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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.
I also had first afib on a holiday with high stress, coming off of covid and drinking one glass of wine (which never got finished)! I was told the covid took out my thryroid which started the chain reaction. That was over 16 months ago. Cardioversion did not work but an iv of amiadorone did and I left the er within 4 hours on eliquis and metoprolol. I quit drinking right, sucks, still miss a glass every now and then but not worth the er trip. Some say that the irritation of the esophagus triggers vagal afib but have no idea if that is true. I do get gerd and alcohol does trigger that, so another reason to stop. Have not seen a cardioligist in a year. The last one told me no need to see him more than once a year and stay on the eliquis, dropped metoprolol. I meet a new one (insurance change) next month and will ask about eliquis. There is also a test called the Has Bled that includes alcohol on the criteria as alcohol is also a blood thinner, something my first Dr. never asked me about or considered.