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I'm surprised you got in that soon. I made my appointment about this time of year and had to wait until August. What you can do is ask to be put on the list for cancellations. People do cancel, and I know of someone who got a slot just two weeks out that way. Stick with Natale. Take your beta blockers to keep that rate down and just wait it out.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteShannon It was a team effort! Exactly.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Oh yeah, that makes it easy for sure. Now just hope that a busy ER didn't lose your EKG. That's been known to happen.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotecolindo Will blood thinners stop that one stroke in 10 years? As I said my sister is now in hospital with a stroke after being on thinners for 12 months, that is in fact true. No drug is perfect and anticoagulants don't prevent 100% of all strokes. Nothing does. So asking if they will stop that one stroke in 10 years isn't really a valid question. The question is will they reduby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Personally, I would probably stop it altogether, but if you're uncomfortable with that then I'd go with the low dose. It will still provide coverage but with a lower bleed risk.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotecolindo And I ask why, why is my stroke risk after 10 years now 18.3%, what has caused that.? Is it my lifestyle, maybe? Your risk didn't change. What happened is math. Stroke risk is usually stated as risk per year. So if your risk of having a stroke in one year is 2%, over the course of 10 years you incur that 2% risk 10 times. As safib explained, that risk adds up. It's noby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotekatesshadow I wasn't sure that EKG would be on file. I would like for him to look at it since it is the only record of an A-fib episode (actually the only one that I know I've had) that they have of me. I've never seen him before but hopefully he can give me more personalized attention than I have received yet. Call the doctor who did the EKG and ask them to send the EKG toby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotecolindo So telling forum members that lifestyle changs is a crock is not good advise. I didn't say that. I said lifestyle can affect afib and make it better or worse; it's just not the cause. You can and should improve your lifestyle to make your afib better. Just don't expect to cure it with lifestyle changes. Not going to happen.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotecolindo Never the less 98% chance of not having a stroke are good odds. No one is going to guarantee blood thinners is going to improve those odds much. An ablation has about a 2% risk of serious complications. So you think having an ablation every year of your life is good odds? You might want to do the math and ask what those odds are after 10 years (answer: 18% risk). I don't knby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quoterocketritch What’s your concern with the heparin at this juncture? It's just an unusual solution to a common problem and seems like overtreatment. Maybe there are issues I don't know about, but I would sure question why he's not simply been put on a NOAC, rate control meds, and sent home. It seems like a lot of hospital treatment and a rush to a procedure.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotecolindo If you have a CHADs score of 2 you have a 2% chance of a stroke, then if you take a blood thinner you have a 3% chance of a blood bleed. Strokes and bleeds aren't equal things so you're comparing apples and oranges. The majority of bleeds are GI bleeds and are easily controlled. The only bleeds to really worry about are cranial bleeds, and that's going to be a muchby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Full stop. That's messed up. Heparin?! WTF are they doing? Flutter is usually easy to ablate, but considering that three EPs failed to ablate mine in four attempts I wouldn't be so sanguine about it. They need to cardiovert him, give him rate control meds and an anticoagulant, send him home, and then let him choose an EP if he wants to pursue ablation. A rate of 150 isn't thby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotekatesshadow Is the EKG that was performed when I went to the ER in Nov. recorded in my files? As far as I know it's the only one that shows I was in AFib. Yes, absolutely. All doctors keep records of all tests they do, plus exam notes, prescriptions, basically everything they do and say when they see you.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotecolindo Nattokinase. I wonder if there was money to be made from it, would we see evidence of its effectiveness? Well, we'd at least see research into it. See, that's the rub. Industry will only fund research if there's a profit in it for them, so that leaves it to governments and non-profit organizations to fund the rest. The trouble is, those research dollars are limited aby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotecolindo Well Carry, If you change your life style, cut out alcohol, reduce weight, lower blood pressure, eat low carb, get off the couch etc. You will reduce your afib load and change your CHAD score to a point where you won't need any blood thinners which will stop its calcification action. I've never had a weight problem, my BP was fine up until a couple of years ago, Iby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteBrian_og I see that point. Then why do they even attach the CHADS-VASc score to AFib in the first place. Seems like anyone with AFib needs AC no matter what because any bout of AFib had the potential for stasis. And really to confuse matters more everything I've ever read for AFib was to not recommend AC to those with CHADS-VASc 0. I'd say anyone in active afib needs anticoagby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
"From what we can tell" would be the key phrase there given there's no way to know if someone here has a stroke. But my question was really more rhetorical. I don't know why Dean thinks the vast majority of people here have drastically altered their eating habits and lifestyle. I rather doubt they have. I also don't know why he thinks doing so reduces stroke risks. A fewby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteDean The vast majority of afibbers on this forum have drastically altered their eating habits and lifestyles for the better so vastly diminishing their risk of stroke from all causes. They have? Not sure if that's true and how you would know it, but even if it is true, what's the stroke rate for people on this forum?by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteElizabeth According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 2 percent of people younger than 65 years old have AFib, while about 9 percent of people ages 65 and older have it. Right. So that averages out to about 5%. You don't add the two percentages.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
I don't see any inaccuracies in the article.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
http://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/health/why-warfarin-is-no-longer-really-helpful-for-afib-therapy/by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteElizabeth The article said that 20% of all strokes are because of AF, so what is the 80% due to? All those other things the CHADS-Vasc score measures. But keep in mind that only about 5% of the population has afib, so for 5% of the population to account for 20% of the strokes is a pretty damn big number.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotealxndr01 I've looked into the comments of many people who are taking Eliquis. Most of them don't like it. I don't think that's true. I know a lot of people on Eliquis and the other NOACs and the vast majority have no side effects from it at all.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Even a CHADS-Vasc 0 is at risk of stroke if you're have active afib. The atria don't pump effectively during afib, so blood can become stagnant and clot, particularly in the left atrial appendage. That's where 90% of all afib-related clots form. If a clot forms, when the episode terminates and the atria begin pumping again, the clot gets pumped out and there's your stroke. Afiby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
I would start it now. Frankly, you've probably just been lucky so far. I wouldn't push my luck further.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteJoe Forget about youtube, the MD saying it has enviable credentials. In any case, basic chronic problems ought to be sorted prior to treating other symptoms? I wasn't questioning her credentials or even what she's saying. I just don't think a first visit with a new doctor is the time to bring up stuff you read on Dr. Google. It's not a good first impression and it setsby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteNo ablation strategy consistently demonstrated superiority to pulmonary vein isolation in preventing long term recurrences of atrial arrhythmias. I think Dr. Natale would disagree with this statement. He and his group successfully ablate persistent afib regularly.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
It's not the numbers at the end that's the problem. It's the spaces. URLs can't have spaces in them. Try this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30459630by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Youtube theories might not be the best questions on a first appointment with a new doctor.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Jake's answer is a good start. Since it's your first appointment I would keep it simple. Let him ask the questions first. Find out what he thinks of your situation and how he proposes to treat it. If he recommends drugs, why does he recommend the specific drugs he chooses? What side effects might you expect? What are the risks? If he recommends ablation, then his training and experienceby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM