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Re: Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Closure in AF Falls Short Again in CLOSURE-AF - Yesterday

...or, as Julius Caesar said, 'Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.' 'People believe what they wish to.'

Re: PFA Ablation by Dr. Natale in December - 3 days ago

I hope I don't come across as snarky or dismissive...I'm just thinking as a dispassionate (but experienced and read-in) fellow patient who is doing just fine after a hasty second ablation (first one failed from the get-go). If it helps you to get through the day being anxious and fearful, go ahead and continue to do that. It might pass the time until the ablation comes due. If you d

Re: Study challenges advice to avoid coffee for those with atrial fibrillation - 6 days ago

I have (controlled) AF and routinely enjoy tea each morning plus a coffee mid-afternoon....and not a small one of either. Yuuge. No problems. And yes, I do sense the effects of the caffeine and theobromine. I can feel a stronger pulse in my lower neck without palpating the area. My heart reacts! However, we keep saying to each other that we're all different. There's a member �

Re: Questions - 6 days ago

There are two types of AF: valvular and non-valvular. It's progression is in stages: paroxysmal (comes and goes on its own)l persistent, long-standing persistent, and finally permanent, with each being intuitively easy to understand. AF is AF. AF begets AF. You don't want to be in AF if you don't really have to. Not for long. The problem is that it IS a progressive electri

Re: Post ablation - 7 days ago

The definition of 'successful' ablation is, like most such parameters, somewhat arbitrary. We here know that the majority of ablations are time-limited. For some it's less than the blanking period. For others it might be a decade free of arrhythmia. I don't know what the rationale was for the length of time of the blanking period, and I do know there's talk of reducing

Re: Resource for finding doctor? - 9 days ago

My EP came up to my operating table, arms held up in the 'I'm sterile' position, and began to ask me questions. So, I knew he was present and ready to begin.' "What is your name?' 'Why are you here today?' "Who will be performing the procedure? When I answered, 'Dr. Paul Novak,' he replied 'Perfect!" and then began ca

Re: Healthcare in Europe - 9 days ago

There are so many people in EU who have arrhythmia problems (not just in N. America) that the national health agencies/providers must cover at least some of the available alternatives for DOAC. I would call a local health clinic and ask to speak to someone who can help to point you to your several options of insurers, even private ones if they exist. Then look at their prospectus.

Re: Has the time come? - 9 days ago

I am in the 'AF is a progressive disorder and it's best to get strict control of it while you can...................meaning as early as you can,' camp. You have done all the right things, but you suspect that the wheel nuts have come loose and the wheels are starting to wobble on those botts. It's time for a look-see and at least to tighten those lug nuts again. Analogy as

Re: covid vax? - 12 days ago

The rationale is that the virus is changing constantly, and not in a great way. Each vaccine is modified to account for the most recent strain, although it's about three to six months after the latest determination. Additionally, the science so far says that the vaccine loses its efficacy after about three months or a bit more, so getting a booster every six months, which is the policy in B

Re: Watchman Leak: Low Dose Eliquis or Baby Aspirin? - 12 days ago

I would go by your 'adjusted' CHA2DS2-VASc score. Do that calculation, being scrupulous about entering veridical data, and then adjust the score by one full point if your Watchman is suspected by leaking.................upward. That score should give you a decent approximation of your whole-body risk of a stroke. If it's under 2.0, go with what Natale says is right for you. If

Re: covid vax? - 12 days ago

This is worrisome to me. They pulled Vioxx off the market 21 years ago, a wonder drug that gave my secretary her body back. The problem was that it caused some heart problems in a few patients. Okay, it might have stood more testing or a more modest usage, at least at first, to see how people were doing on it. We do that for amiodarone. We don't seem to want to do it for the COVID vaccine

Re: covid vax? - 13 days ago

I just got booster #9 and for the first time in my entire life I got chills and the shakes from a vaccine later that evening. Mind you, I got the annual flu shot at the same time, something I have been doing since my days in the Canadian Army. Which one set me off...I wonder. Anyway, the latest information I have is that it's dangerous...or it's nothing of the sort. Take yer pick. I d

Re: Resource for finding doctor? - 14 days ago

Libby, I am in Canada and so know of none at Mayo for cardiac arrhythmia pathology. However, my father was referred to Mayo for Coccidia infection by my wealthy relatives living in Milwaukee. He got top-drawer treatment and was cured within 12 months of the formal diagnosis. Mayo is arguably the best hospital facility on the planet, so you should anticipate excellent diagnostics and subsequent c

Re: SHOILD I GET A REDO ABLATION - 15 days ago

It sounds like you may be dealing with an adrenergic response. I had the same thing, sort of. I didn't know I was severely apneic, but found out after my cardiologist sent me for an over night polysomnography that showed I had been severely apneic for some unknown length of time, and that my heart was tired of trying to keep me alive 30 times each hour...all night long...for months. Once I

Re: Resource for finding doctor? - 15 days ago

I would also ask you to at least consider one or two at the Mayo facilities.

Re: SVT episode?!? First thing since Natale ablation 7 years ago - 21 days ago

Re: SVT episode?!? First thing since Natale ablation 7 years ago - 22 days ago

There are credible sources admitting to increased cases pericarditis and in some people, mostly young men, who were vaccinated just a week earlier, give or take. There is also the 'long COVID' phenomenon that is well documented, and some of that would be in unvaccinated AND vaccinated people who contract the disease.

Re: SVT episode?!? First thing since Natale ablation 7 years ago - 22 days ago

It's always going to be possible that your system reacted to the vaccines, but it could just as easily have been the thinking around them (subconscious ruminating, doubting, agonizing.....some kind of dissonance), or something you ate (or failed to eat when you should have but didn't know to do it, like magnesium or potassium, or....). How has your sleep been going in the past month?

Re: Irregular heartbeat three months after ablation - 30 days ago

By stopping it before the Holter monitor assessment. If the AF returns, it must have been the propafenone and not a successful ablation...which I believe the intent of the Holter to be.

Re: Irregular heartbeat three months after ablation - 4 weeks ago

That is very strange to me. Imagine feeling ill with a fever and some aches, you take a 200mg ASA (aspirin), but go to your family doctor for help, he takes your temperature and asks you how you feel, and you say I feel pretty good actually. No pain or aches, and my fever is gone. Oh, great, well....I guess see you in a few months for your annual? You return to your home and within six hours

Re: Dr. Natale - TCA - St. David's - Austin - 4 weeks ago

I went from an episode every year or so to an episode every few days prior to my first ablation. Obviously there was progression of a sort. To me, an episode once a month means you're mature and advanced in the paroxysmal stage, but not necessarily half or most of the way through it.....for you, maybe not for me. We're all different that way. It gives me confidence knowing that Dr. Na

Re: South Florida - 5 weeks ago

QuoteIDDOTEN So thats the short of it ? If it's not Dr Natale we simply dont know if the doctor has the training and experience to compete I would spell that 'complete'....with the 'l'. Across the specialty, the success rate is about 75% for first, or 'index', ablations. There is variance, especially amongst individual cases and their caregivers/specialis

Re: South Florida - 5 weeks ago

Having had two RF ablations, I would not be averse to having a third (my second one worked....so far...32 months). So, while I can understand your preference for PFA, and I would rather now as well, I wouldn't pass up an opportunity for at least one RF ablation in the right hands...which is really what you're attempting to do. I can't help to point you to a really good EP, sorry, b

Re: Check Your Iron Levels! - 5 weeks ago

So said Jim Morrison. I suspect he may have been onto something. ><

Re: New Member and Really Hoping............... - 6 weeks ago

I go slack-jawed as soon as I fall asleep. My lips lose all tone, and my jaw will often, not always, sag open. As a diagnosed 'severe obstructive sleep apnea' sleeper, I have had to use a CPAP machine since being diagnosed with AF in 2017. The first night of use, I was awakened many times by air issuing from my mouth. My lips even fluttered a bit. I called the RT next morning with WFT

Re: Irregular heartbeat three months after ablation - 6 weeks ago

to Carey's post. PACs are common, regrettably, after an ablation for AF. So is flutter. We can be reasonably assured it's not flutter at play here because a heart in flutter tends to stay in flutter...it' doesn't go in 'runs' as you are experiencing. I had many PACs after my index ablation in Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital under Dr. Paul Novak. A second abl

Re: New Member and Really Hoping............... - 6 weeks ago

Thank-you. George.

Re: New Member and Really Hoping............... - 6 weeks ago

George, what is your source for taurine, pls?

Re: New Member and Really Hoping............... - 6 weeks ago

The sweating is a stress response akin to the 'fight-or-flight' response. When in distress, whether real or perceived, the person will secrete both cortisol and adrenalin (epinephrine) as part of the body's sympathetic nervous response. Among other things, adrenaline causes the person to sweat in anticipation, or in response to, rising and/or extreme levels of exertion.

Re: Flutter for 5 months now back in NSR - 7 weeks ago

You're thinking of taking an anti-arrhythmic as a prophylaxis against future bouts of arrhythmia. It's not a bad idea per se, but most of us find it isn't a sure thing, not by any means. It might work well for 95% of the time, or we think it's working, and then BOOM...back into an arrhythmia for a while. And it seems to defy the whole point of an anti-arrhythmic drug. It was