understandably many people who post here are having a very rough time but for many there is a brighter future. Two years ago I was doing voluntary conservation work on offshore island which involved pretty vigourous climbing when I had my first attack of af . I didn't know what it was time and in retrospect I probably shouldn't have kept climbing . It took months to get a proper diagnosis, no one's fault really as I only had an attack for a few hours every two weeks or so. I suspect my doctor thought I was a hypochondriac but when I actually showed up during an attack things moved on rapidly. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately all the drugs they tried on me either failed or made the a f considerably worse leading to a last-ditch effort with amiodarone which put me into anaphylactic shock.. I was placed on rate control after that and while it wasn't perfect it did allow life to continue until I had an ablation last May.. I was due to come off all medication three months later when unfortunately I had a small heart attack. Last week I was back on the same island doing the same job with a spring in my step , a song on my lips and a letter from my cardiologist saying I was fit to do such things.
I am still on some medication and will be on some for the rest of my life but I am completely symptom-free and able to do the things I love.. The last two years have been difficult at times and positively scary at others and I know that my AF may return in the future but with the knowledge I have gained (largely from this site) I face the future with confidence and I am already planning for next year's trip.
A big thank you to everyone on the site and also to the medical community without whose wonderful help I would not be here today. And for those of you just starting this journey I just wanted to give you a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, mine is shining so brightly, you should be able to see it..