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Would love to have feedback from you A-fibbers. After several serious A-Fib events, having to have my heart stopped and restarted twice, being administered the "paddles" three times in the back of an ambulance, I wound up with a pacemaker and Rx for antiarrhythmic meds and beta blockers. All this started 1-1/2 years ago. The meds (or something) have resulted in the muscle weakness, some visual difficulties and balance issues that often accompany these meds as side effects. The effect on me seems much more sudden and dramatic that might be expected.
Although I remain fairly strong in some respects, I have found that I have zero strength when working with arms extended over my head, as in working on a high shelf or ceiling fixture. My arms, hands and eventually whole body tremble and shake and my arms fall with no ability to keep them raised. One doctor said this that it sounds like a cardiac issue, making me wonder if all my trauma has caused heart damage. Could this be attributed entirely to medicine side effects? Also I have read that this could well be a spinal issue. (I did have a compression fracture of L-1 vertebra two years ago.)
Has anyone had heart, medication or spinal problems that resulted in the kind of weakness I have described above? I am 80 years old, but this came on suddenly after the A-fib trauma events, pacemaker implant and start of the meds, all within a two day period.
Breathlessly awaiting your experience and wisdom. An echo ECG and treadmill stress test are to be scheduled soon.
Replies to "Would love to have feedback from you A-fibbers. After several serious A-Fib events, having to have..."
Sorry to hear of your several setbacks @jimana, but hope you treat as just that -- setbacks from which you climb back. You're on the right track with more coronary tests. They will point up some questions that you haven't received answers for from your medical team, so press for answers to any quandary you have, be sure you have a friend or family member on hand to confirm what you're told and to witness everything, and be thinking about where you'll get a second opinion on it all.
As for your meds, sometimes the symptoms you describe come from abrupt drops or increases in your daily dosages -- for example, forgetting to take a key pill for a day or two. These drugs require gradual phasing up or down in order to minimize adverse symptoms such as you describe. But I doubt your problems are attributable "entirely to medicine side effects." So renewed cardiac exams are in order, along with discussing with your medical team what they'd recommend as an exercise program.
I'm lucky, I guess, because my a-fib and its effect on my heart rate and blood pressure have benefited from relatively high doses of antiarrhythmic meds and beta blockers. Maybe my system was conditioned to accommodate a-fib symptoms by 20 years of hypertension and treatment therefor. But maybe exercise and diet also have had an effect.
Keep us posted on your course, and we'll be waiting to cheer you on to stable conditions. Martin
The various heart maladies that you are going through are very disconcerting and I had the same reaction.
BUT. Remember that although scary the actions haven't killed you so with that in mind you have time to get things sorted out.
I have a implanted cardiac monitor called a loop and it is helping to pin down excess A and V random signals
This has helped not only in data and anxiety
Which in turn helps with the triggering. Of afib
After 2 ablations an angioplasty and stent placement I ran for 5yrs with no afib. But as we all know. There. Is. No cure for the beast and the
eternal battle to control and not to let it control you
Explore every avenue and do not give in
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@twptrustrek Five years without an A-fib incident seems remarkable. One cardio said to me - if you've had A-fib, you will have it again - so I suppose most of us are waiting for the other shoe to drop. That being said, I feel very, very good, generally speaking and in fact, except for a few aches and pains and the weakness I mentioned, I feel better than I did 40 years ago. There is nothing fatalistic about the outlook, because I know we serve an All-Powerful, Sovereign God who loves us more than we can imagine. Thanks for your encouragement, and stay well.
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This is a puzzlement, friend. And I think the doc is at least partly correct. Most events like these seem to be like a railroad turntable, just depending on which way the things are pointed at the moment. My cardi pointed out that my A-Fib and many others start with some interruption of the nerve, and a bad ventricle or atrial wall makes it worse, even to stop the heart, and that can bring on syncope, and shortly must come the paddles. Now, there are so many things that can start this ride, and most are so tiny they will not be spotted except by a highly skilled doc who works without a lot dependence on semi-automatic technology, but lots of street smarts. Systemic Amyloidosis. Injury. Long-past illness. Etc. Had an MRI done of your heart to check the A and V walls? Check your brain cortex by CT for protein amorphous deposits? Got foam in the urine? Do you bruise easily, especially around the eyes and the belly? Is there any kind of lesion around the L-1 area of the spine? Also, make sure they look for low voltage QRS on the R and L Ventrical beat cycles, little sawtooth tracings. Even the opening beat should be just one or two up and downs before relaxing, not a brief series of three or four jumps of various voltages under .5, which often start the AFib. Now, I am just guessing about the things I know about. I have an AV block, and the cardi says my AFib seems to stem from this.