Some good news at last. Saw EP for 6 week follow up, 2 weeks ago, reduced Bisoprolol to 1.25mg but continue with heart failure meds and booked echocardiogram which I had yesterday. Sonographer was lovely, very chatty, I had my previous report from Late January 24 with me, Ejection Fraction 28%, severe mitral regurgitation, stage 2 heart failure,leading to a discussion on mitral valve repair Vs ablation. Had ablation 16 March, complications followed leading to emergency admission and artery repair on 27 March. So not exactly a quiet relaxing couple of weeks. I had a couple of short episodes of AFib, both related to high stress.The lovely sonographer was able to give me the headlines. EF back in low 50's, mild mitral regurgitation, valve looked normal. Lovely steady heart beat. All in all a pretty normal heart for female in her early 60's. I cried!
The drugs, ablation, complications, stress, worry and lifestyle cleanup have all been worth it and I now feel that I have a future again.
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AmandaLouise77
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I've now had my consultant EP letter confirming all this so it feels real, I can now come off Dapaglifozin. Living the dream! Just need to work out how to comfortably ride my bike following the artery repair and large incision in my groin, from under the hip bone to under the pubic bone, along the crease. I think I'm going to have to learn to get on it from the wrong side for now.
I was on 5mg Bisoprolol, Edoxaban, 10mg Dapaglifozin, 2mg Candersartan and 125 Digoxin plus Mg and a good multivitamin prior to ablation. Digoxin stopped after ablation and Bisoprolol down to 2.5. I have a low resting heart rate at 46/48 after ablation so Bisoprolol dropped again after 6 weeks to 1.25, at 8: weeks after Echo dapaglifozin dropped (I'll reduce it slowly I don't want to shock my heart). Dapaglifozin is a stage 2 diabetes medicine that is also very effective for heart failure. It removes sugars, via the kidneys, hence why it can cause UTI. I've been lucky! There are other heart failure medicines that can be prescribed if you don't get on with dapaglifozin.
good morning Amanda , that is such good news , I’m so pleased for you . So the AF was causing the mitral valve issues , and your overall heart function ? Was this your first ablation , or have you had others ? I’m very early days after my 3rd ablation . First 2 were really pulmonary vein isolation but this one investigated and found rogue cells in the back wall and roof of the heart as well as vena cava . This could only be isolated 75 % as it was so close to phrenic nerve and sinoatrial node . The EP said that it is highly likely I will revert to AF again at some point in the future due to this which was disappointing . But , being positive he did manage to fix a lot of unhealthy tissue . So , fingers crossed for me.
Hi Amanda! first ablation (PVI) done using RF with full electro mapping. I was given a 50% success prior to the procedure. I am under both a cardiologist and an EP, they refer back to each other and discuss things. They decided that as I'd been fit and well until last Nov that it was unlikely that I'd had ongoing valve issues. However my heart is clearly a sensitive little flower (my cardiologists words) that they didn't do a cardioversion and went straight for ablation (private care so didn't have to follow NHS protocol of trying CV first) because they felt that I was too fragile for too many interventions at that time. I was walking 5 miles plus a day before the persistent AFib symptoms started in Nov and have a very outdoorsy healthy lifestyle (although I probably drank too much and was overweight). It's a possibility that I was asymptomatic paroxsysmal before that due to the amount of damage to my heart.
I'm now back up to between 4 and 5 miles most days, the femoral artery repair knocked me back a bit, (27th March) it was patched up with bovine origin synthetic tissue. It's still sore, scar 10/15cm long in my groin crease, working hard to regain full hip flexibility. That surgery was 10x worse than ablation which I'd had on 16th March.
The EP came to visit me whilst I was recovering from the repair op, he was very apologetic about the femoral problems (he is a really lovely man) He is now cautiously positive about my recovery, saying that going through surgery etc and heart staying in good rhythm is very positive, At 62 years old it's possible that I may well need another ablation at some point and he'll have to use the left groin access as right can no longer be used. I need to trust him to get it right if I ever need another go!
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