Living with Atrial Fibrillation: What are Your Experiences?

@marybird, the various terms used may differ from provider to provider or even by the same doctor. It can be confusing. This article explains why:

"What Is Chronic Atrial Fibrillation?"
- https://www.healthline.com/health/atrial-fibrillation/chronic

Excerpt: "AFib used to be described as chronic or acute, with chronic AFib lasting longer than one week. After new guidelines were released in 2014, chronic AFib is now called long-standing, persistent AFib. Long-standing, persistent AFib lasts longer than 12 months."
I'm glad yours is controlled. Typically paroxysmal atrial fibrillation happens without an obvious trigger.

Have you noticed any triggers in your case or things that you should avoid?

I was diagnosed with A-Fib a year ago last March. My first known & documented episode was the day after I was released to home following surgery. I awoke in the middle of the night with pounding in my chest & a very fast heart rate. (There was no doubt I could feel it happening. In retrospect, something similar happened a few months prior to this, but did not last as long.). We called 911 and the paramedics confirmed I was still in A-Fib. The ED started Metoprolol and other meds to bring my heart rate down. I was released after a few hours on Elliquis and cardiac follow up. I am 69, and don’t have frequent episodes of AFib, but do have ongoing palpitations, which my Cardiologist says not to worry about. Being diagnosed with A-Fib was not shocking to me because there is heart disease in most the males (later age in females) on my paternal side, my father suffering a “sudden death” heart attack when he was 51 (I did CPR while waiting for paramedics) He did survive, and was a life-long heart patient (A-Fib, pacemaker, stents, meds) living to age 91. My grandfather died of heart disease at age 59; my male first cousin had a massive stroke in his late 50’s, his father/my uncle died of a stroke in his 80’s..after having various stroke episodes in his life. So, I am not surprised that I also have heart health issues (LPa, A-Fib) but happy that I have more options than they did…

Hello @donell,

Facing a new diagnosis almost always involves a new learning curve and can leave your head "spinning" a bit.

@gdcm, @northof60 and @suerte all talked about their experiences with being new to an AFib diagnosis and may be able to share how they processed that information and proceeded forward.

@donell, When you learned of your diagnosis, were you able to talk through what that meant moving forward with your provider? Whether it is lifestyle changes or new medications, how are you processing this new diagnosis?

I live in my jeans, but not genes. Most disease is developed over time, years of eating junk and your body is suffering the consequences. When people say it is genetic, I believe most of the time inherited their bad habits which cause disease in time.

"Can" but not "always". I was prediabetic for years then jumped to diabetic. Drs prescribed metformin. I wanted to try diet first. I changed from cookies, ice cream, and donuts to raw celery, broccoli, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. I eat mounds of those veggies and nuts every day. I dropped 35 pounds and was no longer even prediabetic. Sometimes you just have to live with your genes.

High blood pressure can be lowered with diet. I would be surprised if you are not eating too much meat and animal products, cheese, dairy. I eat a little, but vegetarians do not have HBP unless replacing with refined junk and processed foods. If anything, mine will be a bit too low.

I'm aware of those categories, I just wondered about the use of the term "chronic" as applied to A-fib. I don't think it's an official category for duration of A-fib, though I noted back when my cardiologist and company first found my short runs of A-fib on my quarterly remote pacemaker reports, they referred to it as "chronic" A-fib a couple times. I see now they refer to it as paroxysmal A-fib, as it occurs whenever it feels like it, but it stops spontaneously generally within a few seconds to occasionally an hour or two. It's pretty well controlled with metoprolol, at least at this point, and often it's asymptomatic.

Have heard now from a few about water intake - think I am low on that! Thanks

Thanks so much, very helpful to me. I need lots of 'reality checks.'

72M here. I had AFib for about six years. Last year it became too much with 59 episodes lasting 20+ hours each. In February, I finally had a PF ablation. Easiest procedure I've ever had done. Zero pain. Zero problems. An out-patient procedure. Now, almost two months later, I may be free from AFib. I'm getting back to pushing harder with exercise and lifting. I did have three episodes soon after the ablation (the first lasting 5 hours and then two episodes lasting 10 minutes) but they warned me I might still have some transient episodes for a few months. My advice is to go for ablation. Check with your doctor, but there are a lot of benefits to the new pulsed field ablation. Note, that you will likely have to stay on blood thinner. At my age and with high blood pressure, they say that, even if my AFib is gone, my score is still too high.