Anyone with occasional Afib NOT on a blood thinner?

@lindy for the sake of new people who might be reading these posts, I want to make it really clear that although I pursue some "natural" approaches for my afib (see "The Afib Cure" book) I highly value the paramedics, doctors and medications who have rescued me from afib and heart rate in the 190's, 12 times in 10 years.

As we deal with health issues it is important to persist and find a doctor who best fits our goals, and to be discerning about medications but use them when needed. I stick with doctors who will discuss things with me, including when I don't want to take or do something! I am happy to have found an MD who prescribed diltiazem and Eliquis as "pill in a pocket" and hope to avoid the ambulance and ER next time.

Afib can be a serious condition, as can the strokes it may cause, and I think it is important to post something positive about cardiologists, electrophysiologists, paramedics, nurses and others who help us, as well as the medications that can sometimes save us.

You mentioned spending an hour and a half cutting down weeds and then walking up and down hills. Some of us cannot do those things. I think we need to be careful in recognizing health privilege that we may have. This is an afib forum: curious what you do for your afib. Quitting caffeine is not sufficient for most of us.

Estoy curiosa. 1 Hace cuanto tiemp que ud. esta tomando los medicinas? 2 Yo lei los effectos negativos de estos medicinas. Ha tenido ud. problemas con estos?? 3

In looking back to your episodes, can you think of any possible cause of triggering them? Extreme stress? Do you drink coffee and if so, how much? Mountain Dew? Colas? Eat chocolate?

I know from experience, they are very uncomfortable, but I never went to hospital and mine lasted from a few minutes to several hours and sometimes all night, but when I woke up it was gone.

@lindy9 I know the forum can be confusing but I have answered previously. I do not have any caffeine. I know my triggers and they are various. With afib I have a rapid ventricular response (heart rate 190+) but with low blood pressure, it is dicey to bring it down with meds so I am usually in the ER, once in the ICU. They give me a diltiazem drip and we wait.

I would not be able to sleep- short of breath, fish flopping in my chest, woozy. Mine needs treatment.

If yours is lasting all night, or more than 5 hours, you are at risk for stroke. There is controversy about how long it has to last (minutes to 48 hours) for that risk to occur.

The episodes were in my teens until I discovered sensitivity to coffee. Now at 75, I had been eating some Haagen Daz coffee ice cream from the US. I now live in Costa Rica and had never seen the ice cream sold here. I was having a good time with it, until I started having episodes that I had not had in over 50 years. The light bulb went off and I realized it was made from coffee in the US. The coffee they have and grow here did not cause me problems. So no more of the ice cream for me. I understand at my age, it would be dangerous.

Regarding "curious what you do for your afib.", I have given my story before, but I had afib episodes that were serious between age 14 to 21. I then read in a news column someone who had same symptoms as me, and the DOCTOR said some people are extremely sensitive to caffeine and that it was the CAUSE for them.

After testing back and forth, I gave up coffee and never had a serious episode after that UNTIL at age 75, now in Costa Rica and discovering the coffee here which is pure and not like in the US, I had no problem. BUT a few months ago, a store started carrying Haagen Daz COFFEE ice cream, and not thinking, I had been eating it, because I LOVE it. BUT in short time began feeling heart flutters sometimes, and then a major one with my heart pounding irregular. It scared me, and I went to bed, and got to THINKING and realized it was made in the US with coffee from the US. I immediately STOPPED eating it, and have no minor or major episodes.

Quitting TOTALLY caffeine IS sufficient for me. I tell on this blog my story in case it may be the same for others. If they have already ELIMINATED all caffeine and still have problems, then they need another solution. But after my experiences when I had them ALL NIGHT sometimes, and now have NONE. I will share in case it may help others. And the last time I had an episode, I had eaten only 1/4 CUP coffee ice cream and 3 tiny pieces of dark chocolate.

We all have different band wagons we get on. Yours is to post something positive about cardiologists etc etc. I have nothing positive to post, as from age 21 to now 75, the few times I went to a doc about something, they did not help. Only one that did was a Gonstead chiropractor which helped with several health problems. You can post your successes and I will post mine, and people can decide what is best for them.

Just to be clear, I am not posting positively or negatively about cardiologists. I want to recount that 10 years ago a cardiologist wanted me on blood thinners after one episode of afib and I declined. A year went by before I had another episode. Sometimes two years. Another cardiologist in the hospital said to go home and forget it happened. This extreme discrepancy was disturbing but forgetting about it was more in line with my thinking.

I have not been followed by cardiology because I did not want to be in a position to again decline treatment. Over 10 years I have only seen cardiology in the hospital or to get results of monitoring done by PCP.

In the past year I had more episodes than usual and also ahd COVID which affected my heart, so I decided to see a cardiologist. The first one thought I needed an ablation. That is going from zero to a hundred. She referred me to an electrophysiologist who was more relaxed and said if he had done an ablation on someone who then had the frequency of afib that I have, he would consider it a successful ablation. He also gave me "pill in a pocket" diltiazem and Eliquis to minimize side effects and target afib only when it was happening.

I have been in the ICU with an episode and always with an ambulance. Now I am going to try to stay home if I can. I consider this cardiologist "just right" after dealing with the two extremes. He is the first who I would actually see for following after 10 years.

My CHADS score is 2 due to age and gender. The technically calls for anticoagulation so one doc will prescribe anticoagulation (less liability) and others will say that without high blood pressure, diabetes etc. my risk is low. If bleeding risk from meds and stroke risk without meds are equal, basically, I think a good doctor will let me choose after giving me all the info needed.