RLR
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Well, it's as I said before; If you're persistent enough, someone will offer a physiological cause for your symptoms. Based upon your inquiry to me, however, I see it's done little in the way of bringing any sense of relief or comfort now that you have a physical diagnosis.
Although I'm certainly not here on the forum to challenge medical decisions by your own doctor, my personal opinion here is I don't agree with the evaluation that you have atrial flutter. Atrial flutter is associated with very rapid and often irregular contractions of the atria due to a re-entrant node (the extra pathway) that becomes excited and causes a rather cyclic electrical signal to perpetuate through the atria. It typically causes breathlessness, dizziness and nausea in most patients, with some patients describing the sensation as feeling as though a little motor is running inside their chest. Because the atria aren't able to properly contract during AF, blood can pool and given the right hemotological circumstances, a clot can form. In the absence of other pathology, such as history of heart disease or stroke, it is typically harmless.
Ablation is used to destroy the re-entrant pathway to stop the cyle that precedes and ultimately causes AF to take place. While it is not considered very invasive, ablation where re-entrant irregularities are not present does nothing to relieve the symptoms due to other causes.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I just don't recall you describing your symptoms as any sudden onset of tachycardia with associated irregular rhythm and I'm not speaking here about either of those events separately, but as a firm sequential and characteristic event.
AF is the consequence of a physiological abnormality and it's there to stay and produce symptoms until a decision is made where ablation techniques are warranted. You don't just experience a few palpitations here or there in the absence of other qualifying and necessary criteria. I certainly do not have the advantage of evaluating you directly or seeing the ECG for myself and I'm not in the position here to challenge the diagnosis. I'm merely stating that based upon the history of the complaint as you described it to me, I just don't see this being AF at all.
Patients with health anxiety and somatic symptoms are often caught in a world of pure torment. They are compelled by uncertainty and fear to associate their symptoms with an underlying physical cause and when one if finally given, they subsequently employ the very same uncertainty and fear that originally brought them to the doctor's doorstep appealing for them to find a cause.
The only constant in this scenario is the uncertainty and fear based upon unwavering perspectives that are flawed in nature. You do realize that you can't live in purgatory. You must decide whether you're well or sick, but not both. If the palpitations are the consequence of stress-induced anxiety disorder, then you must proceed to treat it from that standpoint and move forward with your life knowing that you don't have any underlying disease.
By contrast, if you remain convinced that there is an underlying physical cause for your palpitation events, then you've already received the official diagnosis of AF and you must prepare to live out the remainder of your life within the restrictions of care and prevention associated with such a disorder.
As much as there is a pathway to choose from a healthcare standpoint, there is likewise a decision to be made regarding the identity of what compels you to continually place yourself in the position of uncertainty and subsequent fear. You can choose to ignore this characteristic, but it always manifest itself in one aspect or another until you do.
Best regards and Good Health
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