A tale of woe! Yes, I'd be waiting to hear from your EP too. I think you might have a second stab at an Echo if you could arrange to have one when you can arrive early and get the heart settled beforehand.
I don't think we are ever at our best at hospital appointments because there's always an element of stress and as soon as the thing starts to have the slightest bit of a pear shape about it, everything goes downhill.
Some young doctors like to show off their knowledge and I think it's been said that no one should work in theatre if they hadn't been in as a patient first and all midwives should have a baby as part of the training.
I don't know how old you are, Keith, but I am in my seventies and had four ultimately failed cardioversions before I was given an AV ablation with pacemaker as an alternative. I haven't looked back since (it was done last October). I get the feeling that pacemakers are not offered to the young because the life of a pm battery is roughly ten years and one guesses that the NHS is loathe to commiting to that kind of expense on a recurring basis. It is something of a last resort procedure, but I can see only good in it - for myself, anyway. The waste, as I saw it, would have been in a fifth, and any subsequent, cardioversion, which would have been almost inevitably going to fail at some point.
Add to this the disappointment every time the heart goes back into perceptable AF. I use the word "perceptable" because, although I do not feel it, I understand that my heart is still in AF at the moment, it is just that the pm keeps it functioning properly and my energy levels are sufficient that I cycle for short periods every day. I am presently in my summer house in the Massif Central area of France and the riverside roads are peppered with hills whose gradients vary enormously. I also swim, which is helping general wear-and-tear related joint and muscle stiffness a lot.
I should add that, since having the pm activated, I have come off all medication except for Warfarin, and that it a real plus. As I have a Coagucheck, I am able to monitor my INR myself, which cuts down on those lengthy, waiting sessions in my local Warfarin clinic. I have a follow-up appointment with the heart specialist in Canterbury in September, when I get back from my outdoor summer in France, and it will be interesting to learn the results of what will then be almost one year with my pm.
All I can say, at this stage, is that my energy levels and stamina are appreciably greater then at any time except, perhaps, during the brief periods post-cardioversion before I descended once again into AF.
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