Hello folks! I had cryo balloon cardiac ablation in March last year to help my AF which I have had for 13 years. A couple of weeks after ablation I started having episodes of where I am doing something and I stop and cannot talk and cannot respond and family tell me I do funny things with my mouth, when I do start talking it is garbled. When I had the first episode I went to A and E and was diagnosed with TIA, I continued to have these and spent most of last summer down A and E, DP wrote to Cardiologist who performed ablation but she would not see me. I then paid to see Cardiologists and Neurologists privately. Cardiologist told me unless I did different symptoms when I had an episode not to bother with A and E because they did nothing and I got stressed.
Cardiologist referred me for a TOE scan which showed a large PFO, I have had many MRI’s and Echo’s over the years and they have never showed one. I have since seen a Neurologist and had a brain scan, which was clear. I am now awaiting an appointment with Chief of Stroke (20/05/25) and Cardiologist is awaiting his advice. Cardiologist does not seem to want to close PFO in case I need work on my heart in the future, he says he will not be able to access that side of the heart. The episodes only started a couple of weeks post ablation and never had anything similar before.
I have now had over 70 of these TIA episodes, I have had one each day for the last 4 days. I have just phoned Secretary of the Doc I am seeing on 20/5/25, she emailed Doc and his reply was to go to GP!
I read stories in the media of Hailey Bieber and Emma Willis who have had PFO’s closed, surely after 70 episodes it needs closing?
Has anyone else had anything similar?
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Hi @Nicola29 & welcome to the community. You sure are going through it. All these recurrent TIAs must be very difficult to cope with. Have they been confirmed as TIAs? I know you have been told not to keep visiting A& E but could it be possible it is something else?
When you had your initial TIA were you given any medication? Blood thinners, anti coagulants for example. If not it may be worth speaking to your GP about this.
Some people who have PFOs don’t have them closed. It will depend on the size of the hole & other medical factors. They will weigh up the risks va benefits.
I agree that you should probably see your GP as soon as you can they can go through everything with you, prescribe any meds you might need etc & hopefully put your mind at rest a bit. I see you have an appointment with the stroke team which probably seems like forever away but will soon be here.
In the meantime write down all the questions you want answered including what they plan to do to sort your issues out. If you can take someone with you to the appointment. Keep your stress levels as low as possible whilst you wait to see them to minimise your chances of further episodes.
Wishing you all the best.
Ann
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Hi @Nicola29
Welcome to the community, it sounds like you’ve been through a lot recently and I’m sorry to hear about all of the TIAs you’ve had.
It’s great that you have an appointment with the stroke team, I’m sure this will be really helpful for you, we’re now in May so I’m sure that date will come around fast! As @Mrs5K has mentioned, make sure you write all your questions down so you get all the answers you need.
I’m sure more of our members will be along to offer advice on this too, there is a wealth of knowledge here!
If you need anything whilst you’re using the Online Community, please don’t hesitate to tag me using the @ symbol and my username.
Anna
@Nicola29 - Welcome to the community. It is a very interesting post and I may learn a lot from it. Though I myself am unable to offer you anything than my best wishes, I am pretty sure there are many on this forum who will have experiences and knowledge they will happily share with you
I can categorically state that I have not experienced what you have been through, nor do I know anyone who has.
All the best.
Namaste|
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