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After ablation, am I no longer a person with AFib?
I was diagnosed to be a person with AFib in 2016. As it goes with this issue, it continued to get worse over time with episodes lasting longer and becoming more frequent. I went from several events a year, lasting minutes, to 59 episodes in 2024 lasting 20+ hours each. I finally had a PF ablation at Mayo Rochester on February 20, 2025. (Advice, do NOT put this off). Four doctors told me early on that I needed to be on a blood thinner. I declined. Finally, I had to go on Eliquis to have the procedure. Now, the doctor doing my procedure said I could decide on continuing with Eliquis (for now, there will come a time in my life that I will be back on). I’m a 72M with a CHAD score of 2 (age and mild hypertension). CHA2DS2-VASc scoring says a man should be on an anticoagulant with a score of 1. I think of myself as a “young” 72 and my blood pressure is kept low with a small dose of amlodipine (2.5MG). He left it to my choice because the benefit/risk factors seem pretty equal for me. IF I am a person with AFib then my stroke risk is 3.5% without Eliquis (reduced to 0.9% with Eliquis) but with a 2.8% risk of a major bleed with Eliquis (0.49% without Eliquis). So, my risk and benefits are about even if I am a person with AFib. IF I am a person who does NOT HAVE AFib, then my stroke rate is 0.2%. So, have any of you ablated people heard from doctors about your AFib status. After a successful ablation, are you a person who DOES NOT HAVE AFib? [ I do understand that, by the raw numbers and my score of 2, the newest advice is to stay on Eliquis, but we know that numbers like age are not set in stone and equal for every person].
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It is my understanding that Eliquis is NOT used for an acute AFib incident. It is effective only when taken consistently over time to prevent stroke or blood clots and provides no benefit as a pill to be taken only when you are in AFib or having a stroke. There are other medications, like alteplase (tPA), used to dissolved clots in an acute or emergency situation.
I'm not sure about "you definitely have ongoing AFib issues". I've had paroxysmal AFib for years, but I've not had an AFib incident since mid-March. It used to be weekly. I know that sounds like a short time, but it has been heaven for me. And I've done all kinds of crazy things now to test it (heavy exercise, alcohol, caffeine in cold drinks, etc.) The ablation, after the predicted "transient" AFIB episodes, seems to have cured me. My doctor has given me the option to choose between two pretty equal chances of having a stroke or bleeding to death. I'm tending to go with the bleeding to death option, at least for a while.
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1 ReactionApixaban peak blood level is about 4 hours. A clot takes a few hours to 48 hours to form in the left atrium. Apixaban taken every 12 hours will prevent more strokes, but it will cause more bleeds. No one has done the study of taking it within 12 hours of afib onset, but I expect with all the monitoring people are doing, it would be a useful study. You are right that thrombolytics are often used in clots that have already formed, but it has to be given pretty quickly to be effective.
Don't know if I would want to test myself to see if I could "wake" AFib up. Never know when it might take a turn from occasional to permanent.
I was diagnosed with AFIB at age 69. All the tests showed that my heart was otherwise normal. Coronary calcium score of 0. Excellent physical condition. I did a similar analysis to what you describe. I was a CHADS VASC 1, so against my GP's and Cardiologist advice I decided not to take a blood thinner. Up to this point I had not been on any drugs and wanted to take as few as possible. Boom, I had a major stroke. Blood clot went to my brain. I was in the hospital for 7 days. I have almost fully recovered because they did a thrombectomy within the first hour. I will be on blood thinners now forever.
Well, I'm probably using the wrong terms. The doctors "tested" me at the end of the procedure and tried to put my heart into AFib (while I was out). They could not make it happen. When I say that I am "testing" myself, I mean that I am moving back to living a normal life. We can probably agree that, after any kind of procedure to end a limiting illness, we can hope to return to a more normal life; that continuing to hold to all limitations you made before the correction need no longer be kept in place.