TELL ME ABOUT CARDIOVERSION

[Ugly Hombre]

Great thread very informative I have had paroxysmal afib for about 30 years hit me overseas,started out to just hitting me once a year, then six months etc. slowly got worse, now its about a month in between episodes up to twice a week- was on various medications last one was beta blocker worked fine for years and then suddenly it made it worse gave me a bad time very bad side effects etc.

If you are on a beta blocker be careful-

Was booked for ablation sugary they cancelled it the day before due to the Wuhan virus that was a year ago now.

Will see my cardiologist in about a month consider options again..

Thanks to all here for sharing-

 

[Rustyt1953]

For the frugal:

 

[ddixie884]

I had flutter got an ablation, no more problems. Happened a little over 2 yrs ago. I had an old heart doctor with a young associate.

 

[Jon651]

I'm in my element here, guys - so don't stop me now!

Here's one of the most common questions that always needs clarification: "Does a pacemaker cure atrial fibrillation?"

Answer - YES... ish.

But first - a word from our sponsor...

Atrial Fibrillation is essentially chaotic electrical activity inside the top two chambers of your heart. Instead of the electrical current running in a neat, orderly and military manner from your SA (sino-atrial) node to your AV (atrio-ventricular) node in your heart along the designated pathways which causes your atria to contract normally, that electricity instead scatters around the surface of your atria in a very disorganized, disheveled and un-military manner causing the atria not to beat but to "fibrillate" or quiver.

This is not good. This is also not easy to control.

There are meds to thin your blood - this prevents a clot from forming inside your quivering atria and causing a stroke, pulmonary embolism, or worse. Much worse...

There are meds to help control your heart rate - so your heart does not race ("over-rev") if you do go into a-fib.

There are meds to help "calm" your heart muscle to hopefully reduce the opportunity of you going into a-fib.

BUT, there are NO MEDS that repair the electrical pathways between your SA and AV nodes to cure a-fib. Sorry.

An ablation locates and burns away the point (or many points) in your heart where the a-fib or a-flutter starts from. This is difficult for a-fib because there may not be an identifiable point. Heck, there may even be thousands. Another ablation technique is to burn a patchwork or "quilt" pattern in your heart tissue in order to prevent this chaotic electricity from scattering and causing a-fib. Only your electrophysiologist can decide which would be best for you.

That brings us to the topic of pacemakers. The only way to truly "cure" a-fib (if you can call it a cure) is to completely eliminate the SA - and possibly even the AV - node in your heart by ablation and replace it with an electronic substitute - a pacemaker. In this manner they eliminate the cause, eliminate the natural but faulty pathways, and rely completely on the pacemaker to do the job of making your atria (and frequently your ventricles also) beat in an organized manner. Problem solved - mostly.

Pacemakers can pace just your atria, just your ventricles, or both. Your doctor will choose how much you will need it.

Oh, and an ICD (Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator) can be added to a pacemaker or used as a stand-alone device. They sense a potentially lethal heart rhythm and deliver a very small electrical shock directly to the heart muscle in order to 'reset' your heart rhythm - but not everybody gets those unless they have additional problems that are a bit more serious.

That's enough book-learning for one day!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Hang in there Phil-
I wish you all the best results in the History of History.

 

[Hair Trigger]

For the frugal:

That looks like an old ad from "Mechanics illustrated". I'm surprised it didn't say "Build Your Own Pacemaker" out of parts from a Model A Ford. It's funny that the area code of the phone number at the bottom is a North Carolina area code.

When I started work for Medtronic in 1987, the new pacemakers being implanted were about the size of 3 half-dollars stacked on each other. We were still explanting (removing in order to put a new one in) some of the first generation devices, they were the size of a mayonnaise jar lid including the thickness of the threaded rim. We called them "hockey pucks". These old devices still had discrete transistors and capacitors and diodes in the circuitry. Dual chamber pacemakers were still a very new item, those are the ones that can pace both the upper and lower chambers and truly mimic the heart's electrical system. Those are pretty much the norm now. Implantable defibrillators were still investigational devices, not yet FDA approved. I attended many of these early implants at centers like Duke University Hospital, Pitt County Hospital (Greenville, NC, where East Carolina University is) and NC Memorial Hospital, at UNC-Chapel Hill. I got to meet the inventor of the pacemaker, Mr. Earl Bakken, who founded Medtronic. It's truly amazing how these devices have progressed over the years as the technology has improved.

 

[Jon651]

That looks like an old ad from "Mechanics illustrated". I'm surprised it didn't say "Build Your Own Pacemaker" out of parts from a Model A Ford. It's funny that the area code of the phone number at the bottom is a North Carolina area code.

When I started work for Medtronic in 1987, the new pacemakers being implanted were about the size of 3 half-dollars stacked on each other. We were still explanting (removing in order to put a new one in) some of the first generation devices, they were the size of a mayonnaise jar lid including the thickness of the threaded rim. We called them "hockey pucks". These old devices still had discrete transistors and capacitors and diodes in the circuitry. Dual chamber pacemakers were still a very new item, those are the ones that can pace both the upper and lower chambers and truly mimic the heart's electrical system. Those are pretty much the norm now. Implantable defibrillators were still investigational devices, not yet FDA approved. I attended many of these early implants at centers like Duke University Hospital, Pitt County Hospital (Greenville, NC, where East Carolina University is) and NC Memorial Hospital, at UNC-Chapel Hill. I got to meet the inventor of the pacemaker, Mr. Earl Bakken, who founded Medtronic. It's truly amazing how these devices have progressed over the years as the technology has improved.

My pacemaker tech from Medtronic has a sly sense of humor. I spoke with him the last time I had to come into the office for a data dump and asked what was the state-of-the-art for the newest units, because I am coming up for a replacement.

He told me about the new models the size of a button that attach directly to the heart muscle without wires. I am not eligible for those as I already have wires. He also mentioned that all of the new units have Bluetooth to connect to your cellphone for easier downloading.

I asked him if I could also listen to music over Bluetooth?

He replied: "Only with the optional headset!"

 

[rkittine]

My Pacemaker is a Medtronic and although not Blue Tooth I have a units I hold over it, which is wirelessly connected to the unit that sends the data via cell signal to the cardiologist.

 

[crazyphil]

rkittine - My Metronic does the same thing. Push a button, hold the
gadget over my implanted devise, and all the data is send to the people
who read it. Simply amazing.

By the way, my cardioversion is scheduled for Friday. I am hoping it
works and I will feel better.

 

[joe44va]

I've had two cardioversions and a hybrid ablation. Don't remember any of it. They each worked for a while. Cutting back on the Martini's and Dofetilide seem to be keeping the AF at bay.

 

[rkittine]

Good luck with the ablation. My second one is holding up well. Actually have a stress EKG follow up for tomorrow.

Bob