Successful Ablation Follow-Up

[liona]

Hi Everybody!

I visited Dr. Sherrid yesterday in NYC for my 3 week check-up after the acohol ablation I had May 29th. He said my huge heart murmur was gone. I told him that I'd noticed some new and amazing developments. Then I explained to him that after exercise my feet had appeared VERY PINK. I have not seen any color in my feet other than blue for about 20 years. My blackouts and greyouts have disappeared entirely.

I still do have chest pains, but they are much less. Also, I seem to need almost the 250 mg of beta-blockers I required before. He felt that over time, I'd probably be able to reduce my dosage and suggested I try Atenol. I had misunderstood him on the phone last week and thought he was suggesting another drug I was fearful of--------

I am full of questions about the heart condition that remains. Everyone talks about heart rhythm problems on this site as though you are supposed to know how these different things feel, but the entire subject is just about as clear as mud to me.

How am I supposed to know if I am having a heart rhythm problem? How do you distinguish them?

Also, I'm having a great deal of problems with leg spasms. I think this might be because my body is straining to accomodate the increased blood flow to my feet. Having lived on barely enough circulation to stay alive, the veins and arteries down there have a lot of adjusting to do. Has anyone else had this problem during recovery from surgery?

[Lisa Salberg]

Re: Successful Ablation Follow-Up

Rythm problems.... You are correct, I assumed that people would know and I should explain in more detail.
Your hearts rythm is directed by your sinus node - It tells your heart when to beat, in HCM the "wiring" of our hearts can be interupted or misdirected due to a number of issues including myocardial disarray, fibrosis and just plain ole thickness of the heart. Abnormal rythms can be completely harmless but you feel them and therefore they are unsettleing. You may feel a "flip flop" in your chest, a pounding, the sensation that you skipped a beat. In some cases you do not feel anything at all.
http://www.4hcm.org/overview/affects.php
Other rythm problems are very dangerous and on a thread about Ventricular Fibrillations there is a good explaination of all the different terms and what they mean.

I hope this helps a bit.
Lisa