QuoteCarey Cryo works great for about 65% of the patients who receive it, which is on par with RF ablation performed by average EPs. Hongo felt that lines were more susceptable to breakthroughs than points over the long term.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Amazing you can pay out of pocket, and still get them cheaper in Canada (which is common for many medications, by the way....even if your insurance did cover it). I know you probably feel guilty about it, right?by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotemwcf t if 1/8 of the amount your pre-ablation meds (where Flecainide is concerned at an average daily dose of 200mg then 1/8 of that puts you at a frankly sub-therapeutic dose of 25mg/day) calms everything down and your AF hasn’t reoccurred then I’d consider that pretty encouraging and positive overall. I'd consider it a positive event even if what worked was cheesecake.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotenewyorker I feel like I am failure and get down on myself every night that I reach for the drugs. Please tell me I am not a failure. You're not a failure So why is it a big deal to take a tiny amount of something that quiets down your heart? Many heal for at least a year, if not more. Everyone is different.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quoteafdude I went to several seminars and studied ablation online and was convinced cryoablation was right for me – the uniform contact around the pulmonary vein made more sense to me than 50-100 individual burns which seemed more likely to result in reconnection. Expect to hear a few skeptics on that oneby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
"Propofol sedation is different. Today, when surgeons say an operation can be done under “sedation,” they assume the patient will be asleep under propofol. The same is true for the gastroenterologist who needs to perform an uncomfortable endoscopy. Understandably, they want their patients asleep and still. Few patients want to be awake. On goes the propofol drip, and everyone is happy — mostby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey I can't speak for why Bordeaux does what they do, but I would point out that not using GA is cheaper since no anesthesiologist is required. I had one (i.e, an anesthesiologist....not a GA) for my cardio. Also, for every TEE.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotesmackman . He was taking 20 mg of Xarelto a day. Can I split this Xarelto in half? I saw some studies that found that a decreased dose was ineffective in preventing clots. Don't know if there are studies regarding mixing NOAC's.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey I'm quite sure the risks aren't equalized by the risks involved with GA or GA wouldn't be used for elective procedures like colonoscopy, and yet it is. Extensively. Not for anyone I know, including myself. QuoteCarey Pericardial irritation isn't a pericardial effusion. Right, but inflammation probably triggers a degree of effusion ?? QuoteCarey Thatby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotemwcf Serious question. Is PE a very rare occurrence in the top US centres as opposed to elsewhere in the world? From "Ten things to expect after AF ablation", John Mandrola: "A majority of patients have chest pain for a few days after the procedure. The severity of the pain varies a lot. Most often, it hurts to take a deep breath or cough. Some patients say their chesby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteBrian_og I agree with your answer, Carey, but the EP saying he wants a GA because the patient must stay perfectly still doesn't tell the truth. There are good reasons to go for a GA, as you wrote, but not that one, IMO. Of course it's the truth. Although ablations can be done with conscious sedation that doesn't change the fact that a conscious patient presents an incby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey Carey clearly was referring to me. After my Bordeaux ablation I had a degree of Effusion (very common after an ablation) which was clearing up nicely three days later. Glad to hear it cleared up for you but no, it's not very common. Pericardial effusion is a rare complication. If it's common for an EP to see it in his patients, I wouldn't go near that EP. Nothingby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
I'm sure you'll get a lot of the same response. 10 days is far too soon...give yourself some time to heal.. (Maybe your anxiety is not your friend....meditate or something vs looking at numbers)by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotewolfpack The standard in the US is pretty much general anesthesia (GA). Maybe the Cleveland Clinic still does sedation. You really don’t want to able to move with red hot catheters in your heart. Nothing good can come of that. "Seconds later, after a dose of the powerful anesthetic drug propofol, his ... lose pain perception, awareness, memory, and the ability to move" Amazingby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey Conscious sedation for an ablation makes no sense to me whatsoever. I would never even consider it. The safety reasons alone are enough to rule it out. How many have you done?by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Consumption connection? Except in certain rare metabolic disturbances that raise blood calcium, calcification of joints and tendons is a local process that's not influenced by calcium intake. Consumption connection? Many consumer Web sites and even some physicians suggest that people who have had kidney stones should lower their calcium intake to prevent a recurrence. They are incorrect.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotebeardman I have noticed a fair amount of muscle cramps lately, but I attributed that to my increase in biking at the gym. I swapped out running because of my back/leg issues for biking. "Without enough calcium you may experience muscle cramps."by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
"Calcium is especially important for athletes because they are more likely to lose calcium, as well as other minerals, through perspiration."by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteJoe I think Lindy is talking about cox-maze IV? Dr Wolf did say that it's only done once and if there is afib (or flutter?) afterwards an ablation is the way to resolve it. It was also mentioned that success rates do vary and depends on the skill of the doctor - as with ablation. Wouldn't have worked for me, because there were other areas outside the pulminary veins that neededby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteLindy At the AFib Patient conference many people said they have had to have several ablations. I want to get rid of AFib once and for all—no going back for more ablations and still having to take blood thinners. With Dr. Wolf’s mini-maze procedure, which is minimally invasive, the AFib is gone. Nothing is 100%. Noted in the reference is that success depended on how you measured iby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey What's your point? There is no established cause-effect relationship between afib and heart attack. !!!!!!!!!by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotewolfpack If you buy two lottery tickets, your “risk” of winning just doubled. Go ahead and start spending the money. Then again, you're not laughing about all the marketing hype about how wonderful Eliquis is, right? In the study I linked above in a population of 24,000 there were a total of 648 heart attacks over a seven year period. All were free of heart disease at the begiby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteLindy Thank you for your response. I attended an AFib Patient conference in Dallas, TX last month. There were several doctors that were the best in their field of medicine—AFib. After 3 days of listening to these doctors, I spoke with Dr. Randall Wolf, who invented the Wolf Mini-Maze procedure, which eliminates the need for blood thinners. Hopefully, I will be a good candidate for this proby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Aspirin is also used when you have medical devices, due to anti-platelet properties. It hasn't shown effectiveness, however, for afib. Have you considered options like ablation for treating your afib? (Check with Jackie on supplements).by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteLindy Why would anyone want to have radioactive material injected into your body? I’m newly diagnosed with AFib and my cardiologist schedule a Lexiscan nuclear stress test for me, even though I’m perfectly able to walk on a treadmill. I think that's injected into your body either way, since they take pictures of your heart before and after the stress load. I was instructed to bring faby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteGeorgeN I think it would be perhaps more accurate to say that warfarin provides a potential benefit that aspirin and DOACs do not. Not that aspirin or DOACs cause more heart attacks. Yes, the study is a comparison with warfarin. The title is confusing.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Carey, I never said there were no measures of "heart failure." That's what an echo is about, and you can certainly see declines even on rhythm control meds when in persistent afib. I did, which is why I opted for an ablation.by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey Sigh... relative risks. If your risk of something is .01% and you do something to double that risk, what's your risk now? It's .02%, of course, which is still utterly trivial. Relative risks are not good science. They're mostly a good way of taking boring results and making them sound dramatic, so I'm ignoring this study until I can see the actual data. What do yby jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
Got to love NutricianReview's comment on warfarin. I make regular visits for periodontal cleaning while on warfarin without gum bleeding. "warfarin has many serious side effects such as severe bleeding or bleeding from the gums, intense headaches, stomach and joint pain, and vomiting blood."by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteElizabeth If they prescribe a drug they should be aware of any interactions and tell you. I do my research because doctors unfortunately don't. Liz "A total of 396 drugs are known to interact with Eliquis"by jpeters - AFIBBERS FORUM