Thread: Anyone living with WPW?

So, does anyone here have it or had it and was treated? Has it had any impact on your lifestyle?

I've only got a preliminary diagnosis...Dr. said it was nothing to lose sleep over, but I'm going in for a stress test on Monday to see just what's going on in there.

There are certainly a number of members here with wpw. I cant remember the member names but theyre around. I had an 'episode' that lasted about 24 hours a few months ago and really scared the shit out of me. I was told it was more or less a fluke, not wpw per se. There is a cardio lurking around here as well who helped me quite a bit with my worries and anxieties..

*update*

So, got the stress test done and it turns out that I have the WPW that does not go away with exercise. The cardiologist is suggesting I get a procedure to fix it. That's an outpatient procedure where I basically get 2 catheters inserted into my heart, get the wiring mapped out and get the undesired electrical pathways cauterized. After that, it's a week of sitting on the couch avoiding blood clots.

Anyways, I'm still curious if anyone's had this procedure.

Originally Posted by ski_adk

*update*

So, got the stress test done and it turns out that I have the WPW that does not go away with exercise. The cardiologist is suggesting I get a procedure to fix it. That's an outpatient procedure where I basically get 2 catheters inserted into my heart, get the wiring mapped out and get the undesired electrical pathways cauterized. After that, it's a week of sitting on the couch avoiding blood clots.

Anyways, I'm still curious if anyone's had this procedure.

I had a family member go through the procedure but at a very young age (5 years old or so) and everything turned out fine. Twenty-five years later no problems. Probably well worth it to have it done.

Originally Posted by ski_adk

*update*

So, got the stress test done and it turns out that I have the WPW that does not go away with exercise. The cardiologist is suggesting I get a procedure to fix it. That's an outpatient procedure where I basically get 2 catheters inserted into my heart, get the wiring mapped out and get the undesired electrical pathways cauterized. After that, it's a week of sitting on the couch avoiding blood clots.

Anyways, I'm still curious if anyone's had this procedure.

I'm the cardiologist Mitch_C mentioned. There are not many things in medicine we can cure, but we can "zap" the extra electrical pathway of Wolff-Parkinson-White.

Have you had symptoms like palpitations or fainting, or "just" the ECG features of WPW which persisted at fast heart rates on the treadmill?

skinnyskier, thanks for replying to this thread. I have strong ECG features that persist throughout normal and fast heart rates (as revealed by the stress test). At that time, the folks at the Intermountain Heart Rhythm Specialists suggested I should get ablation. Since then I have noticed some heart palpitations. I never noticed them before the evaluation, so I don't know if it was because I didn't know what to pay attention or what.

At any rate, I've talked it through with my wife and she's in favor of the procedure b/c she's very much not in favor of the increased heart attack risk (and she really doesn't want to drag my dead ass off a mountain).

Aside from the nervousness about complications, I think what I'm really worried about is whether I'll be able to make the Dispatch show a week and half after the procedure.

1- Year Followup for anyone researching WPW.

So, I just realized I never followed-up on this thread. I guess that's because I was too busy freaking out about whether it was going to turn out alright or not. If you're dealing with deciding to do a similar procedure, I don't know whether this experience should put your mind at ease or not. Hopefully, this just gives you a little insight on what it's like to go through the motions when it happens.

...After the stress test, I was diagnosed with a somewhat critical version of WPW that is statistically likely to affect me later in life if I left it be (basically my type of WPW did not go away with exercise, and that many people with similar symptoms develop more severe issues later down the road like a heart attack or dependence on medication and reduced physical activity), so I decided to do it.

From my perspective, the procedure was smooth and easy. I walked into the hospital and went immediately to my room, got prepped and wheeled into surgery where there were a lot of really cool, big-ass monitors everywhere. I met the team working on me while they finished final prep in the OR and then went nighty-night. When I finally came completely back to reality (anaesthesia is a hell of a fun drug btw), it felt like I had bad-ass bee stings in my both groins (it should have only been in 1 groin and not both) and on my neck. The docs and nurses though were right there to explain that my case was a bit complicated and that they were quite relieved that I was doing well. What should have been a 3-4 hr procedure was 7 thanks to a very hard to reach extra pathway, an air bubble in my vein, them then taking a side trip into my artery to search for a potential clot and the patience and persistence of a very determined cardiologist (it was the longest one he had done).

Despite all that though, I walked out of the hospital just a couple hours later. I had to be careful though not to dislodge the plugs that were closing up the holes in my veins and arteries. So, the next 2 days I was bored out of my mind because i wasn't supposed to walk around that much (even though I felt fine with some minor bruising in the groin), and 3 days later I was back to work. Heck, just a week and a half later, I spent 12 hrs in a car, made it to the show and walked at least 5 or 6 miles that weekend. The only downer was, it took about a month for the closure devices to completely dissolve away (until then, the only reason i knew they were there was because of the lumps they left under the skin) and to get the green light to go back to all normal activities. To get that sign-off, the doc needed to do an exam and 1 last EKG.

The next day, I felt an immediate improvement the first time I got back on my bike and I felt like I had more energy than ever. And I noticed something weird too... for the first time ever, I never felt like I had to stop because my heart was going to beat out of my chest. What I thought was just out-of-shape, old age, whateverness was actually this WPW thing and now it was gone.

So, in the end, for me, it was worth it and so far I have no regrets. My doc said I'm completely cured and I haven't felt like the old "normal" since. However, considering the complications that I had, I do realize that there are in fact real risks with this procedure. Still, despite that, I don't regret it one bit.

Good deal!

I have what looked like WPW but was not. In September I collapsed after a bike race, someone did CPR, hospital stay, implanted defibrillator, ablation, every other test they could think of, still not entirely sure.

I was awake for my ablation, it's fucking weird. I also had a palm sized bruise and a huge limp for a week.

Edit-When I actually look, there are a lot of other mags who have had heart issues, I guess I'm not so different after all.