Cath Scheduled

After seven trips to the ER for rapid heartbeat in the last year, my EP thinks he should have a look and maybe do some zapping. It's much too often so I'm going in in a couple of weeks. The ER doc says it is an SVT, not AFIB. Needless to say I am apprehensive about anything that invasive. Seems like most of the posts here and in other forums are from people who had unsuccessful ablations. BTW, I'm on sotalol and a small amount of Norvasc (amlopidine.)
Besides that fast HR, I have what I think of as a "quiver" almost always when lying down. It goes away after a while, but can be annoying. I have suspected for some time that there's an effect from gas because often I can belch and it goes away. Went to a top GI doc and he says that a big hiatus hernia (I know I have one) can do that. I'm going to do a "barium gulp" in a few days to see what it looks like.

1 Comments

Avoid abalations if possible

by ElectricFrank - 2009-11-01 11:11:50

While sometimes an ablation can be a real help, the rate of failures and worse are high enough to avoid it if possible. I don't envy the EP's job. Just consider trying to identify and hit a small area on a wildly beating heart. Its amazing they ever hit the spot.

The GI doc is right on that digestive area problems can cause your symptoms. The vagus nerve has multiple branches in the upper GI tract and directly affects heart rhythms. I would pursue that first and save the zapping as a last resort.

frank

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