Tired of waiting

[Spinbiker]

After failed cardioversion I now have to wait 6 months to see EP to arrange ablation which will probably be another long wait to carry out- does this timescale sound the norm to everyone? Any ideas how to speed things up ?many thanks - I live in London/Kent

[Hidden]

I know it should not be, but the only way to speed up the appointment to see the EP is to make a private appointment which should cost below £300. You need to make it clear from the outset that any ongoing treatment must be carried out on the NHS. This will not improve the waiting list for the procedure, but I should mean you get on the waiting list significantly quicker. Take copies of any test results but be careful about any tests carried out for the private appointment as these are likely to be expensive.

[Spinbiker in reply to Hidden]

Many thanks will keep this in mind thanks

[Goosebumps in reply to Spinbiker]

I echo FlapJacks response. Get ahead if you can by investing on some private expense upfront. Mine was spent with a cardiologist rather than an EP but same principle applies. I had a failed cardioversion last week so I am in the same boat as you.

Interestingly I had an ECG at a private hospital with my cardiologist consultation, cost me £55. Quote for an ECG privately at my NHS hospital was £80. Go figure....

[jobristol]

If you know the name of the EP you’ve been referred to try phoning their Secretary to get the telephone number of the outpatients for the cardiology team, give them a call and ask if they can give you an idea as to when you might expect an appointment and ask to be put on the cancellation list for an appointment! If you don’t know who you’ve been referred to phone your cardiologist’s Secretary she should be able to tell you. I did this after not hearing anything for 8 weeks, phoned on a Monday, half an hour later got a call asking if I could come in the next day for an appointment! It might help get you on the list for ablation quicker!

[Spinbiker in reply to jobristol]

Good thinking thanks - I am already on the cancellation list thanks anyway

[Gincalpe]

Like the others if you can afford it get a private appointment with the EP - your cardiologist who did the CV will need to refer you - a phone call to the cardiologist Secretary will get it started. I got an ablation in Liverpool after 2 failed CV’s within 9 months of diagnosis of permanent AF by doing that.

Well worth it. Still in sinus rhythm after 11 months and feel so much better.

[Barb1]

Also don't think of it as a failed cardioversion, as it showed that you can go back into SR, hence the ablation. This is a journey not a quick fix.

[jerseygirl49]

I can only recommend what all the others have already said - Flapjack, Goosebumps they all know what they are talking about. My husband did the same he was going to have to wait 3 months for an NHS appointment with his consultant so I called his secretary and we paid for a private consultation (£250) for various reasons it turned out this was 5 weeks earlier than NHS but still worth it as we at least got 20 minutes with him and previously with this consultant had only had 3 minutes so whilst we did not get to ask all our questions we did come away thinking it was worth every penny. If you dont want to or cant afford to do this, you could check with other NHS hospitals (especially as you live near London) which you can get to and try to get an earlier appointment - you are allowed to do that under NHS rules. Just make sure if you do go the private consultation route that it is only for the consultation and that any treatment/tests are back under the NHS. We asked about paying privately for an ablation and my husband's consultant wouldnt do it - said he only does private ablations if the patient has medical insurance. We thought that was very fair and because there is no guarantee it will work or for how long.

[Melbuckton in reply to jerseygirl49]

I was interested in your consultants comments about a private ablation.

Sounds like he didn't think it had much chance of working.

I am at the start of the getting out of af process I was thinking is it worth paying privately for an ablation if it comes to that procedure being next.

I guess I could always find a consultant who would do it privately if I really wanted that.

It is of course a question of the difference in waiting lists between private and NHS and that seems to vary a lot around the country.

[Flyer2820]

Hi Spinbiker, I guess I must be luckier than most on these posts. After about two and a half years of af and a few emergency hospital visits, I was eventually put on an emergency list to see the cardiologist. Before I could see him I had a very bad af attack while on the bus to Buxton, Derbyshire and had to call an ambulance. The cardiologist at the hospital said I needed an ablation and I was fast tracked. Instead of having to wait about 5 months I had it done after 2 months, and it seems to have worked. I haven't had af now for about 4 weeks which is good for me, given that it was only done on November 5th. Maybe the thing to do is send for an ambulance next time you have a bad do and keep doing so. They may fast track you then. I for one don't like paying for private treatment when I have already paid for National Health.

Good luck for the future.

Regards Flyer.

[wilsond]

Waiting time here in Warwickshire is 12 to18 months. I think you can choose to be refferred to other EPs though,with shorter waitingbtimes?

[Hidden]

You might not need an ablation is this works for you. Give it a try:

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After 9 years of trying different foods and logging EVERYTHING I ate, I found sugar (and to a lesser degree, salt – i.e. dehydration) was triggering my Afib. Doctors don't want to hear this - there is no money in telling patients to eat less sugar. Each person has a different sugar threshold - and it changes as you get older, so you need to count every gram of sugar you eat every day (including natural sugars in fruits, etc.). My tolerance level was 190 grams of sugar per day 8 years ago, 85 grams a year and a half ago, and 60 grams today, so AFIB episodes are more frequent and last longer (this is why all doctors agree that afib gets worse as you get older). If you keep your intake of sugar below your threshold level your AFIB will not happen again (easier said than done of course). It's not the food - it's the sugar (or salt - see below) IN the food that's causing your problems. Try it and you will see - should only take you 1 or 2 months of trial-and-error to find your threshold level. And for the record - ALL sugars are treated the same (honey, refined, agave, natural sugars in fruits, etc.). I successfully triggered AFIB by eating a bunch of plums and peaches one day just to test it out. In addition, I have noticed that moderate (afternoon) exercise (7-mile bike ride or 5-mile hike in the park) often puts my Afib heart back in to normal rhythm a couple hours later. Don’t know why – perhaps you burn off the excess sugars in your blood/muscles or sweat out excess salt?? I also found that strenuous exercise does no good – perhaps you make yourself dehydrated??

I'm pretty sure that Afib is caused by a gland(s) - like the Pancreas, Thyroid (sends signals to the heart to increase speed or strength of beat), Adrenal Gland (sends signals to increase heart rate), Sympathetic Nerve (increases heart rate) or Vagus Nerve (decreases heart rate), Hypothalamus Gland or others - or an organ that, in our old age, is not working well anymore and excess sugar or dehydration is causing them to send mixed signals to the heart - for example telling the heart to beat fast and slow at the same time - which causes it to skip beats, etc. I can't prove that (and neither can my doctors), but I have a very strong suspicion that that is the root cause of our Afib problems. I am working on this with a Nutritionist and hope to get some definitive proof in a few months.

Also, in addition to sugar, if you are dehydrated - this will trigger AFIB as well. It seems (but I have no proof of this) that a little uptick of salt in your blood is being treated the same as an uptick of sugar - both cause AFIB episodes. (I’m not a doctor – it may be the sugar in your muscles/organs and not in your blood, don’t know). In any case you have to keep hydrated, and not eat too much salt. The root problem is that our bodies are not processing sugar/salt properly and no doctor knows why, but the AFIB seems to be a symptom of this and not the primary problem, but medicine is not advanced enough to know the core reason that causes AFIB at this time. You can have a healthy heart and still have Afib – something inside us is triggering it when we eat too much sugar or get (even a little) dehydrated. Find out the core reason for this and you will be a millionaire and make the cover of Time Magazine! Good luck! - Rick Hyer

PS – there is a study backing up this data you can view at:

https//cardiab.biomedcentral.com/a...

How much sugar do you need to stop your afib? The answer is about 1/2 of what your daily sugar limit (threshold) is. My sugar threshold is about 80 grams a day right now. So if I go over that (and it's sooooo easy to do) my heart will start to afib. Then if I cut back to about 40-45 grams of sugar for one or two days, then the heart goes back to normal rhythm and stays there until I exceed my daily threshold of sugar again. (moderate exercise will shorten that time frame). I have gone 30 days under my sugar threshold with no afib once just to prove it is the sugar. And I have consumed my daily limit of sugar every day after going into afib and it stayed in afib for a week - just to prove that worked. So - as long as you know what your sugar threshold is you can control it, but that takes several weeks of experimenting to figure out. I use the following WEB site to know how much sugar is in different foods:

fatsecret.com/calories-nutr....

If you find that your sugar threshold is lower than 50 grams a day - it's nearly impossible to eat less than that each day, which will keep you in permanent Afib. If this is the case, try going to a Nutrition Response Tester. I am doing this and she has improved my gland processing such that we have increased my sugar threshold from 48 grams a day to about 75, which is high enough to stay under - and keep afib from happening (unless I indulge in a sweet something – which I do too often). I'm hoping we can get my sugar threshold over 100 grams a day, and if so, that would pretty much stop any afib from happening again (assuming I consume less than 100 grams a day which is not too difficult to do). If I have success in achieving this, I will post it on this forum. If you are on any harsh meds they might be altering your metabolism and something else could be causing your afib. In that case, you will have to really listen to your body and experiment to find out what is triggering your afib. I'm pretty sure it's some gland or secretion in the body that results in sending mixed signals to the heart - not the heart itself. Hope this helps.

[Rubymurray25 in reply to Hidden]

A very interesting read , thank you.

[BernardS]

On a lighter note now Boris is in with his plans for the NHS you might find that your appointment to see your EP was yesterday and you missed it.