Counting our Blessings in Supporting the Atrial Fibrillation Patient Community

As we started 2013, and reflected on how blessed we were to touch the lives of so many in 2012, we received two messages almost simultaneously that really touched our hearts and made us realize that we should be sharing these messages.

We frequently receive kind and thoughtful messages from folks who have found solutions to their afib through our StopAfib.org site and the Atrial Fibrillation Blog. We haven’t been sharing them, but we should be. So we are posting these two messages below and invite you to share your own thoughts and messages here as well.

Here are those two messages that touched our hearts:

1. “I contacted you last year concerning my A-Fib and the lack of any EP’s here who had any real experience performing an ablation. I took your advice not to let someone with little experience perform the procedure on me and found Dr. Wimmer at St. Lukes in Kansas City who has performed over 700 ablations. He successfully conducted the procedure a year ago and I am happy to say that I am still free of A-FIb.

   “I remember in May of 2010 being in the hospital recovering from my second minor stroke when they had discovered that I had A-Fib. I had no idea what it was and quickly began to research the condition. My Dr. was very helpful, but the information I learned from your web site helped to educate me on my condition and encouraged me to seek out the possibility of an ablation. I considered the advice you gave me to search out an experienced Dr. to be the best recommendation I have ever received. I want to sincerely thank you for the help you gave me.”

   ~~William Luce

2. “I am 64 years old and in excellent health. I began to notice my heart beating more rapidly early in 2012 at age 63. I have never had high blood pressure and results of my bloodwork from my annual physicals have always been very good. I had never been on any kind of medication whatsoever. After noticing the rapid heartbeats, I visited my family physician who recommended that I see Dr. Ramesh Hariharan, a renowned electrophysiologist in The Woodlands, Texas.

   “After many tests and many weeks of heart monitoring (which Afib patients necessarily go through), I was diagnosed with paroxysmal Afib. During this time, I began to study Afib and fortunately came across the StopAfib.org website. This is a fantastic website that provided me a very good education about Afib and the associated medical procedures available. I thank God every day for Mellanie True Hills for creating this wonderful website. Reading her story and those of Jack Drum, Ralph Miller, Jason Mattingly and Michele Straube was inspiring to me and gave me great hope that solutions are available.

   “I opted for the catheter ablation procedure which was performed by Dr. Hariharan on November 7, 2012. Dr. Hariharan performs an astoundingly high number of these medical procedures annually and his patients come literally from all over the world. The procedure took about 4 hours to complete and Dr. Hariharan told my wife right afterwards that it was “textbook” successful. My recovery was very quick and I was back to work after a few days. I am taking prescribed medication (Xarelto and Flecainide) and aspirin regimen which will continue for a couple more months. I have not had any Afib episodes since November 7.

   “I want to thank Mellanie True Hills from the bottom of my heart. Mellanie, you have saved and are saving untold numbers of lives.”

   ~~Rod Gryder

Thank you William and Rod for your kind words and thoughts.

We invite you to share your own thoughts and messages here, too. Thank you for blessing us with your support and your feelings.