Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

Hello @sjm46, welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. How frustrating it must be to go from perfect health check-ups to being diagnosed with A-fib in a matter of months for no reason other than age.

Here is another discussion you may find worth sharing your situation, questions and concerns in: "Cardioversion success" - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cardioversion-success/.

I am having the same sort of experience. All my test come back telling me I have no problems with heart, lungs, or vascular area.

No. I don't have a cardiologist or pumonologist...just my primary care doc who is a DO. I guess the heart monitor or the apnea thing I put on my finger for the night indicated low oxigen. I don't really know as my doc doesn't spend a lot of time with me. He has his medical assistant call me to tell me what to do next.

I'm 78 years old; less than a year ago I had a "perfect" EKG and 3 months ago I had a home health checkup that scored a 99 out of 100. Now I have A-fib--no real reason except my cardiologist says it is "common" in my age group! I'm on Cardizem and a blood thinner. The rhythm is still erratic after 5 weeks. I feel best when I exercise daily on elliptical machine and treadmill. I feel worst at night when it seems I can feel every erratic beat in my chest. I take Tylenol Extra Strength (1000 mg) at 8 pm and then again at 2 pm when I wake up--just to get a half-way decent nights sleep. I am waiting for cardioversion! What kind of cardioversion should I get and can I expect that this will be corrected? I am sick of this! I mean really sick of thinking about this!

@dalebout123 it seems like a good idea to see a cardiologist. Is the medication helping you? You are having a lot of testing which you can bring to cardiology. What is the reason for oxygen at night? Do you also have a pulmonologist?

Supra-ventricular tachycardia. Essentially, any arrhythmia that results in a heart rate higher than 100 originating in, and taking place in, either of the two smaller chambers atop the heart...above the two large ventricles. Tachycardia is an arrhythmia. Also included are atrial fibrillation, premature atrial complexes, and flutter.

I am an active 80 year old female. I am in the process of all kinds of tests to determine what is going on with me...Heart monitor, PET scan, MRI on my lungs, Echocardia. When I wore a heart monito, I was only told by my doctor that my heart is beating too fast...put me on Metrolpolol 25 mg. My doctor is a DO -- not an MD. He seems to be doing everything he can to determine why I still have this fuzzy head though I am on oxigen at night. My latest test is for an overnight sleep apnea test. At what point should I move onto a Cardiologist?

What is SVT?

I am very happy medications have worked for you and your family, really I am. I'm not trying to condemn that. I was born with a rare heart defect & have been doing pretty well for 49 years, until COVID. It has turned my body into goo. I have so many things going wrong now. I don't get answers I get meds. I am so terrified it's not even funny. I just found some comfort that I might possibly not be alone. I will stop writing on these forums. Good bye!

@saraheigen this forum is not supposed to provide medical advice, only experiences.

I have a kid on insulin who would die in days without it, and also on anti-convulsants and has not had a life-altering seizure in 10 years. My mother lived until 95+ thanks to medications. I took meds for cancer, and for my bones, and they have saved me.

So I would not say, in our experience, that meds are bad. Nevertheless they need to be carefully chosen, monitored for side effects as well as interactions, and the situation of a drug treating a drug's effects needs to be avoided unless the first drug is necessary for life. That's my view, as a lay person who unfortunately has dealt with a lot of medical situations.

Chances are you will keep some but a "wash out" meaning getting rid of candidates one at a time might be helpful.