Well in the end it all happened real quick. In Feb. i was lucky enough to retire fulltime. One week to my final day I was taken out by EMT's to the hospital. The diagnoses was Atrial Flutter. Well from that day on i was to the ER at least once a week to get my heart slowed down and back in rhythm. This was the only thing that worked. So this past Thursday I went to the ER again and after i got slowed down my DR. handed me some papers and said you staying.
Than his partner (an electrophysiologist) came in and told me an Ablation was in order. So the next day at noon i was in a futuristic setting being ablated. The procedure took a little over 3hrs, and the best part i was awake for the whole thing. An Ablation is a procedure were they find the area sending the bad signals and burn a hole in the signals pathway.
Things aren't totally back to normal yet I still have an erratic beat now and then, but at least my heart isn't beating 160ppm anymore.
The reason for the Irregular beats is not Atrial Flutter, It's Atrial Fibrillation which i also have. But this condition is treated much easier with meds, I HOPE.
I also have done a lot of reading about these two conditions. The word is over 2 million people suffer from one or both conditions. Though not life threatening, there is a really bad side effect with this, blood clots and stroke. Anytime your heart isn't beating properly from one chamber to the other this is really bad. So please be aware of the symptoms.
A fluttering feeling in the upper chest, hard or rapid heart beat for no apparent reason and shortness of breath with either symptom. Most people can be treated with meds, for me meds didn't work or I couldn't take them. This is a web page that has a lot of info about the condition
atrialfibrillationblog.com/ So I'm on the mend and can't wait to get out and about.
Be safe and Be healthy,
Kevin
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