Posted on 07/21/2011 6:52:00 PM PDT by Focault's Pendulum
I was diagnosed in May this year with A Fib. For those of you who do not know, that is a sometimes rapid and irregular heart beat.
I'm on a beta blocker,and a blood thinner also to control my blood pressure.
If you have it you know the symptoms. Lately I've been getting dizzy and a prickly feeling on my upper back if I get up too fast. (Yeah I know the joke line...get up slowly)
My Doctor has just seen appropriate to up my meds slightly. Most of the time I feel great.
But I've been having days like crap. I sometimes can hardly stand for five minutes at a time without having to sit or lay down. I have actually had to do my morning shower and shave in increments.
I feel OK most of the time. but these episodes seem to becoming more frequent.
The were happening once or twice a year, now they're coming every few weeks.
BTW my beta blocker is supposed to lower my blood pressure and slow the heart beat. It has, but I sometimes experience a rapid beat which quickly subsides.
I have afib.
Doctor told me at 60 years of age and put me on warfarin. Blood pressure and various tests all indicate a healthy heart but they joke when checking my pulse which varies from skipping beats to multiple beats in rapid order, hardly ever being consistent.
I’m now 71, still on warfarin, still getting checked usually twice a month, more often if I change medications for other issues. Have had several unrelated operations which required stopping warfarin 5 days prior. No problems but I still have the irregular beat. I have never noticed any symptoms of anything unusual and seem to function fine even with Afib. It has not really affected my life at all except for the constant monitoring of my blood.
my dad was diagnosed with it this past friday. he was
put in cardio icu and is now in hospice. however,
he is also 87. actually, he is doing very well right
now.
Guess I’m one of the lucky ones when it comes to Afib.
First episode was December 2008. I thought I was dying. Cardioversion put everything right. Got off my meds, another episode. Everything OK. Then December 2009 I did a lot of heavy lifting and cardioversion didn’t work. Felt bad, couldn’t climb stairs. Open heart surgery repaired a leaky mitral valve and now everything’s copacetic (I’m 62). But I knew for twenty years I had MVP and the docs said don’t worry about it if it’s asymptomatic.
My complete sympathies with anyone who has to live with Afib. Contact East Carolina Pitts Med Center in Greenville NC for heart surgery. They’re the best, no kidding.
Your situation sounds much like mine. Every great once in a while my heart will just rapidly beat for a few seconds then go back to normal. Nothing brings it on. It just happens. Like you, I just ride it out until it passes. I am fifty, and my heart has been doing this for as far back as I can remember.
On the other hand, I have the bonus of a funky regular heart beat. The doctor called it a “gallop”. If I understood what I read my heart squeezes harder than normal. Thus, the high blood pressure.
I’ve had A Fib for 11 years and currently take amiodarone, diltiazem and warfarin. My mitral valve began to leak badly so I had surgery to repair the valve in 2006. Over time, my heart rate slowed to the point (39 bps) that my energy level was low and I got a pacemaker two years ago. I feel great and walk 2 miles a day. Amiodarone is a very effective drug for A Fib but can have some nasty side effects. Best wishes for regaining a good quality of life - it sometimes takes a while to adjust drugs and dosage levels.
I just live by the Neil Armstrong rule:
“I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.”
The medications you are taking can cause the dizziness, even without standing up fast. The things is the beta blockers slow down your heart beat, this causes you to get dizzy when you stand up to fast. Atrial fib is not life threatening, Vfib on the other hand is.
Some people never come out of Afib even with medications. And the joke is true, stand up slower and you won't get dizzy unless you are suffering from one of the side effects from the Beta Blocker.
PS, another side effect of beta blockers and other Afib meds is they can make you really tired. I have been on some that made my arms so tired I could hardly comb my hair. If this is the case with you ask your doctor to change your meds to something else.
Responding to your post as well as your screen name-a book of many conspiracies. Eco wrote another favorite of mine, The Name of the Rose. Brilliant.
Wikipedia has a technical but helpful page on A-Fib:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_Fibrillation
Pretty good reference and links to definitions. And, it has a moving graphic that shows what is going on in the heart with the conduction pathways of the heart beat.
Atrial Fibrillation is not in itself life threatening but is important to control because it can lead to a stroke (7 times increase in risk of a stroke if untreated). My Dad had it later in life in his 80s when it is very common. In general it accounts for 1/3 of hospital admissions for heart rhythm problems.
They prescribe blood thinners because when the atrium is not emptying completely blood will “pool” in that location and when it is sitting still, is more likely to clot. The clot can then go out of the heart into the brain and cause a stroke by the blockage. So they prescribe warfarin, or newer alternatives to warfarin that have fewer drug interactions.
You get medicine to slow down the rate of the heart by blocking the signal from the atria to the ventricles. Usually cardizem or verapamil, or beta blockers that are selective to blocking only in the heart. Too fast pulse wears you out, and wears the heart out as well as not pumping blood efficiently.
Sleep apnea coupled with this can be considered if you go to sleep at night and wake up tired. An assistance device that helps you continually breathe without interruption (snore/stop breathing for long time then massive inhaling) can be worn. My Dad said it was the first real rest he had had in 10 years.
The treatment is much better now than it was, and if you know what is going on you can adjust to living nearly normally with the right care.
Wanted to share this little bit, cause I went through it for some time with my Dad who lived to 94. Deo Vindice.
They did a cardio-version on him and shocked his heart back to normal rhythm.
Forgive my asking but are you overweight? For him they think it was the extra water weight that strained his heart and threw him into A-fib.
I also have SVT plus PVCs & mitral valve prolapse w/ regurgitation. My 2 kids also have this. I would be wakened from sleep feeling very strange, shaky, anxious, faint, w/ rapid heart beat. I could not get up w/o fainting. I was also struck by lightening in 2003 which really set off my heart issues. I don’t take any Big Pharma rxs. DR Sherry Rogers has a book out called “Is Your Cardiologist Killing You” See Amazon.com. Lot of Rxs are killing us. Part of the population reduction plan???
I had it after my heart surgery 12 years ago and it is very easy to control with medication. I have not had it happen for 11 years.
PPS, when I say atrial fib isn’t life threatening I mean to say your heart won’t stop, which is something that happens with Vfib. You must take coumadin or some other blood thinner in order to lessen the chance of stroke. I am on coumadin.
My FIL had hospice called in a year ago when the dr. said he only had a month or two left. He’s 89 and in heart failure. Just enjoy each day, and hope there are many more.
Get used to it my friend, while there are drugs and procedures that will aleviate the situation, the only known sure cure is a heart transplant — and the donor heart may have the same problem.
Take your pills (I take 20/day) and get to know what each of them is supposed to do and — more importantly — what they really do. The most important people in any clinic or Doctor’s office isn’t the Doctors... it’s the lawyers who tell the Doctors what they can do. Consequently the Doctors rarely give you the best drug for a problem. Instead they give stuff they can’t be sued for. Take it anyway!
I was diagnosed with atrial fibrulation three years ago this next November. After 2 months with a heart specialist, he did the shock treatment on my heart. It was hardly anything and lasted only seconds. I hardly even knew it. My heart returned to normal. I was put on coumadin and amiodarone. I have now stopped coumadin and take a baby aspirin daily with the amiodarone. My heart works like a clock now just like it did when I was younger. I am on a blood pressure medicine and my blood pressure is normally 125 to 130 over 55-70. My pulse rate varies from 55 to 65 most often around 60 which is what it was when I was in my 20’s. I was at first skeptical about the shock treatment but my specialist assured me that it would work and it did. I have had no AFib since. I am 74 yrs. old.
Some types of conduction problems are treated with AV ablation and a pacemaker when the medicines aren't stopping the problem. This requires minor but specialized surgery. But Atrial fib has lots of causes, so I can't say if you need this or not.
If you are getting symptoms, leave a message with the nurse at your cardiologist's office.
I’m 68 and was undergoing a colonoscopoy in 2005. The nurse anesthesiologist stopped the procedure because she noticed my AFib. The GI doctor said I should see my cardiologist eventually. A cardio nurse practicioner friend of my wife’s went ballistic and ordered me to my cardiologist STAT. The rushed me to the hospital and started me on coumadin that night. In 2008, I had a pacemaker installed and now after a daily hour walk, my heart rate is usually between 60 and 65; blood pressure is usually about 110/60. I take Sotalol 2X daily, losartan for the BP, Lipitor, Lovaza 3X daily, pantaprazole for antacid. I’ve also had two triple bypasses. Ain’t science grand? I’m 5’8 and weigh 200, walk daily and go to the gym three or four times weekly. The only issue with the pacemakeer so far is going through the security check at the airport. I have to get the intimate pat-down by the TSA people.
I had afib and was going to be put on all the meds you all went on. I elected to have an ablasion wich they burn a spot in your heart which stops the afib, Best thing I did and don’t need the drugs
Close relative was treated very successfully by this doc. They are have been free of A fib and meds for 7 years.
www.wolfminimaze.com
It is a little controversial because the doc cuts the little flap off of the bottom of the heart to prevent clotting. But it is the key to getting off all meds including blood thinners and not having a stroke.
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