Guest guest Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 New member here, appreciate seeing that I'm not the only one dealing with permanent A-Fib. Let me give a brief history, and tell me if I'm on the right track in dealing with this A-fib. I'm 54, diagnosed a year ago with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HOCM or HCM), with periodic A-fib. Converted to NSR in the hospital and have been on metoprolol (a beta blocker) for the past year with monthly episodes of A-Fib lasting 2-4 hours. A month ago, went into permanent A-Fib. Went to see an EP and she put me on a Holter monitor two days ago. It showed constant A- fib with heart rate of 50-170 bpm, averaging 120 bpm even with metoprolol. She called today and is starting me on Cartia XT (Diltiazim), a calcium channel blocker to try and slow the heart to a more reasonable rate. I'm assuming if this doesn't work, the next step would be hospitalization with rhythm control and cardioversion. And finally some type of ablation. Is this the way things should play out, generally speaking? Or is there a safer and more reasonable way to proceed? I'm fairly asymptomatic, and can still drink my coffee, have a beer, and walk on the treadmill (hey, I'm already in A-fib, so I don't have to worry about putting myself into it, do I?). I'd like to be armed with your first-hand experiences before I meet next with my EP. I know what the literature says should be done, but I'd sure like to hear about your real-world experiences and opinions. Many thanks in advance! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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