Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

@predictable , I realize that the sentence "so long as these A-Fib's are asymptomatic, no treatment necessary". this can be misunterstood. I mean an ablation is not necessary, on the other hand a "blood thinner" is needed .
yoanne

hi @predictable ,I am so sorry reading your experience with a TIA, I know, how you felt the first days, as long as you did not know, if a serious stroke would happen. (husband had a TIA 2012) .you and my husband were lucky ,
referring to your questions about the "watchman", ( in memory of my cardiac problems: : A-fib's , mitralvalve insufficiency, minimal invasive mitralvalve reconstruction/repair April 2016)
I asked my cardiologist last november, if the implantation of this device would be useful. for me, so I could stop the bloodthinner (Eliquis).
he denied, no advantage for me , as I had to take aspirin lifelong instead of a bloodthinner. that does not make sense, he said. he showed me a paper about the risks of aspirin.
I know according to the guidelines of the european cardiology society, that after the implanation of the watchman, the person needs a 6-months treatment with an anticoagulant. until there is enough tissue to cover the device. afterwards aspirin..for such a short period they prescribe one of the new anticoagulanties, no monitoring necessary, patients do not need instructions/lessons (warfarin)
.In this context an interesting observation: in the years before april 2016 (operation) .I had paroxysmal A-Fib's. the cardiac surgeon did not an ablation at the end of the operation, as there were some problems and he did not want to extend, too dangerous, he said. until january this year I had no A-Fib's anymore. unfortunatedly,(january this year) there was a disconnection between the atriums and the ventrikels. so I had to go into the hospital and they implanted a two chamber pacemaker. immediatedly I had a lot of A-Fib's (AT/AF burden too high)..they are asymptomatic. Last september I visited a meeting in cologne/germany (main themes were A-Fib's and the new guidelines) I learned that 30-40 % of the pacemaker recipients have A-Fib's, even the persons with no history of them.
so long as these A-Fib' are asymptomatic, no treatment necessary.
I must confess, that the presence of so many A-Fib's daily scares me a bit, how can my heart cope with them???
yoanne

Hi Lara,

I really don't have an answer for you as I do not take Eliquis but I am on Metaprolol. I have A-Fib but had a Watchman implanted 13 months ago because I could not tolerate blood thinners after 14 years. In your case I would not make a change from Eliquis to aspirin without consulting my doctor. Perhaps you should consider seeing an Electrophysiologist, a heart rhythm specialist? I did so 8 years ago after I could not get the answers I needed when I questioned my then cardiologist who just kept pushing more meds. The Electrophysiologist answered my questions, explained the dynamics of my treatment and sent a letter to my cardiologist.

Tresjur

Hi I am Lara. 73 years old. Since last year I am on Eliquis and metaprolol for arterial fibrillation. I have no Hugh blood pressure, diabities or any other related symptom. I stopped metaprolol as I had too much fatigue, hair loss ( even eye brow and eye lashes hair were falling), knee pain aggravation etc. fir last two months I am only on Eliquis. Sometimes I have too much arthrities pain as I am on Eliquis I cannot take any anti inflammatory drug. Can I stop Elyquis fir sometime and take Aspirin ? As Aspirin is also a blood thinner. Or it will not work for fibrillation problem? The doctors do not give strait answer as they do not want to take the responsibility. Without anti inflammatory drugs the knee pain does not go.

I had electro cardio version it lasted only a day. They will repeat again accompnied by drugs. But so far I do not know which drugs they will use. Hope it lasts for some years.

Hi @tresjur. You have me interested in Watchman. I've been on Warfarin for three years because of nearly asymptomatic A-fib, but something went awry last summer. My anti-clotting index went way up, so we skipped Warfarin for a couple of days. That appears to have been a mistake, because a week later I had a small stroke, and the diagnosis was a small clot out of my heart. Wondering whether at any time you and your medical team considered Warfarin "blood thinner." If so, why Eliquis instead? Then, why Watchman?

Other than my stroke (which was not disabling to any extent), does it seem to you that I could stick with what I'm doing, or would you recommended that I look into a Watchman insert? Martin

Dear Ybrik,

Since the Watchman implant 13 months ago, followed by 6 months of Eliquis, I take a low dose aspirin daily. At this time, no further treatment has been needed or recommended.

Tresjur

No. Just had the watchman implanted. When this heals ablation and pacemaker are suggested.

Hello @ybrik,

I'm so glad you've connected with @tresjur, who has shared some great insights; I encourage you to read about her A-Fib journey in this discussion:
– Watchman Implant for A-Fib https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/watchman-implant-for-a-fib/

Thanks, Tresjur for response. Have you had further treatments for A-Fib?