAfib.