OT: The Dutch way with atrial fibrillation

When I woke up this morning, I realised that I was in atrial fibrillation
again; irregulatr heart-beat, and going upstairs to my study made me
breathless.

Last night I'd noticed that getting up the stairs to my study was suddenly
hard work, so I figured that it had set in earlier that evening.

It is easy for a cardiologist to fix it - they knock you out with a fast
acting anaesthetic, stop your heart with a big electric shock, and start it
up again with a smaller shock, and the heart almost always starts up beating
regularly.

The catch is that if they don't do it within 48 hours of the onset of
fibrillation, your blood gets to pool in the stagnant bits of the upper
chambers of your heart (the atrium) and forms clots, which would get spread
around the body when the heart was shocked back into normal rythm.

This is also fixable. They give you rat poison - wafarin - for about six
weeks, until they are sure that your blood-clotting time is about three
times longer than normal, and any blood clots are too soft to produce a
stroke or deep vein thrombosis, and then - and only then - do they give you
the electric shocks.

So I spent the morning ringing my GP - who couldn't do anything, but likes
to have his authority acknowledged - and then the hospital that looks after
my heart. It took two phone calls before the assistant who answers the
relevant phone got to understand why I wanted my electric shock today, but
she then gave the cardiologist the right message, and I was given the okay
to go to the cardiac emergency room at the hospital.

I got there at three in the afternoon, and spent two hours lying around
while they measured everything that they could think of - and even X-rayed
my chest - before deciding that they agreed with me.

They knocked me out at five, and when I came to at about 5:30 pm the problem
had been fixed. I had to lay around for another half hour to prove that
there weren't any residual problems from the anaesthetic, and I had to hang
around for a little longer before my wife could pick me up, but I was home
again at 6:30pm, and had no problem with the stairs up to my study.

And it won't cost me anything - beyond what I already pay for my compulsory
(and universal) medical insurance.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen


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Relevant Pages

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    ... Last night I'd noticed that getting up the stairs to my study was suddenly ... acting anaesthetic, stop your heart with a big electric shock, and start it ... up again with a smaller shock, and the heart almost always starts up beating ... relevant phone got to understand why I wanted my electric shock today, ...
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  • Re: OT: The Dutch way with atrial fibrillation
    ... hard work, so I figured that it had set in earlier that evening. ... acting anaesthetic, stop your heart with a big electric shock, and start it ... up again with a smaller shock, and the heart almost always starts up beating ... if the second electric shock that is supposed to restart your heart ...
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  • Re: OT: The Dutch way with atrial fibrillation
    ... Last night I'd noticed that getting up the stairs to my study was suddenly ... acting anaesthetic, stop your heart with a big electric shock, and start it ... up again with a smaller shock, and the heart almost always starts up beating ... called a-fib "old heart," figuring it was inevitable, ...
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