Well, yesterday I had appointments with my "downtown" cardio (at Northwestern, where my surgery was performed), the pacemaker clinic there, and an electrophysiologist.
The cardio, who was assigned to me for continuity to the surgical team, and I both concluded that there is nothing more she needs to do for me. My routine care will now be transferred to my regular cardio closer to home. This works well for me. . .
The pacemaker clinic reported that my device is working just fine. It paces my upper heart chamber about half the time but the lower chamber nearly all the time, because my lower chamber seems to wait too long after the upper "fires" to do its own thing. I found that my pacer is set with a lower rate limit of 60 BPM and an upper limit of 130 BPM.
When I met with the electrophysiologist, we discussed setting the upper limit higher and decided that we can consider it in the future but for now we will leave it as is - to allow more time for healing without high rate stress.
The EP also said that the pacer indicated that I have not had any AFIB since late March, and that with 5 weeks in a normal sinus rhythm, I can dicsontinue the amiodarone! Yesterday was the last of that for me, unless problems arise as it works out of my system. This is also good.
I asked about how long I need to take warfarin, given that I don't have chronic AFIB. The EP said that we should probably continue it for the next month or so, and that I should discuss it with my regular cardio. I see him in a couple of weeks and will do so.
The part that made my day was when the EP said " From where you are now, you can look forward to the same quality of life and life span you would have had if you never needed heart surgery." When I thought about this comment on the way to work, I was really moved. After all the stuff I've gone through, I can still have a regular life. This I plan to do!
The cardio, who was assigned to me for continuity to the surgical team, and I both concluded that there is nothing more she needs to do for me. My routine care will now be transferred to my regular cardio closer to home. This works well for me. . .
The pacemaker clinic reported that my device is working just fine. It paces my upper heart chamber about half the time but the lower chamber nearly all the time, because my lower chamber seems to wait too long after the upper "fires" to do its own thing. I found that my pacer is set with a lower rate limit of 60 BPM and an upper limit of 130 BPM.
When I met with the electrophysiologist, we discussed setting the upper limit higher and decided that we can consider it in the future but for now we will leave it as is - to allow more time for healing without high rate stress.
The EP also said that the pacer indicated that I have not had any AFIB since late March, and that with 5 weeks in a normal sinus rhythm, I can dicsontinue the amiodarone! Yesterday was the last of that for me, unless problems arise as it works out of my system. This is also good.
I asked about how long I need to take warfarin, given that I don't have chronic AFIB. The EP said that we should probably continue it for the next month or so, and that I should discuss it with my regular cardio. I see him in a couple of weeks and will do so.
The part that made my day was when the EP said " From where you are now, you can look forward to the same quality of life and life span you would have had if you never needed heart surgery." When I thought about this comment on the way to work, I was really moved. After all the stuff I've gone through, I can still have a regular life. This I plan to do!
