Having had a failed cardioversion April 2013 and eventually another March 2014 which also failed was I to wait all summer for an appointment with the cardiologist to find the next possible step or go sailing in Greece as planned.
Having given it much thought I went private to see the cardiologist and the answer was there was very little chance of an ablation fixing it because they had tried 2 cardioversion and didn’t really know how long other than the last 2 years the AF had been with me.
Possible cure would be pacemaker.
The main symptom I have is lack of endurance, 10minutes and shattered.
Decision became easy. Tell the crew he (the other part owner) will have to do most of the work, simple.
So GO it is. Back in the winter to see what we can get done with this really annoying AF and carry on with the tablets. Dabigatran, Amiodipine and Bisoprolol in the meantime.
Hand luggage nearly all pills.
Take care all of you and remember the majority get cured one way or another.
Ray
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rjr681
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Enjoy you holiday. You have done all you can and been very responsible so have a wonderful time. Assume you have excellent medical insurance just in case.
I have had AF for more than the 8 years since I have been diagnosed and sailed a lot so understand the endurance thing but sailing a cruiser (assuming) is not like a racing yacht and with good pacing and itinary planning you should be fine. I had many an episode on our boat and just went below, rested and was fine. I think the main decision rests with your crew and their tolerance for picking up the slack if you have an episode and their competence level. Most modern cruisers can easily be sailed single handed.
The crew is fine with competence level equal to my own. It is cruising and the days of a new bay every day are long past. we tend to stay at least 3 days everywhere we go so plenty of r&r
I bet you will feel loads better doing this. Don't worry if you feel tired on your return. I went on a riding camp with my welsh cob and managed perfectly well but felt tired on return. My consultant laughed and said well. what to you expect but you did it!
Thanks for the confirmation that choosing to go was the thing to do.
Start the trip in about 1 hour on the Pennine Express. A hotel for one night then on to the Irishman's (Ryan) airline at the unearthly hour of 6am It can only get better.
What do you mean by a failed cardioversion? Did the cardioversion work initially, and then you lapsed back into A after a period, or did it not just work at all?. If you had the cardioversion externally (i.e. using paddles) there is a much more effective way of doing it internally that has a very high success rate. I have had at least 5 cardioversions - the first (external) one didn't work even after 3 attempts including one through the thorax with one paddle on my chest and one on my back. But the internal ones always worked. Then the problem is staying in NSR which may need drugs like amiodarone or an ablation!
If your cardiologist is at a hospital that does not have a catheter laboratory, you need to be referred to an EP at one that does have one so that an internal cardioversion can be tried.
I have had difficulties at 2 hospitals that did not have catheter laboratories where the cardiologist was reluctant to refer me elsewhere, but I persisted and eventually got referred
External ones with paddles several attempts at different power and position. In both cases there was no change in the erratic rate.
That is as far as they go here. He did say to be referred to Nottingham or Leicester that is why I went private to Leicester to see the consultant there. He said that internal would probably not work after looking at my ecg and not worth the risk and a pacemaker was possibly the way to go. Go back to cardiologist here and discuss!!
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