@gloaming
Hoping to get an ablation soon. Despite the fact that I’ve had at least 150 long afib episodes in the past 5 years, my second opinion EP says if he can find a safe path to my heart (rare venous anomaly) there is a 90% chance he can stop my vagal and PV afib in one ablation. Let’s hope there is a safe path and one and done plays out. I’m one of those very symptomatic people with a multitude of afib triggers.

The first EP told me 2-3 ablations and maybe that will do it, but it will keep coming back and you’ll need more ablations in a couple years. Who would sign up for that (especially since I have trouble with anesthesia)? And he had no plans to do any mapping despite me showing him an MRI report indicating I have a rare venous anomaly as an incidental finding. Definitely get a second opinion.

As for afib not being deadly, that always feels a little misleading to me. If afib can cause a stroke and a stroke can kill you then in my book afib can kill you. If someone fell off a cliff and died, you wouldn’t say the fall didn’t kill her, it was the landing that killed her. You get my point. If a=b and b=c then a=c. Maybe it’s more accurate to say you likely won’t die from managed afib but you very likely could die as a result of unmanaged afib.

In any case, I do think we’re lucky to have solutions. I do agree on treating it. When I had that last TIA with aphasia (could only speak and text gibberish and was alone at night) that was pretty scary and when it started I assumed it was a major stroke starting and this was either curtains or disability. Luckily it stopped in a few minutes but it had some lingering effects. It did light a fire under me to deal with the afib though so something good csme out if it! Best of luck to all! ❤️