Atrial Flutter

The ER can diagnose and provide medications like blood thinners, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers etc. at least temporarily. Is there a medic on the cruise? How fast does your heart go? I hope you can see someone before you leave.

Since I’ve had the symptoms since July, I’m not overly concerned. Could I not thin my own blood by taking an 80 mg aspirin daily. Since I have low blood pressure(secondary addison’s, either beta blockers or the calcium one is not recommended. My heart rate is around 110. Bu when I use the ECG app on my Apple Watch, it does look very inconsistent. As I told the neurologist I’d rather die from heart failure, as opposed to Freidriechs ataxia.

The drug of choice for strokes with heart patients, particularly with dysrhythmias, is apixaban or xarelto. Aspirin is too limited in that function. If you have flutter, you should probably/certainly be on apixaban.

An ER can stabilize you, improve your condition, delay heart failure due to rapid heartbeat, ...........AND....get ahold of a decent cardiologist or electrophysiologist and have you treated asap. Your flutter is not a good thing to have. A friend of mine was ablated inside of ten days once they knew he had flutter. Why the urgency? Because neither he, nor the diagnosis/admitting EP, knew how long he had been in flutter. If it were weeks, they needed to treat it urgently.

Thanks for the advice. I’m learning new things everyday.

Not sure who you are gloaming but I appreciate your comments.

The risk is throwing a blood clot. Stroke.
The prescription blood thinners will reduce that risk to very low.
I have read that the highest risk for blood clot comes days AFTER an episode.
Better to just stay on blood thinner till it is resolved.

There is less risk for clotting with Aflutter that with Afib. The irregular beats are more organized with Flutter vs Fib. Clotting is still an issue but not as great. I used aspirin for a couple of years with intermittent Aflutter but then mine became more frequent.
My first experience with Aflutter my HR was 300. After that I just had intermittent events with much lower HRs and with often self-converting. The more and longer you are in flutter the more stress it puts on your heart but the same can be said for Afib. Still I think knowing what I know now I would have used blood thinners. Ablations are much easier and more successful with Flutter than with Afib. My flutter ablation took 1 hour and was 100% successful since 2012. I just went through my 2nd Afib ablation 3 days ago as breakthrough Afib was becoming more frequent.
BUT you indicate your peptide level at 3300 is very high indicating that you heart is working hard. This is a red flag and means getting to a diagnosis and treatment possibly sooner rather than later is more important. I myself wouldn't go on a cruise with these peptide levels and I would be on blood thinners. You mention having a neurologist and bringing up Freidriechs ataxia. FA (or FS) Freidriechs syndrome both cause heart arrhythmias which complicates matters. You didn't say you have FA but you bring it up suggesting you are knowledgeable about it makes me wonder if you are being seen for it. But then you also mention Addisons disease so that is confusing.

@feality Both @gloaming and @harveywj are great resources.

Are you drinking or eating ANYTHING with caffeine?? Coffee, teas, chocolate, Mountain Dew, etc. If you do, quit completely and maybe don't need any scary meds or treatments.

For me, 1/4 cup of coffee ice cream or a couple little pieces of dark chocolate can get my heart fluttering and scary episodes. And I LOVE chocolate and ice cream. Also a lot of sugary deserts.

I fought 3 successive cardiologists not to put me on blood thinners. I just had a "bad feeling" about it. They were very nice and didn't push me. But one weekend when I was feeling lousy and finally reached the "on call" doctor, she was so calm and funny and smart ... by the time I finished talking with her I'd made my mind up to go ahead with it. I've been on Eliquis now for over a year without any serious side effects. The person who said aspirin should not be used in place of blood thinners is absolutely correct -- they don't even function in the same way. Blood thinners can reduce your chances of stroke or other clots by about 90%, I've read and heard. I know how scary change can be ... especially where medications are concerned. But I feel much safer now after biting the bullet, and I hope you'll do the same.