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>> I would just flop down on the sofa.
My heart was just racing.
Just lie there, close my eyes, and just hope that the moment would pass.
And it usually took several hours before it passed.
And then I lived with it for years and years and years.
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And ultimately, they realized it was atrial fibrillation.
It was decided that we could control this with medications.
It's a condition where one experiences an irregular heartbeat,
upwards of 130 beats a minute, and it just won't go away.
In my case, you never really knew when it was going to happen.
So it does change the way you live your life because you know, you're -- yeah, you are.
You're very apprehensive about should I do this or should I not do
that because I might have a problem.
And it was, like, just put the day on hold and hope you didn't have anything to do.
For instance, I had exercise classes that I went to, and I played bridge.
I did other things, out to a book club.
I had to rely on friends and neighbors for help for anything I did.
You were always under this cloud that you just didn't --
you couldn't -- you didn't have a life.
And then, I had the stroke, and finally, the doctor here in Petoskey referred me
to Doctor Morady at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.
I read about the best places to have an ablation done, and of course,
the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center ranked right up there.
And my doctor here, he wouldn't have thought that we should go anywhere else.
They took time with me and made me feel as if I were, really, the only person under their care.
Well, with the catheter ablation, they just take this cauterizing tool
and burn off all these bundles of fibers that seem to be creating the problem
and giving you the irregular heartbeat.
There's about an 85 or 6 percent cure rate, if you will, and I just felt very fortunate,
and I only had to have one ablation.
And I left the hospital the next day.
I mean, it was like a new lease on life.
Some of my friends said you know, you're like a different person.
I just felt like living again, really living.
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