Hello Everyone,
I am new here and this is my first post.
My History:
I have been suffering from palpatations and fatigue for over a year and half. I have been being treated by a cardiologist for almost 20 years for MVP. During one of my visits to my cardiologist I mentioned the palpatations and he basically told me it was normal for someone with MVP to have them. I had my yearly echo and during the echo it was noted that my heart rate was irregular and I was placed on a Holter Monitor. This was last June. While wearing the Holter it was noted that I was having skipped beats and also episodes of SVT. I was then placed on a loop recorder for one month where again SVT and AT was noted.
I was put on Verapmil in July of 08 and still on it to this day. In December my Cardiologist suggested I see an electrophysiologist. I kinda put it off and told him if the symptoms got worse I would go see her. During this time I had an episode where I almost passed out while driving. I couldn't breath, I shook and was losing my vision from the sides of my eyes and my heart pounded. I managed to get myself off the road and sat there and got myself calmed down enough to get home and just lay down. I called the Dr. and they sent me to a Nerologist thinking I had had a visual migrane. Now it seems that may have been my first episode of A-fib.
Anyways fast forward to May of this year. I had my yearly echo and I got a call from my Cardiologists office. If I wasn't going to make an appointment with the electrophysiologist they would make it for me. The appointment was set for May 22nd and off I went. She looked at all of my EKG and Monitor readings and said an ablation was the way to go since medication wasn't helping me. I was put on a loop recorder and the ablation was scheduled for June 11th. During the loop before the ablation it was noted I had mutiple types of Tachycardias going on I was diagnosed with SVT, AT and sinus node Tachycardia. At this point in time no A-fib had been noted on any of the EKGs or recorders.
June 11th rolls around and I go for my ablation. I went in knowing that there was a chance that if I didn't misfire on the table they may not be able to complete the ablation. What I and my doctor were not prepared for was me going into A-fib during the mapping.
From what I am told I went into A-fib really quickly was very hard to bring out of it. I was given medication which did not work. It was then decided they needed to use cardioversion to bring me out. It took 6xs to finally get me out of it. Let me tell you it hurts afterwards lol. I felt like someone had kicked me in the chest and stuck irons all over my chest and back. Me and solarcain became quite good buddies.
During the procedure they were able to map the foci areas in my heart to see which ones were misfiring. I had 5 areas of foci and because of the number of areas and the A-fib they decided that ablation would not be a good option for me.
Whew still with me? I went to see my electrophysiologist yesterday for my follow up from the attempted ablation. She told me she wants to put me on some new medication and try that. If the medication does not work I will have to have a more extensive procedure done. The medication she is putting me on is Flecainide. She is combing it with the Verapamil. I went online and did some research of the drug and honestly it makes me nervous. So I have some questions for you.
Does anyone here take it?
Is yours combined with Verapamil?
Have you had any issues with it?
I read that the first does is to be administered in a hospital so you can be monitored. My Dr. never told me to do that she said I could start it when ever I want.
Is there any advice you can give me on dealing with all of this? My mind just races now.
Thank you for reading this I know it is long.