Dofetilide and Artrial fibrillation

@dcypherzzz It's a great question.....................best answered between you and a consulting electrophysiologist. An EP will look at your file, talk to you, ask for one or two diagnostics such as an angiogram..maybe...and decide for him/herself if you are likely to do well with an ablation.

Ablations can stop the unwanted cardiac rhythm. They don't always work, although a repeated attempt usually improves the chances by at least 10%. The more complex your arrhythmia, the more difficult it is to ablate. The more advanced your arrhythmia, the more difficult it is to ablate. So we tell people to make up their minds sooner rather than later if they want to have an ablation, but that puts them in the position of having to learn more. Here is what matters:

a. The type of arrhythmia. Some kinds don't do well with ablations and may need a pacemaker;

b. Many arrhythmias tend to progress, either to worse forms of themselves or to include other arrhythmias. The idea is to treat them as soon as formally diagnosed either with medicine or with mechanical 'fixes', they being ablations or a pacemaker;

c. And finally, in many cases medicine is about treating symptoms, or rather trying to maintain or to improve the patient's quality of life. As you know only too well, arrhythmias can greatly impact one's quality of life with sleep loss, crappy sleep when you get it, feeling anxious, inability to function well and to maintain relationships, etc. Most of us soon accept that the best treatment is one that is least invasive and risky, but that also stops or severely limits those unwanted side-effects (from drugs) and symptoms.

If you have not been formally assessed yet, you should get that done last afternoon. The reason is that some arrhythmias present a higher risk of a stroke because the poorer circulation of blood in an affected heart can encourage clotting. Escaped clots get lodged into the heart itself, the lungs, the organs, and worst of all, the brain. If you have atrial fibrillation, as an example, your risk of a clot and a stroke from it rises to about 5 times what it was before your heart began to act up. So my advice is to get to a cardiologist ASAP and to begin to educate yourself about the arrhythmia you seem to have. From there, knowledge will be your trump card.

@gloaming Thanks so much. I see my cardiologist tomorrow. Had this 5 weeks. I had a problem with old cardiologist... He said he's doing EKG (my Kardia device always says normal sinus rythm. Ambulance also. ER also.) No troponin. He said he's doing a sonogram also? I'm so scared I'm beside myself. My PA said stress. Gave me Ativan. Does nothing. My back feels like an ice pick between my shoulder blades. ER said I have some spinal stenosis but no answer to the pain cause. At times I want to die. I've never experienced anything like this. PS hot spells when it stops at 5 am. Starts when I fall asleep. Never daytime, I don't think.

@dcypherzzz Your biggest ally is your 'normality', or what you remember of it. Your worst enemy might be........MIGHT BE... your own mind, maybe unresolved difficulties that you're suppressing without realizing it. So, as little as I can do for you, and I'd really like to see you win at this, you may have to fight like the dickens to keep an open and inquisitive mind, one that tends to be optimistic and to hope for the best. Try not to doubt, to worry, and to expect the worst. Be willing to try something and to run with it hard for at least a couple of weeks to see if you don't begin to get a welcome change.

@gloaming Yes, I need to be positive. Went 100 miles to cardio. No dr. Just had EKG and sonagram. He'll call in a week. The girls said sorry, all the monitors are out...

I'm extremely worried and I must try to change my mindset.
Thank you.

@dcypherzzz Your biggest ally is your 'normality', or what you remember of it. Your worst enemy might be........MIGHT BE... your own mind, maybe unresolved difficulties that you're suppressing without realizing it. So, as little as I can do for you, and I'd really like to see you win at this, you may have to fight like the dickens to keep an open and inquisitive mind, one that tends to be optimistic and to hope for the best. Try not to doubt, to worry, and to expect the worst. Be willing to try something and to run with it hard for at least a couple of weeks to see if you don't begin to get a welcome change.

@gloaming I've incorporated positive thinking, much prayer and following my friend's helpful suggestions. Last night, I fell asleep at 9 pm. I woke at 10:30 pm with palpitations. I took .5 mg lorazepam. Woke 4:30 with palpitations, took .5 mg lorazepam. Woke at 7:45 AM!! Woke up and gave thanks for the sleep.
I had a stomach issue yesterday that scared me. I'm trying to wean myself off Protonix. Symptoms? Chest pain and nausea!!! I can't be doing that right now! I feel so good this morning. Thank my wonderful friends and Jesus! And the drugs? I'm aware these meds may be covering up something but my doctors are saying it's stress. Thanks for listening. I'm in the big heat wave!