Doctors & patients are saying about 'A-Fib.com'...
"A-Fib.com is a great web site for patients, that is unequaled by anything else out there."
Dr. Douglas L. Packer, MD, FHRS, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
"Jill and I put you and your work in our prayers every night. What you do to help people through this [A-Fib] process is really incredible."
Jill and Steve Douglas, East Troy, WI
“I really appreciate all the information on your website as it allows me to be a better informed patient and to know what questions to ask my EP.
Faye Spencer, Boise, ID, April 2017
“I think your site has helped a lot of patients.”Dr. Hugh G. Calkins, MD Johns Hopkins,
Baltimore, MD
After 50 years of Irregular Heartbeats and PVCs, Finally an A-Fib Diagnosis and Treatment
Cecelia Hender, 72, shares about her life with Atrial Fibrillation. She writes that heart arrhythmias have been a part of her life since she was a young woman.
I was about 20 years old when I first experienced irregular heartbeats. My doctor back then told me it was “nerves” and to relax.
This was how most women were treated by doctors back then. Everything was “nerves”.
Cecelia Hender from Abington, MA with her granddaughter.
In my 30’s, I told another doctor how my heart would take off like a race horse, I could not breathe. He said, “try not to think about it.” What????
I fought with these irregular heartbeats for many years. I was never told to see a cardiologist or have a doctor investigate just what was going on.
Sent to a Cardiologist Almost By Accident
About 15 years ago, I worked for a medical facility, and one day a young doctor came in and was waiting for an interview…when he said he was an electrophysiologist [cardiac specialist], I asked about my irregular heartbeats.
He was so kind and intelligent…It was this young doctor who told me that I should see a cardiologist. So, I did. And I was treated with medications and wore many heart monitors.
Hard to Document the Arrhythmia
But it was always hard to catch the arrhythmias on an ECG or heart monitor.
Finally, in 2017 I had another [heart] monitor, and it showed a series of irregular heartbeats.
But on this one particular day, I had a very irritating rhythm. It was very fast, then irregularly fast, and I could barely breathe. I went to my PCP [Primary Care Physician] office where they did an EKG and said, “You are in A-Fib”.
They sent me immediately to my cardiologist who confirmed this. I was put on a different kind of med (Metoprolol at first and also Coumadin). And “fingers crossed” I would convert on my own. It took almost two weeks…Continue to read how two ablations brought Cecelia Hender relief from A-Fib and PVCs, and about a recent setback ->
