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My name is Kay Kudlacek and I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation when I was 43 years
old. My husband and I were very active with everything we did in our lives -- very active
with work, very active in the community. We like to travel a lot. We like to be outdoors
and do a lot of things outdoors. The atrial fibrillation really changed that for me.
Atrial fibrillation is the most common electrical problem that people will develop. It's associated
with a chaotic electrical rhythm in the top chambers of the heart and the result is that
the heart rate is accelerated and irregular. The performance of the heart is diminished.
My atrial fibrillation started by just feeling kind of a blip -- a real rapid heartbeat and
irregular heartbeat and only maybe for just a few seconds. It got to be a little bit worse
as far as lasting for longer periods of time. I would have these episodes where I could
feel my heart beating irregularly for anywhere up to 4 to 6 hours every day and it was both
physically and mentally draining for me. It was hard to concentrate, hard to do anything.
You can think of it as if your heart is trying to run a marathon day after day so you feel
like you've run a marathon even though you've gone about your daily activities normally.
I think in Kay's case the light headedness and headache were major complications of the
problem. My first cardiologist was with another hospital
and we got a point where we knew the medications I was on weren't really working and my atrial
fibrillation was actually getting worse. He actually referred me to another cardiologist
to talk about the next steps and to be honest with you, I wasn't really impressed this doctor.
I was actually just telling a coworker -- a friend of mine at work -- about my situation
and he referred me to Dr. Faddis. I did go online to the Internet and I did a search
for any information about him. Once we read more about Dr. Faddis, we were just instantly
impressed with his credentials. When she came to me, she fit right into that
tradition of taking patients who have failed traditional therapies that are readily available
and was looking at the sort of cutting edge of what we could do to help her.
He really gave me a high comfort level and made the decision a lot easier to go ahead
with the catheter ablation procedure, knowing that he would be the one performing the procedure.
The ablation catheter has a specialized electrode that applies electrical current so it creates
a little burn, kind of like a spot weld and by doing that in sequence you can create a
line, a fence around those problem areas and it takes about about 3 to 4 hours to establish
that perimeter and then over the course of about 3 months, that place that we've created
by catheter ablation becomes a permanent scar that will protect against that atrial fibrillation
from entering out into the heart. We work as a team and are committed to understanding
what the next step is to enhance this so all patients that we see get the advantage of
the latest techniques and technology. I knew that it was the right decision I had
made and I didn't really have any doubts about the procedure itself or the doctor that was
going to perform it. I really had all the confidence in the world in Dr. Faddis.
It's a high volume center. I think that's critical because each member of the team helps
us with this, from the nurses to the staff, the technicians -- we all have to be very
accustomed to a complex procedure that happens on a daily basis and that helps us do it effectively.
I can honestly say that I don't have any a-fib which is like night and day compared to before.
I didn't realize how miserable I was and how awful I felt until now, when I don't feel
like that anymore and I really feel like I got my life back.