Need Some Advice and Reassurance...

L.,

Of course there are many details you haven't shared. Like.....did your sister take care of herself? Did she have a pacemaker in place, etc...

I'm sure you are scared but please don't panic. My father was diagnosed at about age 50. His own father died fairly young of the same. However my father was very proactive with health, nutrition and treatment. He is now 92 years old and still volunteers 5 days a week! All his children have gray hair! And modern medicine is improving as I type.

Sit back, take a deep breath. If you don't meditate, learn how. Go through the process of truly educating yourself. There are things you can do.

Feel free to contact me if I can help.

Be Well!

Hi L.,
I work as a telemetry technician, and what I do all day at work, is monitor patients with atrial fib. I can tell you that it is more common than you may think. You can still live to be 100. You are right by thinking that 32 is young. We see it a lot in 50+, but I have seen a 25 year old with it.

The Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati, OH has a new procedure that has been very successful over the last 6 months. It replaces the flap in the atrium where a fib occurs, with a mesh of some sort. Yes, that means open heart surgery! But it could increase your changes of getting rid of it for good.

One thing that your cardiologist might consider is cardioversion. In clear english, that is a heart shock that will let you get back into a normal sinus rhythm. I am assuming you are in and out of a fib? Or are you experiencing it 24/7? You may be admitted at some point to get put on a drip called cardizem which will decrease the heart rate, and help you go in to normal sinus. All these words are very technical, and probably confusing. Please email me if you need more info, or if I can direct you in any way.

I am so sorry to hear about this. I can not even imagine what your are going through...

As far as living wills, I believe everyone should have them. Does not matter if you are healthy or not. So get your husband to do it with you. At the very least let everyone know what your wishes are. When it is clear, it limits any confusion and bad feelings later. Especially between your spouse and your parents and even your daughter.

BTW, wouldn't an internal defibrillator help with afib?

I am not going through the same situation. My husband and I do not have any medical conditions that we know of. But, after our son was born...we did have wills made and got insurance policies on all of us. It is never something that you want to think about, but the truth is that we never know what will happen to us. I think that all parents should be prepared and it will definitely give you a little peace of mind knowing that your child will be taking care of if something happened to you or your husband.

First of all, chin up on your health. Do the best you can to get the right diagnosis and treatment, but put the rest in God's hands. Worrying won't help, and many studies show that prayer/positive attitude/strong support from family and friends can make a real health improvement. You are in my prayers...

As for planning for the future, when our children were born we met with our attorney and our financial planner. We took out more life insurance, because we weren't considering all the other additional costs that we'd need if one of us were to pass away (child care, house-cleaning, meal prep, etc. depending on the age of our children at the time). We chose to pay more for life insurance to give us the peace of mind that the surviving spouse could still put time with the kids first on the agenda. We put a will in place and are working on living wills (although we did discuss our wishes with each other and close family members). I have also reviewed the paperwork that came from a local funeral home - while we didn't make any payments, we do want to make sure that we have a (loose) plan for funeral, burial, etc. I know it sounds morbid, but the funeral home did have some useful checklists with questions we'd never considered. Because we've buried both of my husband's parents, it's important to us to try to reduce the burden as much as possible should something happen to one of us. I know that this is a long answer, but I hope there's a helpful nugget or two ;)

Wow, I am sorry for what you are going through and truly hope everything turns out okay.

I lost my dear mother this past summer to complications from leukemia. She had the foresight 4 years ago to meet with a family-planning attorney and get everything in writing. She had Power of Attorney paperwork for both financial matters and health care decisions (naming me as having POA if and when she reached a point where she could not handle decision making for herself, so I was able to manage her bank accounts, write checks for bills, etc.) She had an advanced directive that stated explicity what her wishes were as far as medical care (i.e. whether or not she would have a feeding tube placed, whether or not she would allow CPR if her heart or breathing stopped, etc.).

My brother and I were already grown, so naturally there wasn't an issue as far as any kind of guardianship, but I would think that you should have something like that in writing in case something happens to both you and your husband. If something happens to just you, and she is not yet 18, I would think she would just stay with your husband (assuming he is also her father).

It's a grim task and not such a fun thing to have to think about or deal with, but everyone (especially those with children) should have documented plans for just in case the unthinkable happens. I would recommend meeting with an attorney who specializes in these matters and let them guide you through the process. Good luck, I truly hope the decisions you make now never have to be followed trough with.

p.s. Just read some of the other responses - admittedly, I don't know much about atrial fib, but hopefully it will not be an issue for you. But I would still consult with an attorney because life is unpredictable and the scary truth is that something could happen to either you or your husband, or both, that has nothing to do with the atrial fib. I hope this helps...

So sorry that you are going through this. Everyone though, regardless of current health, should have a gameplan for their children if something happens to them. You do not want to leave anything to chance. I am stunned at the amount of people who do not have a will that defines the care of their children if something should happen to them.