It's been only three months since I had the Maze Procedure that cured my atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation is a heart disorder found in about 2.2 million Americans. During atrial fibrillation, the heart's two upper chambers quiver instead of beating normally.
The blood isn't completely pumped out of these upper chambers called atria, so there is a chance that it may pool and clot.
If a blood clot leaves the heart and becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke results. About 15 percent of all strokes occur in people with A-Fib.
Usually, those with chronic A-Fib disorders are on anticoagulants (blood thinners) to help prevent clotting. These anticoagulant drugs have to be monitored frequently necessitating a finger prick, and a trip your Doctor or INR clinic.
I'd had chronic A-Fib for several years that was very well controlled by the anti-arrhythmic drug, Cardia, and a dual chamber pacemaker. I lived a very active life, doing anything I wanted to do.
While I was sitting in my easy chair watching the 2009 Westminster Dog Show, my pectoral muscle under my pacemaker started twitching like crazy. I was quite naturally alarmed, thinking that my pacer was malfunctioning.
A visit to the ER confirmed that yes; indeed, one of the pacer leads had fractured and was leaking an electrical impulse into my pectoral muscle. Of course, the lead had to be extracted, and during the extraction procedure, my tricuspid heart valve was severely damaged, so much so, that it required open heart surgery to repair the damage.
While I had been told before that the Maze Procedure would probably cure my atrial fibrillation thus eliminating any need for heart medication or anticoagulants, I certainly would never have considered the drastic measure of open heart valve surgery to remedy my A-Fib until this unusual chain of events unfolded.
But, since open heart surgery was the only way to fix my severely regurgitating tricuspid valve, my heart surgeon, as a matter of routine on his A-Fib patients, performed a Maze Procedure inside my heart.
As diagrams of the maze procedure shows, the surgical procedure consists of creating a number of incisions in the atrium that are meant to disrupt the errant electrical signals thereby doing away with the quivering in the atria and restoring normal rhythm to the beating of the heart.
Studies show that the Maze Procedure effectively cures atrial fibrillation at least eighty percent of the time.
Would I have gone through open heart valve repair surgery just to cure my A-Fib? No, of course not, but I am ecstatic that a side benefit of my surgery was complete elimination of my chronic atrial fibrillation.
If you would like to follow the day by journey of my open heart surgery - atrial fibrillation ...what made it better, what made it worse, stop by my blog and leave a comment about your own experiences. A another resource that was incredible, was a book that included the story of 78 individuals who had open heart surgery and who are doing well!!!
