Re: Health Issues........

Tom Betka wrote:
They wouldn't give you a defibrillator for Atrial Fibrillation--that's
more to guard against Ventricular Fibrillation, which is NOT
compatible with life. And the sooner you get shocked, the better the
chance to bring the heart out of Vfib.

Afib is typically controlled with medication, although they will
sometimes try to cardiovert a heart back to a normal rhythm via
shocking the person, using drugs, or both. But sometimes nothing works
and the best you can hope for is to control the person's ventricular
rate at a satsifactory level, as the default heart rate with Afib is
120 bpm PLUS. And if you have "Afib with rapid ventricular response"
it can be much faster, and actually lead to heart failure simply
because the heart doesn't have time to fill with blood between beats,
so the blood doesn't move through the system as efficiently. Also,
there's a risk for clots to form (especially in the atria, which are
essentially just sitting there quivering (fibrillating).

They will also sometimes put in a pacemaker so that if the person's
heart rate gets too fast, the pacemaker can slow down the ventricles
(which are basically trying to set their own pace in the absence of
the normal "command" from the atria) to a more tolerable level.
Extended periods of time at fast heart rates can cause significant
damage to the heart--for example a heart attack. Slowing down the
heart is critical in situations such as this.

Afib is no picnic, but it isn't a death sentence either.There are
excellent medications available these days, and for the most part
people can function fairly normally. Low exercise tolerance (as Ben
alluded) is the biggest issue, in my experience treating these folks
over the years.

I hope things work out well for you Ben. If you have any other
questions, give me an email and I can give you a call.

TB

You know a lot about medicine for a drummer.
What'd you do, google that? ;-b


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-MIKE-

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