Hi All - probably should have joined this group a long time ago. My name is Rodney and I'm a 64 year old happily married man who just retired after a long career in the clinical software industry. I've always been very active over the years biking, running, and hiking so I was in pretty good shape leading up to my first heart arrhythmia episode 8 years ago. I came home from a run and suddenly felt this incredibly intense bout of palpitations. I had to lay down on the floor before it finally subsided a few minutes later. After getting hit with these episodes a few more times over the coming weeks I went to see a cardiologist. EKG was normal but it wasn't until a subsequent visit for a stress test that the EKG revealed I was in afib. I was admitted to the hospital, put on warfarin and was given an IV drug that put me back in normal sinus rhythm by morning. From there I was put on metoprolol (25mgx1) and eventually flecanaide (100mgx2) along with aspirin 325mg daily, which worked very well over the next 7 years. I had some fatigue and shortness of breath but overall the afib was kept at bay.

A couple of months ago I suddenly began having serious breathing issues, which eventually was tied to a return of my afib. My cardiologist suggested getting a cardioversion to snap it back into rhythm and either a new drug or an ablation. I also stopped the aspirin and now take Eliquis for blood thinning I'm still getting hit with afib on a daily basis and should be getting a cardioversion this week. An ablation is scheduled 3 weeks from now. I'm hoping it's not too late since I hear of some people at this age needing multiple ablations to reverse the issue. It has been a very uncomfortable several weeks for me so I'm anxious to get this afib back under control.

Jump to this post