Currently in the hospital, third time in a decade. Last was November 2017 and i converted back to normal rhythm after maybe 10 ours. Not so this time. Been here nearly 24 hours, on my last bag of amiodarone and still in a-fib. Likely staying another night.
I don’t even feel that bad. Health has bern good recently, lost a little weight, exercising. Might have had slightly more caffeine than usual yesterday, but not a ridiculous amount. Looking up info on caffeine and a-fib, seems mixed.
@mcarley - I am so sorry to hear about your health issues and hope that you have a speedy recovery with the best results possible.
In 2019 my husband got atrial fibrillation, as well as acute congestive heart failure, as a side effect from chemo that he was taking for amyloidosis. At that time he had a defibrillator/pacemaker inserted which essentially put that condition under control for over two years.
Then unfortunately his amyloidosis subsequently attacked multiple organs but if he didn’t have amyloidosis that implanted cardiac device could have helped indefinitely. In fact, I have a number of friends that have atrial defibrillation who have been doing very well with an implanted defibrillator for many years.
Hope you get better soon. A-fib is weird, I know a couple people that are fine with medication, one guy had it repaired with a minimal procedure and another full blown open heart surgery.
I’ve dealt with AFIB for 30 years or more. It’s more of flutter variety than a racing heartbeat. In the early years, it usually corrected itself within minutes or at most an hour. The cardiologist in Florida started me on warfarin to avoid blood clots. Around 2006 or so the episodes got closer together and often lasted for a day or more and were scary as hell when conversion finally occurred. My SC cardiologist put me on a drug called Tambacor which worked miracles in preventing attacks for 4 or 5 years, but sadly they returned. A couple of other meds were tried, including amiodarone which helped little to none at all.
In 2010 I had a matrix ablation which didn’t put a dent in the problem. About a year after that I had a AV Node Ablation and a pacemaker inserted. Node Ablation basically cuts the heartbeat-triggering signal from the atria to the ventricles and those pulses are then supplied by the pacemaker. This has given me very good relief for about 10 years now, but the pacemaker battery will probably need to be replaced sometime this year. They tell me my atria is in permanent AFIB, but outside of a couple of short-term hiccups, it’s barely noticeable. I do still have to have a blood thinner and have given up chasing the numbers using warfarin and chose to go with once-a-day Xarelto. Pricey, but worth it for me.
My dad has A-Fib and it seems to get triggered by a stressful event on his body, like a sneezing attack during allergy season. Sometimes it occurs after hiccups. It not very often, but about the same frequency as you are reporting.
This is not a cheery discussion for me as my mother died from a-fib. At least, that was the stated medical reason. She had apparently been experiencing it for some time and never had it addressed. She passed out at home while talking to my cousin on the phone. After spending a week or so in the hospital, getting treatment but not surgery. She then went to a nursing home for rehab, which is where she died shortly thereafter. My wife and I believe that she just decided to go. She was 87, my dad had died 2 years before after 64 years of marriage, and everyone she cared about seeing had come to visit her.
That’s sad to hear, very sorry. My understanding is that my a-fib isn’t likely to be serious on its own, but it does put me at higher risk for things like stroke.
There are a few guys in my bike group who have afib. One of them has had 4 ablations. He hasn’t ridden in a while because his work has been pretty busy. I had heard that we was going to have a different procedure done, but I can’t recall what it was called. We aren’t riding today but if I see him this weekend I’l ask what that procedure is called.
As for blood thinners - be careful. My mom was on them because she has a stent in her brain. We thought the surgery would kill her, but she came thru with flying colors. But they had her on blood thinners. She traveled from Dallas to my brothers in Colorado and the altitude made her dizzy and she fell and bumped her head on the bathroom sink. That caused a brain bleed that took her life.
I have 2, what the doctor called coils, in my brain from a burst aneurism. I’ve been on blood thinners since 2018. The first one moved, and they had to put in another one during the pandemic. He left the old one in there, still moving around I guess.
It humbles a person fast. A normal day, and I bend over to turn on the heater in the dogs house, and my head exploded. I was fortunate to still be able to all 911. I don’t remember anything after that.
Surprising to me how that much trauma to the body takes a long while to recover. Weakness lasted a long while.
