Well it’s December 31, 2014. What a hell of a year it’s been for me. I started the New Year with a trip to the E.R. to be electrically cardioverted. It would be my fourth electrical cardioversion. I was lucky enough to go almost five months after that without an episode. During that period I finally got smart and got a prescription for Flecainide so I could try the pill-in-the-pocket approach. I was able to put it to the test […]
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A Six-Hour Afib Episode Was My Early Christmas "Gift"
Well it was bound to happen. It had been exactly two weeks since my last episode. I was due for one given my recent history of having an episode every week or two. This one I predicted. All day long I kept thinking I was going to have an episode any day. There was no way I was going to go more than two weeks without one. Our family Christmas celebrations were going to begin on Tuesday night so I […]
READ MORENew Online Community Launches To Help Patients with Atrial Fibrillation
There’s a new online community out there called My Afib Experience. It’s meant to help people understand afib better, and to help people get more support. The site is a collaboration between the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, and Stop Afib.org. There will be a lot of information on the site, including information on topics like healthy eating and dining out, exercise, travel, questions to ask doctors, and more. According to MedicalExpress, users can create profiles based on […]
READ MORERetired All-Pro NFL Player Successfully Treated After Two Catheter Ablations
Danny Abramowicz, retired NFL player, is now AF free after his second catheter ablation, which was performed at the Loyola University Medical Center. Abramowicz once played both for the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers. It’s far more common to need two catheter ablations to correct afib than it is to see an end to arrhythmia after a simple, single procedure. It’s still a great success story to hear about, no matter how many procedures it took.
READ MORELifestyle Changes After an Ablation Can Dramatically Improve Success Rates
A new study by Australian researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia shows compelling evidence that lifestyle changes after an ablation can dramatically affect the outcomes of the procedure. The study included more than 149 people who had a catheter ablation. Sixty-one of them took part in an aggressive “risk factor management” program after the procedure. The program aimed to reduce lifestyle risk factors such as: Being overweight High blood pressure High cholesterol High blood sugar levels Sleep breathing […]
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