I have had 11 cardioversions in the past 10 years or so. It works every time for me, but eventually I go into atrial fibrillation again. In fact, I noticed I got very tired when I took out the garbage yesterday and when I checked my pulse, I was fibrillating. I guess I'll have to call my cardiologist on Monday to schedule another jolt.
The procedure is fairly simple, and you won't feel a thing except for some residual soreness afterwards. They hook you up to an ekg machine, then either attach connectors for the defibrillator leads or use the paddles (depending on the preference of the cardiologist). You will be under general anaesthesia, so the process seems to take no time at all. You close your eyes, and when you open them again you will be in sinus rhythm. There is usually some slight irritation of the skin, similar to a sunburn, where the defibrillator leads are attached and your chest muscles may be sore for a day or two because of the sudden contraction, but it's not bad.
Only once in my 11 cardioversions did the cardiologist hit the voltage before I was 100% under the anaesthesia, and it was like getting hit by a truck. You definitely want to be completely anaesthetized. As long as the anaesthetist and the cardiologist know what they are doing, it is not unpleasant.
I hope your procedure goes well and that your fibrillation does not recur. In my case, it comes back after a few months and my cardiologist says there may come a day when cardioversion will no longer work on me and I will just have to live with the arrhythmia and its consequences. We shall see, I guess. Good Luck
Holy Smokes, I hope I dont have to be shocked as many times as you have. I went and saw the other cardiologist, the one who will do the shocking if needed. He's changed a couple of my meds, in hopes of getting the rhythm to correct itself and I go back in about 3 weeks. If Im still beating fast it looks like its going to be shock time. He took me off coumadin and put me on a new drug thats only been approved since the end of October, its called pradaxa and has absolutly no restrictions as to what you should not eat like coumadin has and you dont have to keep checking your blood with pt tests.
A pacemaker has never been mentioned, the third thing they do if meds and shocking doesnt do the trick, they go up through the groin and into the heart and corristize the little electrical impulses in your heart which are causing the heart to misfire. This is a last resort and both of my cardiologist say this is something they arent fond of doing, cause it can lead to other problems.
is scheduled for Tuesday the 25th at Southern Maryland.
