Medics suffering from AF

[maxim314]

Are there any GPs or consultants out there who have suffered from AF and have undergone ablation plus aftercare.

Please let us have some insider thoughts.

Best wishes,

[Omniscient1]

Are there any GPs or consultants on this forum at all? ...

[Mrspat]

If I was a doctor, which I am not, I don't think I would say so on this Forum. Most would not comment on patients who they did not know nor draw on personal experience to explain conditions or treatments. They would consider it unprofessional.

[maxim314 in reply to Mrspat]

The reason for posting my request was not to encourage any medic to disclose information about patients but more of a personal nature, anonymously, and I think my posting made this clear. When medics become patients they became better medics, in my view. Were I a medic suffering from AF and had had an ablation, I would be more than happy to be consoling to others. It only takes 10 ounces of altruism. I recall the professor of thoracic medicine who gave lectures on heart/lung transplants using her own heart and lungs which had been removed as a result of her own transplant. My request would allow medics to give a little more than the usual 10 minutes.

[Beancounter Volunteer]

Hi somewhat-nervous

As Mrspat says, there are some doctors on this forum, and probably more who read it from the feedback we get occasionally, but they are unlikely to give specific advice here, certainly without you being their patient, and then of course they would not wish to break any confidences.

So I very much doubt ypu will get an answer, however there is one fairly well known US doctor who is an EP and suffers from AF you can find hime here

drjohnm.org/atrial-fib/

Hope this helps

Ian

[maxim314 in reply to Beancounter]

Hi Beancounter, I enclsoe my reply to Mrspat:

"The reason for posting my request was not to encourage any medic to disclose information about patients but more of a personal nature, anonymously, and I think my posting made this clear. When medics become patients they became better medics, in my view. Were I a medic suffering from AF and had had an ablation, I would be more than happy to be consoling to others. It only takes 10 ounces of altruism. I recall the professor of thoracic medicine who gave lectures on heart/lung transplants using her own heart and lungs which had been removed as a result of her own transplant. My request would allow medics to give a little more than the usual 10 minutes."

Thanks for the websites you gave.

S-N

[dedeottie]

It has occurred to me that there may well be medics on here who have A.F. and post here as fellow sufferers but do not want to reveal their medical status. I have often wondered at some of the wealth of knowledge on here. In my experience and having a doctor in the family, they make the very worst patients and are in need of reassurance just like the rest of us.However, purely from a human interest angle, it would be good to know who's who. O.k. I admit to being a bit of a nosey so and so! X

[Hidden in reply to dedeottie]

Dedeotie... I'm with you here. The same thing has occurred to me.

[Hidden in reply to dedeottie]

The thing with medics is, as Donald Rumsfeld would put it, they know how little they know, whereas "we" think they know everything, so I guess they're going to worry when they're ill, whereas we feel quite re-assured.

[dedeottie in reply to Hidden]

Ha. That is so true. Medicine is advancing so fast it hard for them to keep a handle on everything. Especially hard for G.P.s who have to be Jacks of all trades. X

[Hidden in reply to dedeottie]

We have a couple of GP's in our family as well and it must be just about impossible to keep up with everything. Especially as everyone's expectations and knowledge are getting higher and higher.

[PeterWh]

I think that GPs have a very hard job especially with so many developments and reports al the time, let alone all the NICE reports, etc. It is as patients get something like AF particularly if it is persistent or severe, etc (rather than occasional or very few symptoms) that they update themselves. My doctor particularly wanted me to see a Consultant / Doctor who was a EP rather than a more general cardiologist.

I won't tell you the whole of the following story because it will take up to much space (though it was interesting, comical and informative). Over 35 years ago in the first week of my engineering degree the physics lecturer (who was an eccentric) told us that if we used 0.1% of the information in the whole of the rest of our lives that we learnt in all the time up to the end of our degree course then we would be the luckiest people who had ever lived. He went on to say you will use a very small fraction of that 0.1%.

As a green / naïve 18 year old I didn't believe him but looking back on it (many times) they were very true words. I think that the same applies to GPs and consultants. Breaking it down the heart is an organ that is hand sized but think of all the specialisms and sub-specialisms and knowledge that there si about its workings. As we all know there are many things associated with AF that are unknown or unexplained and vary enormously.

The end of the thoughts for the day!!!!!