Bolo
Contributing Partner
While looking over some of the videos on my YouTube channel I came across one that's only accessible to someone with the link (that I provide below) and not something that's viewable to the general public. It was produced not by me but by Boston Scientific and it has a link to sailing. Years ago I was diagnosed with arterial fabulation, a.k.a. "A-Fib". Simply this is a condition where the heart starts beating very fast and irregularly. It's sort of like a gasoline engine (prior to computer controlled carbs) with bad timing that going very fast. This condition (in humans, not cars) can result in a stroke or worse, the big sleep. So it's serious. My sitting heart rate when my A-Fib was diagnosed was 170 beats per minute! Try that on a stationary bike.
I am going to get to how this involves sailing so hang tight. The treatment back then, after a few days in the hospital, were heart drugs. Lots of them, but in a lot of cases the drugs become less effective after a time and a patient often slips into A-Fib for a time which what was happening to me and I could feel it. So, the next step was to have an "ablation" done to my heart. Basically during A-Fib your heart is short circuiting causing the timing to go off. An ablation, which is done inside the heart, maps the areas causing the condition and scars those cells because errant electric signals in the heart cannot get through scar tissue. This was how it was explained to me. Normally this is done with extreme heat or cold to basically "kill" the cells. Yes, having a doctor tell me that he was going to kill cells inside my heart sounded scary to me as well. With the heat or cold treatment there is a possibility of collateral damage to other heart tissues and structures near the heart which are monitored. But my electrocardiologist wanted me to be put into a study for a new and much less invasive ablation called "Pulsed Field Ablation" or PFA. That procedure used (from what I understand) special radio waves adjusted to only affect the cells in the heart that were causing my A-Fib. It's real Buck Rogers kind of stuff! In other words it was a much less invasive and quicker procedure that has a great success rate in trials in Europe and I would be the first one in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to receive this procedure which in the end turned out to be a great success for me and my cardiologist.
Enter Boston Scientific, manufacturer of the device that's used to preform the PFA, who after hearing about the success of my treatments wanted to make me sort of "poster boy" (in a good way) touting the success. So they sent a camera crew to interview me at my home and also ask, "So Bob, what are the things you like to do?" Well' of course, sailing was in the top five so I was asked to provide some photos of me sailing and, "Hey guys, would you like some video too?" They were very happy about that and included it into the video I link below. All joking aside, I'd like to keep all you Ericson sailors hearty (and anyone else for that matter) so I ask you to please check your pulse and blood pressure once in awhile on your own or better still by going to your doctor once a year or right away if things don't feel right. It's important and things can be fixed just like an old Ericson that has plumbing or electrical problems and we've all been there, right? If you're diagnosed with A-Fib then ask your cardiologist about Pulsed Field Ablation and if you're a candidate for it. Stay healthy!
I am going to get to how this involves sailing so hang tight. The treatment back then, after a few days in the hospital, were heart drugs. Lots of them, but in a lot of cases the drugs become less effective after a time and a patient often slips into A-Fib for a time which what was happening to me and I could feel it. So, the next step was to have an "ablation" done to my heart. Basically during A-Fib your heart is short circuiting causing the timing to go off. An ablation, which is done inside the heart, maps the areas causing the condition and scars those cells because errant electric signals in the heart cannot get through scar tissue. This was how it was explained to me. Normally this is done with extreme heat or cold to basically "kill" the cells. Yes, having a doctor tell me that he was going to kill cells inside my heart sounded scary to me as well. With the heat or cold treatment there is a possibility of collateral damage to other heart tissues and structures near the heart which are monitored. But my electrocardiologist wanted me to be put into a study for a new and much less invasive ablation called "Pulsed Field Ablation" or PFA. That procedure used (from what I understand) special radio waves adjusted to only affect the cells in the heart that were causing my A-Fib. It's real Buck Rogers kind of stuff! In other words it was a much less invasive and quicker procedure that has a great success rate in trials in Europe and I would be the first one in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to receive this procedure which in the end turned out to be a great success for me and my cardiologist.
Enter Boston Scientific, manufacturer of the device that's used to preform the PFA, who after hearing about the success of my treatments wanted to make me sort of "poster boy" (in a good way) touting the success. So they sent a camera crew to interview me at my home and also ask, "So Bob, what are the things you like to do?" Well' of course, sailing was in the top five so I was asked to provide some photos of me sailing and, "Hey guys, would you like some video too?" They were very happy about that and included it into the video I link below. All joking aside, I'd like to keep all you Ericson sailors hearty (and anyone else for that matter) so I ask you to please check your pulse and blood pressure once in awhile on your own or better still by going to your doctor once a year or right away if things don't feel right. It's important and things can be fixed just like an old Ericson that has plumbing or electrical problems and we've all been there, right? If you're diagnosed with A-Fib then ask your cardiologist about Pulsed Field Ablation and if you're a candidate for it. Stay healthy!