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Thanks so much for your response. Of course I was writing in the depths of despair. 14 months without SVT/Avrnt would have been wonderful had I not been clawing my way back to health from postcardiac injury syndrome. But I got there and had 3 wonderful weeks off all meds. My electrophysiologist specializes in ablations and does the surgery 3-4 days a week every week in Madison-UW Health. But with what I went through with the cardiac tamponade and the year long quest to get better, I’m not sure if I want to roll the dice on another ablation. I’m hoping that I don’t get a fib often. I’m not sure if I need to actually be on Eliquis or metoprolol as I only had the one episode-now 12 hours past and fully in the front of my mind . I will wait to hear back from my doctor to see what her thoughts are hopefully tomorrow. I do appreciate all of your words of wisdom. Thank you very much. May I ask where you have your ablations done and with who? I’m still working, so I am bound by insurance and who they will allow me to see.
Replies to "Thanks so much for your response. Of course I was writing in the depths of despair...."
@red350
I feel for you as I've experienced a lot of complications and unexpected adverse effects from procedures and meds. 5 years into afib and I still can't commit to ablation because of other conditions I have that make me more high risk than average for collateral damage. But I would like to mention the eliquis. Because I don't typically do well with meds and have missing enzymes to metabolize most meds properly, I was hesitant to take eliquis. I had several retinal TIAs that caused me to lose all or part of my vision for a couple minutes, all happening right at the end of a long afib episodes which is when clots tend to be thrown. My retinal specialist was freaking out that I wasn't on eliquis. Finally, I had a cognitive TIA (mini-stroke) right after a 30 hour afib episode where I couldn't speak or type any real words for few minutes. Very scary and I thought that was finally the big stroke as it was happening. Another clot thrown. It did do some lasting damage in my communication center, but just annoying stuff. It got my attention though and I finally went on eliquis after that. That was 7 months ago and I have not noticed any change is bleeding after blood tests, minor cuts or finger pricks. No extra bruising. I have had many more afib episodes since I started eliquis, but no more TIAs. Will I ever get the ablations (they told me 2-3 for me)? I don't know, but I intend to stay on eliquis and will encourage others to do the same. Best of luck to you in all of this. You've been through a lot. I pray that was a one-off afib episode and you're on your way to stress-free healthy living.
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@red350 It's a grind, unfortunately, but I urge you to keep your nose to the stone. It will keep turning. 😀
You should be on Eliquis/apixaban or another DOAC like Rivaroxaban as long as you have a formal diagnosis for AF, and unless you have a full year free of AF after some kind of treatment or if you have had a Watchman device implanted in your left atrial appendage (LAA), or a mini-MAZE procedure or the like. IOW, even with meds to control rate and arrhythmia, you can still fibrillate, say when you're asleep, and that is when the greatest danger commences, minutes after onset. But what many don't understand is that long after a few hours of AF, and it has stopped, your risk of a clot dislodging from the LAA is about 5 times what it would be for a normally 'flushed' LAA when the heart is behaving. Bottom line, you want to be on a DOAC unless you have gone months free of AF, treated or it just went away. Ask your EP or cardiologist about why the risk continues for some time after the last bit of AF.
I am in Canada and had two ablations by the same gentleman in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. The two best EPs I know of in the USA (there ARE many excellent ones, but I have no knowledge of them...) are Dr. Andrea Natale at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute in Austin (travels widely and has privileges at many hospitals....he's a crackerjack!), and Dr. Pasquale Santangeli at Cleveland Clinic. I believe, not certain, that both were students of Dr. Pierre Jais in Bordeaux, France....the Great Guru. Natale for sure studied under him.