If AJ Messier were to give any advice, it would be ‘listen to your body’.
The professional photographer had been feeling that something wasn’t right for about a year. Typically active, he was feeling out of breath from just a short walk with his dog and was coughing regularly.
Earlier this year, he was diagnosed at Sunnybrook with an advanced case of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that reduces the heart’s ability to pump oxygen-rich blood to the body.
“It was a shock to hear, but I also felt relieved to know exactly what was going on,” says AJ.
After viewing AJ’s EKG and echocardiogram, Dr. Sheldon Singh told AJ he was in atrial fibrillation, meaning his heart was beating irregularly and very rapidly. This abnormal heart beating was likely contributing to his weakened heart. Dr. Singh, Medical Director of Electrophysiology at Sunnybrook, started him on medications and gave him strict orders to alter his lifestyle.
“It meant no work and I couldn’t be stressed,” explains AJ, who began to avoid caffeine, sodium and alcohol. “I came to a point where I really wanted to get off the meds, and Dr. Singh said cardiac ablation was most likely the best course of treatment.”
The day before his 49th birthday, AJ had an ablation, where Dr. Singh threaded a catheter through a vein in his groin and guided it to his heart. The catheter delivered energy to his heart tissue to create scars blocking his irregular heart rhythms and restoring a typical heartbeat.
“Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation can improve patient’s quality of life, streamline their medications and decrease visits to the emergency department,” says Dr. Singh. “In some cases, ablation may allow patients with atrial fibrillation to live longer, making it a very important therapy.”
For AJ, the procedure was a game-changer.
“I’m back to my normal self,” reports AJ, who says he is not only back to work, but playing basketball again and hitting the gym. He’s still taking medication, and has a portable EKG machine to test his heart rate every 48 hours.
“I’m loving new challenges, like running up the Harvard University stadium steps when visiting my family in Boston,” AJ told us. “I wouldn’t be in this place without the care I received at Sunnybrook. If you’re feeling off, I would urge you to get it checked out.”
To learn more about cardiac ablation at Sunnybrook’s Schulich Heart Program, please check out our video.
