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Newly onset Afib
About two weeks ago I felt faint doing gardening and noticed afib alerts on my watch. Went to the ER and they were able to get my heart rate down but left the hospital with Afib. The episode lasted 5 days. I am now on Eliquis twice a day and 120 mg diltiazem daily. The episode followed a virus that I was taking a high dose of prednisone for. Trigger could have been the virus, the prednisone, stress or alcohol. We are monitoring AFib with my apple watch now and considering ablation if it happens again. Doctor has told me to stop alcohol completely. I usually have a beer or two with dinner. Any advice?
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I posted just the other day about typical triggers for AF. It's a long list, but dehydration and electrolyte imbalance would be typical for aged people, or for active people out in the sun. Alcohol is usually tolerated, but each AF patient has to learn if it's a no-no for them. I have seen it be due to calcium in some, too much in their diet. Caffeine in others, so no colas or tea/coffee/dark chocolate or sports drinks. Poor sleep. They have undiagnosed sleep apnea (my hand is up).
AF goes through four stages, and you are in the earliest where it's easiest to manage or to ablate. I have had two ablations (first one failed, but the second worked and I'm 38 months free of AF). In the right cases, the right electrophysiologist (EP), they work. Sometimes they last a lifetime, sometimes an ablation lasts only a year. They can be repeated, but if they fail in a few months or years it means the heart is actively attempting to build new rogue circuits for the signals to take over the heart's rhythm.
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3 Reactions@kevincurtin
I see @gloaming has already posted an answer to your question. Great advice and quite frankly don't have any better response to you than @gloaming gave you.