That is such an interesting story! I wonder if doctors can generalize at all about afib? Last night an attack came on at 6pm after about 10 days of overdoing everything. Slept from 10pm to 7pm and heart was perfect again in the morning. I'm 85, had my first afib attack at 80 and was immediately put on both rate and rhythm and blood thinning medications, which I've been taking since then. Most interesting for you all is the different advice I received from my cardiologist and his assistant, a nurse practioner, whom I've mostly seen since then. She (her mother at 92 has had afib for 20 years) told me that I must rush to the hospital at each attack and stay there until it's over. I did this 3 times, staying there one overnight each time (once having a tiny heart attack that they said the afib caused.) But at a follow-up to the last hospital visit, I talked to the cardiologist and he said I could try staying home and see what happened. So I've done that the last 4 times. What happens is that the attack goes away in the same amount of time as it did in the hospital, where they had done a diltiazem drip; about 7 - 10 hours is what it takes for my heart to recover. Same at home, no drip and none of the hospital tension that emergency room and admission brings on. What a pleasure it is to stay home. I have to wonder what if I had always recovered at home and never been given medications? What then? Certainly we and our hearts are all different. I like and trust both of my medical providers and understand that though they share patients, they both have long term different experiences of life. As do we!
(Re UTIs, a small amount of estrogen cream cured mine (made fresh by a private pharmacist who put it together herself-recommended by a doctor of osteopathy.)