i don't visit this thread because DAMMIT I'M NOT OLD and also i doubt any of y'all are discussing perimenopausal symptoms lol... but thought it might be a good place to ask...
anybody have experience with cardiac ablation for afib?
in 2020 i started having intermittent bouts of afib that correlated with instances of high alcohol usage (i.e. parties and such) around my menstrual cycle. very likely hormone related (thus the perimenopause mention). it was inconsistent and i saw my pcp in Austin multiple times over about two years, with ekg, echo, etc...he could never detect it during those times.
then we moved to Denver and the altitude and continuing hormonal changes seems to have made it 'persistent'...i was hiking at about 9k last summer and suddenly realized i felt like i was literally gonna pass out. it was pretty scary...got a pcp here soon after and boom - persistent afib. no other health issues, just my heart freaking out.
i barely drink anymore, and i'm still not fully menopausal (fuck this fucking bullshit, fuck! lol).
anyways...i had the cardioversion (hard 'reboot') back in November...lasted about three weeks, which is not actually abnormal. so now we're discussing ablasion.
i'm feeling reluctant bc the thought of, like, burning shit and creating scar tissue on purpose inside my heart is kinda just freaking me out 😳 but i'm still pretty young...had a long meeting with cardiac specialist this week and went thru all the options... there are medications but there's longterm drawbacks there as well. and i just really don't want to be on any permanent meds at this point if i can help it...my mom had to carry around an index card front/back with all her meds so she could just remember them, and you can't convince me the toxic damage from some of that shit didn't contribute heavily to her demise.
i dunno...my dad also has afib for like 10 years now and is basically just of 'live with it' mindset...but he's 76, not 53.
so that's more words than i intended, but basically i guess i'm asking if anybody has had their heart cauterized and how was it? 🤔😐