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

Doctors & patients are saying about 'Beat Your A-Fib'...

"If I had [your book] 10 years ago, it would have saved me 8 years of hell.”

Roy Salmon, Patient, A-Fib Free,
Adelaide, Australia

"This book is incredibly complete and easy-to-understand for anybody. I certainly recommend it for patients who want to know more about atrial fibrillation than what they will learn from doctors...."

Pierre Jaïs, M.D. Professor of Cardiology, Haut-Lévêque Hospital, Bordeaux, France

"Dear Steve, I saw a patient this morning with your book [in hand] and highlights throughout. She loves it and finds it very useful to help her in dealing with atrial fibrillation."

Dr. Wilber Su,
Cavanaugh Heart Center, Phoenix, AZ

"...masterful. You managed to combine an encyclopedic compilation of information with the simplicity of presentation that enhances the delivery of the information to the reader. This is not an easy thing to do, but you have been very, very successful at it."

Ira David Levin, heart patient,
Rome, Italy

"Within the pages of Beat Your A-Fib, Dr. Steve Ryan, PhD, provides a comprehensive guide for persons seeking to find a cure for their Atrial Fibrillation."

Walter Kerwin, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

My 20-year Warranty Ran Out! My A-Fib is Back!

Published July 29, 2019

I had my catheter ablation twenty years ago and was blessedly A-Fib free till age 78. This past autumn my A-Fib reared its devilish head once again.

During a medical exam in August 2018, one of my doctors (not a cardiologist) detected an irregular heart beat. When my EP took my ECG, he didn’t detect A-Fib (thank goodness) and I didn’t have any symptoms.

Medtronic Reveal LINQ

But, just to be sure, he implanted a tiny wireless heart monitor so he could review my heart activity over time.

A few months ago, the Medtronic Reveal LINQ loop monitor/recorder showed I had one asymptomatic A-Fib episode up to 15 hours long and one 5-second pause during my sleep at 3:00 am.

Read my earlier posts about the return of my A-Fib:
• Sept 2018: Has My A-Fib Returned? I Get an Insertable Wireless Monitor
• Oct 2018: Part 2: My Medtronic Reveal LINQ loop recorder—21-Day results
• Nov 2018: Part 3: PVCs/PACs but No A-Fib; False positives from my LINQ Monitor
You can also read my full A-Fib story (the first A-Fib.com story).

My A-Fib Recurrence Not Surprising

My A-Fib recurrence didn’t come as much of a surprise. My catheter ablation back in 1998 was primitive compared to what EPs are doing today. I had what was called at that time a “focal point catheter ablation”.

Steve Ryan - A-Fib free since 1998 - active lifestyle

Steve Ryan, A-Fib free since 1998, doing the high jump.

Back in 1998, they actually ablated inside just one of my pulmonary veins (PVs) to eliminate the A-Fib signal source. (Today they don’t ablate inside a PV anymore because of the possible danger of causing stenosis/swelling of the PV. Instead, they ablate/isolate at the openings of the PVs to block A-Fib signals from entering the left atrium from the PVs where most A-Fib signals come from.)

Also back then along with my A-Fib, I also had a lot of pauses. But they disappeared after my catheter ablation in 1998. A successful catheter ablation often eliminates these pauses, which is one of the reasons I chose to have a catheter ablation.

Strenuous Lifestyle: 20 Years is Not Enough

Steve Ryan sprint training

What’s surprising is not that my A-Fib re-occurred, but how long my relatively primitive ablation lasted. In effect, none of the openings to my PVs back in 1998 were electrically isolated from the rest of my heart (just inside one PV).

But nevertheless, I remained A-Fib free for 20 years while participating in very demanding, strenuous training and activities such as Masters Track meets.

I want another 20 years!

Choosing Ablation Rather Than A-Fib Drugs

I was offered the treatment option of just taking A-Fib drugs (I was asymptomatic). I chose instead to have a modern catheter ablation which will be performed Thursday, August 1st by Dr. Shephal Doshi at St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica, CA.

Also, I don’t want to be on today’s A-Fib drugs if I can avoid them.

Today’s Advanced Mapping Techniques

Dr. Doshi will identify and isolate the openings to my pulmonary veins so A-Fib signals from the PVs can’t get to the rest of your heart.

Ablation 3-D modeling screen

But that’s not the only possible source of A-Fib signals. A-Fib can develop from other areas of the heart such as the right atrium, left atrial appendage (LAA), transseptal wall, coronary sinus, etc.

So, Dr. Doshi will use advanced mapping technologies not available in 1998 to look for, then isolate, any other areas of the heart which produce A-Fib signals. His goal is to identify and isolate all A-Fib signals no matter the source.

In the final step of the ablation, he will use a drug or a electrical stimulation (pacing) to try and stimulate my heart back into A-Fib—hopefully with no success.