AFib questions

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

@oldkarl @predictable Thanks for your input. Sounds like you both have had much more experience and education in this area than I have. Truth be known, I am not hankering for more experience, unless I can use it to help others as you have.

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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@jimana,  I would like to have just a little more experience. I would like to be around to experience the cure-all for my disorders. I just don&apos;t want to live another thousand years to do it.

Anyone can love one or two persons. Most can love several. Some can love hundreds. The world needs more who can love five or six billion at a time.

old karl

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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.

@oldkarl My Brother, I see you and I are cut from the same cloth. In my opinion far too many folks just go to a doctor and effectively say, "Here I am doc. Fix me." We must study and learn to manage our own health care. Reading some of your material, I see that you are a faithful student, first of the Bible and secondly of the science (art?) of medicine. I appreciate our medical community but they cannot possibly know it all and they must admit that "we are fearfully and wonderfully made" and one size does not fit all. Thanks for your input.

I went through all the demons.    Depression why me anxiety anger and finally realized that only I could decide on my emotions and I began to educate question and feed my own strengths through these and faith and citing an uptdated list of only 5 New positives at the start of each day and I am a survivor for eight years now with the usual afib setbacks and to quote an old song. I am going to LIVE til I dieRegards to all

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Thanks, @jimana. Yes, I am troubled by this stuff. The “Here I am doc. Fix me.” quote runs up the cost for all of us, for starters. Another cost is what it does to the egos of the medicos we deal with. I am telling my docs now that I am no longer responding to office visits for protocol purposes. If they have a medical reason for me to come in, or if I have a problem for them to deal with, I will call for an appointment. But no more "this specialist just changed your whatever, so the protocol now calls for you to see your primary."

This is long after your question, but my husband was told that in the event that he goes back into afib and does not know it, he is at high risk of a stroke. I can see that point, although he DOES know when he goes into afib, gets short of breath and feels his heart pound. But , the possibility of a stroke is a very high risk to take... Linda Libby, RN

I understand it's routine for cardiologists to prescribe an anticoagulant drug to patients with a-fib, for the very reason @vermontrob said -- to minimize chances that blood clots will form in the blood left behind by poor contractions of the left atrium. In my case, it's Coumadin (Warfarin) for which there is an antidote that could save my life if I suffered a bad cut or other blood-letting. Martin