Question

Hello everyone,

I had a first and only successful ablation done by Dr. Natale in La Jolla in 2014 for Afib with Shannon's help. Recently in past week or so, I started to feel more episodes of heart palpitation or some kind of arrythmia, almost 50% of the time, not quite Afib I don't think, and not sure what to call them, but they make me feel like short of breath, yawning, uncomfortable at the chest while sitting, lying down or at rest mostly. If I'm up like walking, jogging or being active, I don't feel them.
I do have a pacemaker in 2013 hoping to solve the Afib problem, but it didn't, hence the ablation with Dr. Natale in 2014. I kept thinking that the pacemaker was a useless procedure and now it's stuck in me. Is it possible that my pacemaker is running out of battery and therefore causing these arrythmia episodes or am I simply due for a second ablation?
I don't mind going straight to a second ablation with Dr. Natale if that's what it takes because I hate guessing and trying different stuffs like medications or other procedures with any other doctors and end up looking for Dr. Natale anyway. I'm in Orange county, California and I hope Dr. Natale is still doing ablation in La Jolla or California? Sorry, I haven't been on this site in a while, so I'm not up to date as to where he operates.

I appreciate any advice, suggestions, guidance or experience from all of you.
Thank you.

Duke

You need to see a local cardiologist and get a basic workup first, and have that pacemaker interrogated to determine its status. You can't go rushing off looking for another ablation without even knowing what these palpitations you're feeling are and what's causing the chest discomfort.

Hi Duke,

Do you have regular device checks? I’d think that you would as it is standard protocol and the interrogation will tell you exactly how much battery left. If you got it in 2013 you will likely need to have it replaced soon, so good to check.

Hello,

Thank you for some of your replies. I always thought and think that I was suckered into having the pacemaker implanted, for it didn't solve my Afib at all and now it's stuck in me which prevented me from doing many sports that I loved. I will go and have it check for battery level and even if it's due for replacement, I'm not sure I want to do it. What the heck for? I know for sure they are going to paint a gray picture if I don't get it replaced. Sometimes I think our health system is designed for doctors to rush or scare us into having some kind of procedures or operations without truly knowing what's best or right for us. Some of them don't know what they're doing. It's about money. I sound angry because I am. Before I knew about Dr. Natale, I tried this and that after pacemaker implanted along with medications and going back and forth to this local cardiologist who did my pacemaker procedure and I didn't feel a single ounce better. And then I saw Dr. Natale ONE time which is the ablation day, woke up in perfect sinus rhythm. For 9 years now. He did the procedure very quick I was told, practically in and out and then I went home, never saw him again after that. In layman's terms, I was told he basically induced the episode while I was asleep, saw which veins have the charges jumping erratically, he then burnt a circle around those veins to stop these bad guy charges from jumping over the other side. It's like creating a barrier or gap to prevent these monstrous charges from jumping over. And that's the whole concept. Why don't all of these local cardiologists in your or my neck of the woods understand that? Or do they just want to do multiple procedures to milk the system and we are all suckers.
I'm no doctor and I have way less knowledge and experience than many of you, but Dr. Natale's concept (from what I understood) make sense. Stop the charges from jumping over, kind of like playing good defense blocking shots from shooters in a basketball game.
After Dr. Natale's procedure, I can eat and drink anything and everything without any culprit concerns. Alcohol, coffee, MSG, hot and spicy, etc. no problem. But if those bad guy charges somehow break that barrier that Dr. Natale created, they're gonna come relentlessly.
Anyway, that's just my thoughts. Thanks for letting me vent. I wish everyone of you well because this condition is so difficult to comprehend.

There was a time when it was believed that afib could be treated with a pacemaker by programming it to detect afib and try to pace you out of it. That approach was used for a few years but eventually discarded as not a successful strategy. It could be that was the thinking behind your PM. So see a cardiologist, get a workup, and find out if you need that PM at all. If not, it can be removed.