@anjimlynch

@anjimlynch Flecainide is a very popular, and usually well-tolerated, anti-arrhythmic drug. Some people, when their episodes come and go, now and then, use what is called a PIP approach to Flecainide, or 'pill-in-pocket.' You keep a single tablet in your purse or wallet and only pop it down if you happen to have a run of SVT that lasts over 5 minutes. Many self-correct in just a few minutes, but if it persists, you get the tablet and wash it down. Takes about 40 minutes typically if your stomach has a recent meal in there. Many cardiologists suggest the PIP approach to their patients whose arrhythmia is transient.

Your cardiologist should, depending on how up-to-speed he/she is, offer to refer you to an electrophysiologist, or an EP for short. They are cardiac electricians, specialists, whose job is to assess your heart electrically and to then suggest a remedy for you, most often either drugs, a catheter ablation (more in just a minute), or a pacemaker. A lot depends on how symptomatic you are since occasional SVT and atrial fibrillation are not problematic. Only if the total 'burden' approaches 3% of all heartbeats in a 24 hour period. So, how you feel, and how you communicate its effects on you, will be as important to the EP and cardiologist as the disorder presents heart deterioration typically. Symptoms matter, especially if they make you miserable, and especially if they happen a lot.

Catheter ablation is day surgery where the EP enters your heart chambers with a thin hollow wire and causes scar tissue around places on the chamber walls where rogue electrical signals are causing chaos. This sounds drastic and terrible, but it's really very straightforward. The scar tissue creates a dam around those 'foci' by preventing the signals from spreading. It is the spreading electrical impulses that cause the atria to beat, but they're also still beating to the normal signal coming from the SA node, the 'sino-atrial' node with is the pacemaker for the heart. You can watch videos on YouTube about catheter ablation. I have had two. You're home that evening, and if it's done well, you can expect a normally beating heart for years afterward.