Heart rate

[pollyglot]

Should I go to hospital? Pulse of 32. Feeling lightheaded. Have been before and they just say "You need a pacemaker-join the huge queue". If I stop the beta blocker, the chaotic atrial fibrillations make me feel panicked. The waiting lists are just disastrous.

At 32, yes, I would.

Absolutely.

Hopefully you have gone, how are you doing ?

Can your doc slightly reduce or taper down the beta blockers? The dosage may be too high for you. I have similar issue but got 7 day monitor and a slight reduction in meds. Still lowish around 50 but I'm feeling fine now. Just a suggestion. I know Afib is horrible and can be difficult to control.

Thank you so much for your responses. Yes, I went to hospital (very remote). Overnight on a trolley in A&E, full of tubes and lines and beepy things. They reiterated - you need a cardiologist urgently. Same response as 6 weeks ago...a cardiologist within 2 weeks, top priority. Nothing happened. And get this - on arrival, after ambulance stopping 3 times to take BP (240/120) and administer nitroglycerin, signed in with name, rank and number, next question from doc - "If your heart stops tonight, do you want to be resuscitated?" !!! Sure, practical and sensible-but bad timing, yes?

My heart rate was 34 last week when lying in bed I didn’t feel too good either so I got up and moved around and it came up to 55. The next day it was fine and back up to 70-80. I’m not on any medication so I don’t know why it had happened

BlueBunny23 - Thank you, that's interesting. I was told to get up and move about, too. Though other docs said stay still, in bed. When I went out to feed the chickens, slowly, i came back in a massive sweat, feeling shocking, pulse was 65, O2 was 88! Immediately fell back to 44.

Why not admit you? Have you a referral to a cardiologist? Hope you are okay tonight.

Holdonwharaboutthewaffles - thank you for your response. There are no beds in the small country hospital, which is why I spent the night on a trolley in A&E. Still no referral, so have decided to go private in the city 200 miles from here. I'm convinced that older people are triaged out of the system.

greenhousegal - thank you for your interesting comment. I'm off all beta blockers because they are incompatible with the AFib and bradycardia. Just blood thinners now. I was started on 160 mg Sotalol 10 years ago, which absolutely knocked me out, gradually reduced to 40, after much fighting with doctors about how they made me feel. Now 20 mg if I get disabling AFib. Life is on hold until I pay through the nose to see a consultant privately. Bummer.

Bloody hell. You poor thing. No advice but I'm sorry you're having a shit time

Thank you, MrsM for your comment, and apologies for the delay in responding to you. I finally got hold of the 48-hour Holter monitor report-had to go through the nurse who had given us her email about hiring home ECG machines for her patients-doctor hasn't received it, after 6 weeks! We were told it would be in our/doc's hands after 5 days. Still no echocardiogram that I was supposed to have 7 weeks ago. The "48 hour" Holter broke down after 17 hours, 44 mins! The consultant I'm seeing privately in 10 days' time will need the data. A nurse friend had a look at the report and visibly blanched.
It's all pretty discouraging.
Mind you, this is the same hospital where, 3 months ago, we attended A&E 3 times in 3 days because i was so worried about DH's swollen and painful leg, and we couldn't get a GP appointment. I was sure he had DVT. Doc dismissed us derisively, saying he had strained a muscle from lifting shopping/sitting badly on his computer chair, and to go home and watch Youtube clips about proper lifting technique. On the third day, he was airlifted to the distant city hospital for urgent surgery on an aneurysm that was leaking...so lucky to have survived. Truly, I despair.