Having had three wonderful months being AF free - having opted recently for 'Pace and Ablate' procedure - I was thrown into unsettled confusion last week by frequent bouts of what felt like PVC's. My first thought was that a wire had come out. So I phoned the arrhythmia team and given an emergency appointment with the device clinic.
Saw them yesterday and after doing the horrible test of lowering the heart rate, the PVC'c appeared. The good news is that it is not a pacemaker problem, thank goodness, but yet another game my heart has decided to play.
I am still taking Sotalol as it has never been a problem for me and I think it keeps my blood pressure under control and keeps permanent AF at bay. But now I am to be given new meds so that may change.
The technicians have told me that since I had the AV node ablation in March, I have unknowingly had about three episodes of AF, lasting between 4 seconds and 4 minutes. As the pacemaker does not control the AF, just bypasses it, it seems amazing that these episodes have been so short, as in the past AF episodes always lasted many hours. It makes me wonder if my own reaction to pre pacemaker attacks of AF exacerbated it and made the episode longer. Interesting.