Well, I am back, and with a new look. On these pages, that is. My personal look is the same old thing. In fact, I look much like my high school yearbook picture: a few more pounds, a few more wrinkles, and a mustache, but basically the same.

I've been absent from here for a while, so let's see if we can catch up a bit. It will be a bit disjointed, and not entirely sequential.

As both of you regular readers know, I've been dealing with atrial fibrillation for several years -- about 7, actually. This is a condition that cause the heart to beat irregularly and fast. It is not necessarily life-threatening, although you have to worry about clots forming if the 'episode' lasts longer than a day or two. To control it, I've been taking beta-blockers (Sotalol) and low-dose aspirin (for thinner blood, to reduce clotting problems). There are many possible cause for this condition: thyroid problems, heart muscle thickness, bad heart valves. In my case, all of those possibilities were explored but negative. So, when I first had these episodes, I was diagnosed with "lone atrial fibrillation", which means that there is no specific cause for the condition. (Although later research has some interesting ideas, which we'll discuss later.)

The episodes (for lack of a better term) started out, many years ago, occurring only two-three times a year. They lasted about 8-10 hours, at which time the heart would return to a normal sinus rhythm, sometimes on it's own, and sometimes with the help of drugs at the ER. For the past year, however, the episodes have been happening about every two-three weeks.

Each episode is very tiring -- it is like your heart is exercising but you aren't. So, during an episode, I generally relax around the house and wait for the heart rate to spontaneously return to normal. Afterwards, I'm tired from all the 'exercise', so I usually spend the next day relaxing at home. This was OK at first, but with the more frequent occupancies, it really puts a crimp in my 'quality of life'.

During the summer, the doctor recommended that I increase my Sotalol dosage. That didn't work out too well. Sotalol slows down your heart rate, and the higher dosage was getting the heart rate in the 40's (per minute). That was very tiring, a bit of light-headedness, and wasn't much fun (even during the normal times). So, we backed off to the prior dosage, which helped with the heart rate a bit (it went up to a resting rate of 50 beats per minute). But I was still getting the episodes every couple-three weeks.

In November, the doctor decided we'd try to drop the Digoxin (which I had been taking for several years), with the idea that perhaps that would reduce the frequency of the episodes. So I did that (after returning from Disneyland trip). It seemed to work out OK; I had an episode on Turkey Day that only lasted about 4 hours.

But December rolled around, and I had a particularly fast-rate episode while driving home from my parents. Usually I just head for home and wait it out, but this time was a bit different, so I stopped by the ER room, and won a two-night stay.in the ICU while they loaded me up with a different drug (amidarone). That drug takes a while to 'load up' in your system, and they like to watch things while they get it to the proper level. That watching is best done in the ICU, where they have the patient-nurse ratio to be able to pay attention to things.

After getting home, I had a visit with my regular doctor. Although there are some long-term problems with amidarone, we thought that we'd try consulting with some more heart specialists that have been concentrating on this problem. So I've been waiting for that appointment to get scheduled. And in the meantime, I have had episodes about once a week.

The last one was last Friday (there was one the Saturday before that that I waited out at home). When this one started, I was near another branch of the hospital (Kaiser), so checked into that ER. That won me another two-night stay in the ER, while they tried to force the heart rate to normal. Usually the episode last about 18 hours, this one took about 27. So, I got home yesterday with a newer plan.

We're still aiming for the consultation with the specialist at the Kaiser facility near San Jose (CA). But since I was at a different Kaiser hospital, I also have got an appointment with one of their cardiologists for a second opinion.

There is some new research that indicates that atrial fibrillation (AF) can be caused by stray electrical signals from the pulmonary veins (the four veins that carry blood from the lungs to the heart). These veins are formed with similar material as the heart, but usually don't generate an electrical signal...that's the heart muscle's job. But in some people the pulmonary veins can generate an electrical signal that gets into the heart, interfering with the normal electrical beat signals.

One of the techniques to fix the problem is to snake a catheter through your veins (from the leg) into the heart. By ablading (causing scar tissue) certain areas of the heart muscle, you can channel the electrical signals into a specific pathway, avoiding the improper pattern of heart beat signals. This technique was initially done during open-heart surgery, often when fixing other problems.

A newer technique is to use the catheter 'snake' (as mentioned before) to ablade the inside of the pulmonary vein where it connects with the heart. Since the electrical signal can't go through scar tissue, this blocks the stray electrical signal that may cause some AF episodes. So, that is our plan: consult with various specialists to see if that technique will be appropriate for me. It is quite successful, a study this year indicated a success rate of 50-85% (the lower numbers are for people with other heart conditions).

I've done a bit of research about this ("Google is your friend"), and have found lots of good (and reliable) information about this technique. So, the first full week of January I have a visit with my regular doctor (always recommended after an ER visit; and he is very good), along with my current cardiologist, and a new one for a second opinion. The current cardiologist didn't seem to be aware of the newer techniques for AF, so we'll see what the second doctor says. And I have another consultation with the San Jose-area cardiology specialists the following week. We're hoping that we can figure out a way to reduce (or even eliminate) the episodes; the ablation techniques seem (to this layman) to be a good choice. The current situation of an episode a week is not very conducive to work or relaxation.

So, that's why the posts here have been a bit spotty lately. We did have a good holiday (and still are, with any luck). Stacy is home from college, and it's nice to have her around for two weeks. We visited with friends and family, spoiled the grandchildren with just about a van-load of presents, took some time off from work for shopping and baking, and generally had a good time (between AF episodes, at least).

Today was back to work day, although only for two days, as we're taking the rest of the week off for more family-oriented activities. It was quite stormy today, and very cold (for our area; it got down in the low 40's F). Lots of snow up in the mountains (several feet on this storm; six or more feet in the north state, which shut down Interstate 5 into Oregon). So we're hanging out at home. I'm doing this and other computer geeky stuff, Pam is watching movies on DirecTV, and Stacy will be heading out a bit to goof off with her friends.

And we'll try, with any luck, to keep things going here. We started this about a year ago, and it is mostly fun to do. And besides, it gives Brian C some practice checking out the proper use of apostrophes (or is that apostrophe's?).