Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

I agree they should be spelled out, but anyone can Google, What is.......

@gloaming ❤️

@sweetsea777 Afib

Does anyone know if having an ablation cures a high heart rate? The NP told me it just cures Afib not a high heart rate. But then I read somewhere that ablation can cure a high heart rate. I'd love to know if anyone has had an ablation and if it helped your high heart rate. Thanks Vicky

https://www.verywellhealth.com/svt-ablation-7561125
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/ventricular-tachycardia-ablation/pyc-20385006

This was enlightening. I am wearing a monitor and have logged feeling dizzy once. I really am confused as my fit bit watch occasionally shows my heart racing but apart from my annoying hot flashes I can't say I feel bad in any was. The cardiologist says I have a fib but I don't know what it's supposed to do to me. Confused

@greatestj Atrial fibrillation is when the top left chamber, the one receiving freshly oxygenated blood from the lungs, beats chaotically instead of one beat to flush its contents through the mitral valve and into the chamber below it, the large left ventricle. From there, the left ventricle contracts and you get blood coursing up into the large aorta and out to the head, arms, thorax, and legs. They contract in sequence with a short fraction of a second between them, and it's the familiar lub-DUB, lub-DUB we hear in our pillow at night. Except with atrial fibrillation, it's more like lub-dub, lub-lub-dub (pause) lub-DUB, lub-lub-dub, and we sense that something is amiss in our chest.

If you have had AF for a while, but it's intermittent, then it is in the early stage called 'paroxysmal', meaning in comes and goes on its own. That's the best place you'll ever be! It's a progressive disorder, and it can be controlled with both drugs and with a process called an ablation. Ablations and drugs both work best early. So get on either of them early...yesterday would have been great. Also, due to the chaotic beating of the left atrium, it doesn't flush itself properly and a small pouch on the extreme left end of it, called the left atrial appendage, can shelter blood a little long which makes sit want to clot. Clots cause strokes, so usually a patient formally diagnosed with AF will soon go on a direct-acting anti-coagulant (DOAC) toe reduce the risk of stroke, which is considerable. This is where you see an expert and listen to what THEY say, not so much what I say. 😀

Last comment from me, at least here and now: AF won't kill you. It can be awful for some, while others haven't any symptoms and wonder if they should worry at all. It should be managed, especially to keep it from progressing aggressively and rapidly. Catheter ablations can slow it to the point where you die from something else in 20 years, but not from a failing heart.

@gloaming thank you. This is the clearest explanation I have gotten to something that is very scary sounding. I will take my meds and see if it can be controlled without physical intervention. Thanks for being so clear on what was a worrying situation.

@greatestj You are welcome. Please understand that it's not a lethal disorder, but it does tend to degrade the heart over time if it is allowed to progress unchecked and if this means you spend more and more time in AF. The gold standard of care currently is a catheter ablation. They can stop the AF cold...not cure it...but stop it from happening, and that's absolutely the next best thing. The more a heart is experiencing AF, the worse it degrades over time...cardiomyopathy, mitral valve damage, and eventually 'heart failure', which is a horrible term and very misleading. An ablation stops the fibrillating mechanism from making the heart beat chaotically, and from there you can live with a huge sigh of relief. The person who performs this procedure is an 'electrophysiologist', and I would urge you to at least be acquainted with one or two of them via consultation.

Why do I go on about ablations? Because not everyone responds well to drugs, and sometimes not for long if they DO initially respond well and can tolerate them. The drugs have a way of losing their effect. I can explain more if you wish, but you should really begin to educate yourself about catheter ablations. Day surgery, you're home that night.

@gloaming really thank you for taking the time to stear me in the wright direction. Happy new year to you and your family and all the best for 2026🙏