afib concerns and and actions to take

suggestions

I’m having a catheter ablation done and wondered if I should continue taking my beta blocker Sotolol just before and during the surgery. I know I’ve been told to take my blood thinner well before and throughout the surgery as well as after to prevent clots. Any thoughts about the beta blocker?

If you have been living on the edge in terms of sleep, good personal hygiene, looking after your gums and teeth with inspections and repairs every year, not gotten COVID, not seriously overweight, don't have sleep apnea, are not an angry person, and you get exercise two or three times each week at a minimum, there's not much else except strictly limit alcohol (some can drink once a day, some never, and in between), limit caffeine, be careful of antihistamines and other cold medicines, and try not to fret over the AF...you can live with it for the rest of your life with some thoughtful management and monitoring by a competent cardiologist.

It's a progressive electrical disorder; it will almost certainly evolve to persistent AF, long-standing persistent AF, and finally to permanent AF if you don't control it. In turn, you invite mitral valve prolapse, atrial wall thickening and deposition of collagen (meaning the walls get stiff and lose their ability to pump well by changing shape), and eventual cardiac insufficiency, or what is still regrettably called 'heart failure'. Controlled well, you can literally live to 120 and beyond barring other natural impediments to that lofty goal.

Whatever you do, I would strongly urge you to consult a good cardiologist, and if your AF persists and comes on despite medication, go see a top-notch electrophysiologist who will almost certainly be able to rid you of the arrythmia.

You will be issued with instructions. Follow those. In my two ablations, I was directed to cease taking apixaban the morning before the day of operation (24 hrs) and to stop the metoprolol that evening, so 12 hours prior. The medical team in the cath lab and the intake nurses who prep you will do all that you need, including giving you Plavix or something like it about two hours prior to the operation. You might be asked to take up to five baby aspirins (81 mg of ASA) starting the previous evening, but that was only for a workup angiogram done on me, not on the two ablations....again...read the instructions that you SHOULD receive ahead of the date and follow them.

Thank you! xo

Hello from London. I had elective surgery last September 2024 for minimally invasive mitral replacement. I now have A F 4 months on which I didn’t have before! I am not happy as told I would not be on blood thinners, I am. Feel the worst I have ever felt in my life and for me certainly wish I had not had it done. Also now have fluid on the lungs too. I did not k iw one could not have a drink either.,

Ah, that sux.....sorry. However, I'm pretty sure you'd be a good candidate for catheter ablation if you consulted an electrophysiologist. It would be worth maybe seeing two of them and deciding which would do best.

The fluid in the lungs would have little or nothing to do with your previous surgery, unless it failed to repair the mitral valve. Instead, with AF, and if it's persistent or permanent, you are getting less work out of your heart, maybe than before (you say you're feeling even worse!). Your lungs and kidneys need good blood flow, as does your brain, to work well. Both of those can let you slip into pulmonary edema (oedema in the UK :-D). By any chance have you noticed your feet/ankles pinching inside slippers or shoes as the day goes on? They look and feel swollen?