3am Anxiety after AFib diagnosis

@lett

Reply to Lett: I felt malaise and lethargic when taking metoprolol; cut rate in half and still felt blah~~~ my resting heart rate was alrady in low 50's before metoprolol, so my doctor said to stop taking it and the malaise stopped. I've cut out all alcohol, caffeine, and try for 120 ounces of water/day with about half of that with electrolytes.

@frankie555
Hang in there, one day at a time, tomorrow has enough worries of its own
Philippians 4: 6-7

@lett Have you reverted to normal sinus rhythm or is your heart still fibrillating? It does make a huge difference as the fibrillating heart loses almost 30% of its efficiency when the left ventricle isn't being filled properly by the normal beat of the left atrium above it. You get less oxygen going out to the rest of your body, and even the heart muscle is getting less oxygen. Also, are any of your four valves compromised in any way? If you also have a fair or poor ejection fraction percentage, you also have that inefficiency working against you.

But yes, it is common for people in AF to feel faint, out of breath, sometimes a little dizzy, and otherwise just not feeling well. Anxiety can be a problem.

@pearl72 Yours is the exact same experience that I had with Metoprolol.

If your schedule and health will allow for it try daily aerobic exercise and abstain from caffeine and alcohol. Once you realize that afib is not a death sentence you should be able to relax.

@pearl72

120 ounces or 3.5 liters is nearly double the maximum recommended by my doctor of 2 liters per day. I bought a 2-liter water bottle that I fill in the morning and it allows me to easily monitor my consumption.

Suggest getting your blood tested to know the hemoglobin, hematocrit, and RBC level.

@pearl72

My pacemaker indicated that I had AFib for 5.5 hours one night. I was asleep so I have no idea what it felt like. It only happened one time during a time that I was 1) getting very little sleep due to a very stressful situation, and also had a lot of pain during the day and at night that included unexpected sciatica. The pain at night could only be relieved by getting out of bed and walking. When my cardiologist's office called and told me about the AFib event and explained the possible reasons for it, none of those reasons applied to me and so I asked him if stress and pain could also cause AFib, especially if both are leading to lack of sleep. He said yes. I immediately started on a self-directed regime to improve my sleep by 1) going to bed earlier and at the same time each night (even if I laid there without sleeping for a while); 2) Taking a Tylenol before lying down (that's my choice for pain relief along with deep breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation which I also started practicing after I got into bed), and 3) started seeing a mental health therapist for help with stress management. I haven't had a repeat AFib event and now my new cardiologist is considering taking me off Eliquis, especially after I told him about the sleeplessness, stress and pain I was having at the time of the one event I've had. I might be wrong, but it seems to me that the three things I did helped me at least. Do you think that would help you too?

@janchan..... I don't have pain at night, just too much worry. I try to not lay down after dinner for 4 hours, so I stop any food intake at 6:30pm to allow for that. I try the breathing exercises too.
Thanks, every day is a blessing

I thought my problem was the 2.5 mg of Eliquis I take twice a day.