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← Return to Delayed Afib when hiking
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I read your message and am confused. Are you in A-fib 95% of the time or out of it 95% of the time? Why are you on a B/P med and a blood thinner for your A-fib? I get the blood thinner but the B/P med is not specifically for A-fib, either for rate or rhythm. You said that while hiking the feelings of weakness and fatigue were off and on. You mentioned drinking (water? electrolyte drinks? alcohol? what?) I am not being judgmental, just asking. I am newly diagnosed with A-fib (almost a year) and I am scheduled for an ablation. If you are not experiencing consistent episodes of A-fib, you should get a second opinion before this condition spreads! Mine are very episodic and I find no consistent triggers in spite of making major life-style changes. I have tried anti-arrhythmic meds (may work but are very scary to read the side effects.) I also exercise daily and work out pretty hard. Almost all my episodes start at night with absolutely no known trigger. I do not have sleep apnea. I would suggest to you that you see an electrophysiologist before you have A-fib all the time, like a forest fire. Go to YouTube and get the facts of A-fib--how it works, how it spreads, how it is managed in the newest understanding and treatment of the disorder. So excuse my intrusion and just my opinion, but you are young enough that this matters! I'm 79 and I am not willing to live the rest of my life in this annoying and debilitating disorder.
Replies to "I read your message and am confused. Are you in A-fib 95% of the time or..."
@sjm46 Once a person is diagnosed with AF, the physician will determine the patient's CHA2DS2-VASc score. Doctors use that score to assign a risk of thromboembolic stroke. If the score is 2.0 or higher, the patient is prescribed a DOAC (direct-acting oral anti-coagulant). This is routine and done by all cardiologists for all patients, certainly in N. America. So, with a large burden as afm has claimed, the risk of a stroke is high, close to six times what your regular patient with no arrhythmia might have. Incidentally, the gravest risk is from a clot leaking out of the left atrial appendage (LAA) where blood circulates poorly during AF. I know you know this, but readers later may not have learned about this risk.
You asked about BP meds. Many times signs of atrial or ventricular enlargement are due to mitral valve prolapse/regurgitation and due to hypertension. Each patient is assessed for all sorts of things when presenting with an arrhythmia of any kind, one of them being a test to see if they have underlying hypertension or pulmonary hypertension. Hypertension is highly linked to ventricular enlargement, sometimes atrial enlargement, and often with mitral valve prolapse. If there are even slight signs of incipient extents in any of these, then it might be a great time to beat back any hypertension. I'm guessing our friend was on the edge, maybe above it, and his/her physician felt they should commence taking BP meds.
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@sjm46
Thanks for your input. After experiencing fatigue almost all the time I was diagnosed (Holter monitor for 24 hours) with afib (95%0 of the time. I was prescribed Metoprolol (a beta blocker) which was confirmed to eliminate the afib (Holter monitor for 24 hours) and did indeed feel much better and was able to walk and hike on mostly flat terrain for 10 miles with no difficulty. I tried a 9 mile hike with some climbing in it and ran into the extreme fatigue problem. Once that extreme fatigue started it did not stop. Then had a Holter monitor on for one month which showed no afib problem again mostly on flat terrain. I then tried a 10 mile hike and had another extreme fatigue problem. I assumed that somehow the afib was being triggered for some reason but it might be the Metoprolol which limits adrenaline to the heart which limits maximum heart rate and also limits pumping power. I now have another 30 day Holter monitor test starting in a few days to see what is going on. I will challenge myself with very many long hikes with climbing to try and recreate the problem. I am close to 77 want to live with as few limitations as possible. Two years ago we did Kiliminjaro and the Inca Trail. We have plans to do a Mt. Langley and Mt. Whitney night/5 day backpacking loop next year but this extreme fatigue initiated by climbing problem must be resolved.