Atrial Fibrillation and Endurance Athletes
This is a major update since my first post here, I’ll backfill the years in between and update the links.
Part 1 – Atrial Fibrillation and Endurance Athletes
Part 2 – the Good Years
Part 3 – Now the drugs don’t work, they just make you worse
Part 4 – Exercising with a beta blocker
Part 5 – Mini Maze procedure and recovery
At the end of 2024 and into 2025 I was getting more and more episodes of Atrial Fibrillation (afib). Some episodes were were lasting longer and longer. I discussed many drugs options with the arrhythmia nurses in Leeds, but they and I came to the conclusion that we had tried everything and they didn’t think changing drugs would improve anything. At this stage I was taking 2.5mg Bisoprolol twice a day. This did have the desired effect of rate controlling any episodes, but as it isn’t a rhythm controlling drug it wasn’t keeping the episodes away. I had been taking Flecainide but as a future post will explain after a few years this actually made things worse rather than better.
I’d been doing plenty of research myself and came across a few references to a procedure called “Mini Maze” which was big in the USA and Japan, but not mentioned much in the UK. I came across this very detailed blog here of a fellow cyclist who was on an early trial in the UK which he had great success with. I also came across a number of posts in the HealthUnlocked forums discussing the procedure and made the linkage to a UK consultant in Sheffield who was very experienced and a pioneer in this procedure.
The consultant who did the majority of the UK procedures is Dr Steven Hunter, I contacted his secretary on the 13th January 2025 who replied within two hours and said if my GP would refer me via the electronic referral system (ERS) then Dr Hunter would be happy to advise and help.
After contacting my GP they made the referral on Wed 15th January and then some weeks later I got an out patient appointment at the Sheffield Northern General hospital for mid March. I attended this and had a bit of a surprise when I went through the full pre-admission check lists, ECGs, weight, blood pressure, measured for stockings, bloods taken and a nasal cream and body wash for MSRA prevention prior to surgery. After all this I met Dr Hunter and he was very bullish that he thought he would be able to help and that the procedure would be beneficial in eliminating my atrial fibrillation.
I had my appointment through in May for the operation on the 5th June, this was then pushed back a week until Monday 9th June 2025 and I had to go into the hospital the night before. I was loaded up with precarb drinks on that evening and the Monday morning.
Dr Steven Hunter carried out a thoracoscopic AF ablation and occlusion of my left atrial appendage. He told me afterwards that I had some very dense adhesions of the posterior wall of the left atrium, a very large left atrial appendage and also some pleural lung adhesions. All this meant the operation was more challenging than expected.
He did carry out a roof and inferior lesion, and isolated the right and left pulmonary veins. He also divided and diathermied my Marshalls ligament.
I felt ok in the recovery area, a gastric bubble was spotted in my stomach on the Xrays so a tube was inserted through my nose to relieve the air in my stomach, that wasn’t very pleasant, I’m glad I was probably still under some general anaesthetic.
I work up on day 2 with my back feeling very sore, the slightest movement triggered off muscle spasms. The nurses were great and gave me some additional pain relief and changed my position. Once that had kicked in I was able to get out of bed and move around a bit but had to keep on top of the pain killers. Lying down wasn’t comfortable at all so that night I slept in a chair! The nurses were once again superb and found me a special padded foam chair to sleep in.
I improved day by day and was up and walking about the ward and able to shower from day 3 onwards and dress myself. The only thing I needed help with was putting on the surgical socks. I was getting more tired than usual but moved through the various wards and was eventually discharged on Thursday 12th June with a bag full of drugs! More to follow on the next 8 weeks!
