A. Fib/A. Flutter

I know of two people, one male (retired EMT) and the other female (grandma who had a very trying life and who makes me feel like a schmuck she's so darned tough) who have have 11 ablations between them. They're alive 'n kickin'. I invite you to hop over to afibbers.org when you have a bit of time and look for posts by Carey and SusanD.

A sobering fact for you: still, today, even with the new PFA (pulsed field ablation), the failure rate for index ablations, meaning first attempts, runs about 25%. Some, the very best electrophysiologists, have success rates upwards of 85% for index ablations, but your average EP succeeds about 75% of the time. I was in that unfortunate 25% and needed a redo about seven months after the first, same EP. I am now 37 months free of the horrible symptoms and from the arrhythmia itself.

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I have had 4 ablations, and the last one fully awake bc the EP would have a hard time getting my heart to act up, since it was not happening all the time, and he was thinking the anesthesia was hindering the process. I started by having the first one so I could go off medication but then began flutter, then another and SVT started. And then the fourth. Guess what? Still on medication…