Atrial Fibrillation anyone?

[beingabitchispartofmymystique]

I've been diagnosed with AF and am currently taking loads of meds and would love to hear if anyone else has gone through this and gone back to normal sinus rhythm. It's really debilitating as I never know when an episode is going to come on and leave me breathless and weak.

Oh, yes. My mum has it too but hers started when she was around 70. I'm in my forties. Sigh. The most important thing you can do to try to avoid AF is keep your blood pressure low, avoid caffeine and stress (is what I've been told)

Not sure if it's the same thing, but I had superventricular tachaecardia for years. I basically had an extra nerve circuit in my heart which was causing palpitations.

I had an operation under local anaesthetic to burn away the extra nerve circuit about 13 years ago and haven't had any problems since.

Before the op, I was taking beta blockers on a daily basis which left me really washed out.

Littlefish, I think it's similar to AF. My cardiologist specializes in something called ablation but it seems so terribly scary.
I'm waiting for cardioversion but my I.N.R keeps going up and down so they can't do it yet. Glad you've been well since the procedure.

being - I had radio wave ablation. It was uncomfortable, but not too bad. It was just strange being awake and feeling someone/something else controlling my heart beat and rate.

I was done under local anaesthetic. They put a wire up from my groin which they used to trigger off an attack. When they'd found the dodgy area, they used sound waves to burn it out.

It took me a couple of weeks for things to calm down because of the scar tissue. Since then, everything's been great. I was quite badly affected before the treatment, with episodes happening every day, sometimes for a couple of hours at a time.

What are cardioversion and I.N.R?

I found that it really helped to know some of my triggers:

Fizzy drinks
Rapid temperature changes
Getting too hot
Lifting my arms above my head first thing in the morning (ie. in the shower)!

I can't remember all the rest now!

being ~ is there a cause?

I have ventricular tachecardica for atelast 3 years now but they tried all sorts of treatments. My Belta blocker were they things making me very tired rather than the VT's so might be worth thinking about the meds.
HTH

I agree Lisad - my betablockers made me really tired as well.

Have you tried radiowave ablation Lisad? Is it worth investigating?

Im only 27 and although rate runs at 120 ish BPM, most of the time its pretty manageable and I have grown used to it, just when palpatations go for a while or it runs too quick for too long its a PITA. Cardio has asked me to wait a year and see if i can manage ok, they are relucatant to do anything at the moment. My cardio says she really doesnt want to give me a pace maker so young if i can cope ok

I was 29 when I had mine treated. I was told that there was a chance that when they burned away the nerve circuit, that they would damage the "healthy" circuits and have to give me a pacemaker.

Luckily everything went well and I didn't need a pacemaker.

I think where I differ from you is that in an attack, my bpm was anything from 140 - 190 which made me feel very feint (sp) and breathless. Perhaps they decided to operate because I wasn't coping, whereas you are?

Is a pacemaker the only possible treatment?

No but as with you its a risk if they damage healthy nerves. Mine sits about 12-140 resting but when they did exserice test went to about 240, which was high and been in A&E a twice having to be in resus with them putting in IV meds to bring rate down from over 270, lucky for me its beens ettled for 8 months now, and im coping ok. Im no where near as tired now as I was on the Beta blockers.
Glad yours is well though

Ah, I see. I'm glad things are ok for you at the moment. Your acute episodes sound very frightening. My operation was done before I had children, so I think I was probably less concerned about it than I would be now!

I hope you continue to cope well with yours.