Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

@randy32 You may already have been formally diagnosed for ischemia, but if not, this would be a next step. Also, formally diagnosed for obstructive/central sleep apnea (the best, if you can afford it, is a night spent in a sleep lab where you get hooked up with a gillion leads (you look like a gorgon when they've finished applying them all), and they let you fall asleep in a bed. Some labs make you come back next night and they titrate you for pressure/volume to improve your air flow using a PAP machine. In my case, they awaken you at 0200 and ask you to don a mask and they'll titrate you until waking time at 0600....IF.....they see obvious apnea in the first half of the night.

Endurance athletes often develop AF later in life. I am one such person. But it wasn't my endurance sports, although we both know intuitively, as do physicians, that our 'hobby' probably didn't do us any good as time went on. No, it was those two silent killers, OSA and hypertension, who are kissin' cousins. When you open the closet and see the one, the other has shrunk back into the shadow and is attempting to rearrange clothing....if you know what I mean.

You ask for a treatment plan. Tests for ischemia and sleep apnea come to the fore. And that means a visit to your friendly neighbhourhood cardiologist.

@kjhunt You should be seen by a cardiologist and sent on to an electrophysiologist ASAP. Three years ago would have been great. An EP will, if you're otherwise healthy (enough), offer to perform a catheter ablation to stop the fibrillation. It has a 75% chance of being successful, but repeats are often done when the time comes. AF changes the heart, and not in a good way, so if it still comes and goes for you, it's still paroxysmal and most easily treated. If you are in permanent AF, speak to a cardiologist about options.

I have afib for 2 years and taking eliquis and 25 ml of metroprolol. I am 88 years old and now I have afib every 1-2 month and started from few hours and now already 3 days. Doctor added 25 ml more but did not tell me how long it can last

@gloaming thanks for sharing this insight. Very affirming. I do have an overnight sleep study in the hospital scheduled in the next two weeks, that sounds very much like what you're describing. I do not have hypertension. What type of testing will they do for ischemia?

Hi
Yesterday I had a sensation of my heart dropping in my chest. It lasted for a little while, it was very noticeable and I’ve never had this happen before. I have supra ventricular tachycardia. I get episodes of syncope (lightheadedness or near fainting) every now and then. And I get a rapid heart rate and sometimes a flutter, or I skip a beat from time to time. Most of the time I don’t notice it. I’ve been seeing a cardiologist for several years (but right now I’m waiting for my new one. I don’t see him until July). I’ve worn heart monitors, and I’ve had EKGs and echocardiograms, but I’ve never had this strong sensation in my heart dropping in my chest before. (I even wonder if my heart stopped), Tomorrow I see a doctor.

@randy32 They do echocardiogram, angiogram, what in British Columbia, where I live, is called a MIBI test: https://www.islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/2018-11/mibi-scan-patient-info.pdf
Also called a stress test with contrasting dye. I have had two. Also Doppler ultrasound of the carotid arteries. All of these show pinch points or excess deposition of stenosing plaque that limits the amount of oxygenated blood that can get through/past them. If they reduce the flow sufficiently to cause obvious and relevant symptoms, they call the effect 'ischemia'.

@jozie16 Usually the 'skipped beat' feeling, maybe with a strong thump at the end, is known as a PAC, or premature atrial contraction. SVT, your formal diagnosis, is not a PAC, or rather the other way around...a PAC is not within the greater arrhythmia set that is SVT. People describe what they feel, and helpful listening physicians reply that it's palpitations. It's never a diagnosis, just a way of feeding back that they're listening and understand the sensations involved. PACs really are a pause followed by two catch-up beats that come close together, and one of them is a doozy, often felt as the big one. It's unsettling, but every heart alive this moment has one, six, twenty each day. They're normal. They can climb in number and present an unreasonable, even a morbid, 'burden', typically several thousand each day where the cardiologist would want you to see an electrophysiologist. Also, PACs tend to be forerunners of eventual atrial fibrillation, and AF and SVT are in the same drawer.

Hi
I just found out I have fast and slow heart rates daily. All because I switched from Samsung to Apple, and my Apple watch has been telling me my heart rate is under 50 and over 100. I have had a few irregular EKGs in the past, but when they were redone, I had a perfect sinus rhythm. I even had one of those life screenings, because my husband is a heart patient and I wanted to get ahead of the game, and it came back that I had an extra heartbeat, but when I took the report to my PCP they did an EKG, and it was normal.
After my watch started notifying me of different heart rates, I started taking my blood pressure daily, and it was normal, but it would also pick up these different heart rates.
I made an appointment with my husband's cardiologist and she had me wear a Holter monitor for 5 days. I just had my ECO done, and now I wait for the results. The technician did mention a PVC or an arrhythmia, but I have absolutely NO symptoms at all. I don't feel anything. The tech asked me if I felt flutters, dizziness, or pounding, and I have never had any symptoms.
I am a breast cancer survivor and had 35 weeks of daily radiation, which can cause heart problems later. I don't see the Dr until May 15th, so I just have to wonder what the heck it is, and is it something serious? I am guessing if they found something that needed immediate attention they would contact me, or at least I hope so.

@clementyne We'll all have to await the results. Guessing isn't going to be more than a waste of anxious energy in my opinion. If it is an arrhythmia, it can be managed, but it depends on which arrhythmia and what is to be done for it. You'll have to be patient.

I want to follow this group as I have AFib