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Atrial Fibrillation and long-term management with medication
Heart Rhythm Conditions | Last Active: May 26, 2022 | Replies (65)Comment receiving replies
I just reread your post. A doctor cannot really "insist" on you taking any medication. You always have the right to refuse. And it can stay friendly 🙂
The problem seems to be that you took the beta blocker when your pulse and blood pressure were normal, so it lowered both to below normal.
If you have tachycardia, it is a good med- while you have tachycardia. It seems you would have to monitor so that when the tachycardia stops, you also stop the med- BUT you have to taper it very very carefully.
If you can tolerate the tachycardia, then you can try foregoing medication and see if it stops.
Afib is different from tachycardia itself, because of the stroke risk from clots. I have asked for short term anticoagulation and instead they did an echocardiogram to make sure I had no clots. I read a study that suggested people like us should be able to do one month of anticoagulation to deal with an episode.
I do tai chi and Reiki and try to keep stress down. It looks like you follow some of the same approaches with Mg and Potassium.
I hope your problems do not recur. I don't know why many providers don't listen about the blood pressure.
I have a Kardia to do an EKG at home. It is the size of a credit card and you put two fingers on it and count to 30. Good luck!
Replies to "I just reread your post. A doctor cannot really "insist" on you taking any medication. You..."
Ha! Just saw my local cardiologist and he said I could reserve the Metoprolol for PRN usage, and even cut it in half if I thought my (.25) dosage was too strong.
I'll have you know I quoted you during the appointment (paraphrase) about "the pill in a pocket" usage.
Thank you!
Still don't know how the Cleveland Clinic doctor will react, but I'll reserve judgment until I speak.
Very good info. I wonder with myself if I need to cut down on my meds. and the insulin situation has been happening to me. I will keep this in mind and talk to my doctor about it.
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Again, very informative. I think, though, I didn't make it clear that I have far more frequent AFIB than you (an average of once a day as near as I can tell).
Stress is definitely a major trigger in my AFIB. I note with irony that my AFIB has definitely worsened since the last cardio (Cleveland Clinic) appointment when I was disheartened by his info about the need to take aspirin after the Watchman Procedure (my original purpose in scheduling to see him). (It seems aspirin endangers my eyes even more than Xarelto - per previous discussion of my wet macular degeneration and wish to substitute the Watchman for the Xarelto.)
Likewise, by his apparently not having read my previous notes (painstakingly sent) before my appt - related to his insistence on my having high BP. Note that as an "age-qualifying" female, I too only have a single point toward my CHADD score (it started at 3 - in fact, he was unaware that female had been discounted as a risk factor).
Moreover, every time I mull over that appointment and the horror of that single dose of Metoprolol, I can feel my pulse racing and often (I check) my BP rises!
Glad to hear the need for careful titration of Metropolol reiterated.
Coincidentally, my son just gave me a six-lead Kardia - handy but I have to be careful to only use it at a distance from my laptop. Somehow I have accumulated three BP monitors plus an Apple Watch which with cardiac apps, can detect AFIB! Overkill? (My son - the gifter - worries about me, especially since his father died recently of a cardiac issue so I'm his only remaining parent.)