A success story!

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

It seems like we never hear about people being cured of their atrial

fibrillation because most of those people once cured get off the lists and

get on with their lives. I think we need to hear of the success stories once

in a while to keep our hopes alive.

A few weeks ago my husband noticed a landscaping business working on a yard

not far from his father's house. Since he was thinking of hiring a

landscaper to work on his father's yard he stopped and talked to the woman

(Donna) who was the owner of the business. After a brief conversation about

her business she mentioned that she had started the company after she " got

her life back from atrial fibrillation " . My husband gasped and said " my wife

has that problem right now " Donna's eyes lite up and she began telling her

story.

This woman is now in her late fifties. She is tall and thin and my husband

said she was quite beautiful even with the aging. Donna said she was a model

with a very famous company in her early 20's. Her first bout of atrial

fibrillation occurred when she was 18 years old. Back then there was little

knowledge and few medications to treat this condition. Her doctors told her

she should go to the hospital and be converted immediately when she went into

AF. Her life progressively got worse as the AF occurred more and more

frequently. Donna stopped her modeling job and became very depressed thinking

she was going to die any day. She said, at one time she had an outgoing

personality but became a recluse because of this condition. From the age of

18 on, she never took a vacation because she was too afraid to be too far

from her doctor and the hospital.

In 1996 she had a new cardiologist that told her they were treating patients

that had atrial fibrillation with cardiac ablation. He told her there was a

very good doctor at Providence Heart Institute in Seattle that was having

success with it. She went to see this doctor and he scheduled her for the

ablation. Donna said she backed out of having the procedure twice because

she was too afraid. The third time she went through the procedure. She said

she was on the table for seven hours floating in and out of consciousness as

the doctors located her ectopic beats. She said it wasn't painful and the

recovery was uneventful.

From that day on she has never had another episode of atrial fibrillation.

She claims she was " reborn " and learned to get her life back. For the first

time in 36 years she took a vacation. She started the landscaping business

when she was 55 years old. Recently she and her husband bought Harley

motorcycles and they are now touring around the country.

Sigh.... Anyone else with a success story to tell?

Regards.... Diane Porter

[Guest guest]

Hi Diane:

What a great story. Thank you so much for sharing. I have a cousin

that has had AFib for years and has never experienced a bit of a

problem. I also have friends that are always telling me about this

one and that one that has it - and they are doing just fine. We have

to keep in mind that we are only 221 members - and I would imagine

you would not seek out our group unless you were distraught. It would

be interesting to know the statistics of what percentage of all

Afibbers are not affected by this lousy ailment and what percentage

are.

Success stories are absolutely wonderful..........wouldn't it be

great if somewhere down the road, a cure would be available and we

could all go our own way. In the meantime, I would like to think that

maybe our members who are *cured*, or at least have Afib under

control, would hang in here to give support and encouragement to

those members who are now going through what we went through. I know

we have lots of members, who are doing just that.........and I want

to thank you from the bottom of my ailing heart.

I actually consider myself a *success* story - despite the fact that

I am not *cured*. I was in permanent AFib and went through over a

year of hell. Now, however, thanks to medication (Dofetilide), I

have been in NSR for almost nine (9) months, and I have my life

back. Except for clogging, I am doing everything I did before Afib

and I feel great. I am back to dancing, work out four days a week at

the gym, just had a great (7000 mile) vacation. I am also Treasurer

of a very active Investment Club Online. I mention this only because

there was a time during *Afib* that I thought I was losing my mind.

In fact. I checked myself into the *you know what* floor of Duke

Medical Center.

BTW, I have a dual chamber Pacemaker - and I never give it a second

thought. As far as I'm concerned, it's just there and boy oh boy, it

must do a wonderful job, because I put it through its *PACES*!

Anyway, this is my *Success* story......and as Diane has suggested,

how about sharing your *Success* story?

Ellen

********************

It seems like we never hear about people being cured of their atrial

fibrillation because most of those people once cured get off the

lists and get on with their lives. I think we need to hear of the

success stories once in a while to keep our hopes alive.

(clip) Anyone else with a success story to tell? Diane Porter

*********************