@greatestj Atrial fibrillation is when the top left chamber, the one receiving freshly oxygenated blood from the lungs, beats chaotically instead of one beat to flush its contents through the mitral valve and into the chamber below it, the large left ventricle. From there, the left ventricle contracts and you get blood coursing up into the large aorta and out to the head, arms, thorax, and legs. They contract in sequence with a short fraction of a second between them, and it's the familiar lub-DUB, lub-DUB we hear in our pillow at night. Except with atrial fibrillation, it's more like lub-dub, lub-lub-dub (pause) lub-DUB, lub-lub-dub, and we sense that something is amiss in our chest.

If you have had AF for a while, but it's intermittent, then it is in the early stage called 'paroxysmal', meaning in comes and goes on its own. That's the best place you'll ever be! It's a progressive disorder, and it can be controlled with both drugs and with a process called an ablation. Ablations and drugs both work best early. So get on either of them early...yesterday would have been great. Also, due to the chaotic beating of the left atrium, it doesn't flush itself properly and a small pouch on the extreme left end of it, called the left atrial appendage, can shelter blood a little long which makes sit want to clot. Clots cause strokes, so usually a patient formally diagnosed with AF will soon go on a direct-acting anti-coagulant (DOAC) toe reduce the risk of stroke, which is considerable. This is where you see an expert and listen to what THEY say, not so much what I say. 😀

Last comment from me, at least here and now: AF won't kill you. It can be awful for some, while others haven't any symptoms and wonder if they should worry at all. It should be managed, especially to keep it from progressing aggressively and rapidly. Catheter ablations can slow it to the point where you die from something else in 20 years, but not from a failing heart.