Pace and Ablate

[KatherineMalta1970]

Hello.

Im Katherine and was diagnosed with PAfib 7 years ago.

Ive had 2 Ablations. The first was aborted half way through due to a suspected bleed and the second was hailed a success.

However it wasn't long before the afib returned.

I also had tachycardia and ectopic beats.

Medication didn't help and it got progressivly worse.

My triggers are stress and hormones. Going on HRT was a game changer and I felt human again for a while. Episodes continued but I learnt to live with them...2 maybe 3 a month.

Then in February of this year I had Covid and around the same time the episodes of Afib increased. For 7 months I have had Afib almost every day. Episodes last between 3 and 12 hours. I also noticed that my HR was either high or low and started to experience what I refer to as mini blackouts.

I had a monitor fitted for 2 weeks and the results showed that my heart has been stopping for as long as 13 seconds. This accounts for the mini black outs ive been experiencing. Some days Ive had up to 7 or 8 but I never fully pass out. I usually physically jolt myself back before I pass out.

I now need a pacemaker followed by an AV node ablation. Im anxious about the procedure and would like know what to expect...sorry for the long post.