[SamiP]

Hi Jeff,
I had so many questions today, I think I drove the head nurse crazy! BUT, it is my life and my heart and there are things I wanted to know. As of yet, I haven't seen the cardio doctor, but more than likely they'll send me home today. It's not life threatening, just life altering a bit. The upside is I know now what I'm dealing with, before I kept thinking the worst. The one thing everyone has told me is that if you have to have something wrong with your heart, this is what you want (I don't want any of this). I'm tired and hungry but thankful I was wearing the monitor so they could see exactly what was going on. I'm not sure if I even need to wear it again.
I'll write you more later, I'm having a rather heated discussion over food here,or lack of. I'm very cranky, might be the meds, loss of sleep, stress or a combo of everything. I'm hanging in and trying to be very optimistic. At least now I know and am not in the dark any longer.

[Jeff]

Yup - if you're going to have problems with parts of your heart and you can choose either ventricles or atria, choose atria.

And yeah, not knowing what's happening is always worse than knowing. So now you know, and now you know it's something that won't impact your daily life too much.

Let me know if you need anything.

Jeff

[momof3]

sam

FYI -i had a younger patient today. she had so much anxiety because she was going sto hemodialysis for the first time - i could feel her anxiety, although i tried to reassure her, her emotions won - less than 2 hours after i sent her to hemo i got a call that she was experiencing tachycardia so an ECG was ordered and it picked up afib - they gave her digoxin and sent her to the telemetry floor where cardizem was ordered twice daily - when i left i checked in and she was in normal sinus rhythm - she had no hx of afib - i'm convinced her nerves triggered it to some degree

i know it's easier said than done but try to think positive thoughts.

my thoughts are with you i know it is scary but you will be fine, people of all ages get afib

sometimes there can be a build up of calcium ( not in the arteries, but in the cellular structure) that can cause the arrythmia and calcium channel blockers (ccb) are the drug of choice and work really well

but again i'd bet that your anxiety was the trigger

[SamiP]

Hi Momof3, I'm sure you're right, anxiety certainly didn't help my situation. When the palpitations started, I know I was extremely nervous and fell into into a panic state. My afib lasted less than 90 minutes in all and maybe it was mind over matter, but once they administered the cardizem, it took care of everything! I'll make an appointment with my cardio doctor this week and hopefully get more information.

[jkfrench]

Hey Kris! Thanks for posting. Are you feeling better?
Thanks for that reassuring post. We just need a doctor every morning to drop by and tell us we are okay! Hmmm maybe we should start up a business.
Take care
Jodie

[momof3]

hi jodie, nice to hear from you. i am feeling better, i actually had 2 days without noticing any PVCs except for a few little ones after my run, then i had 2 stressed days at work and they came back but i believe i am tolerating them better pschologically

regards

kris

[jkfrench]

eeks, Sam I didn't know there were pages of your posts. I'm so sorry you ended up in the ER. But glad that you know what it is and have been reassured that it is treatable.
My mom has been in A-fib for going on 4 years
(24/7) now. She has no trouble at all and the doctors tell her that as long as she takes the blood thinner then she should be fine. Hopefully yours resolved itself and won't start up again for a very long time. I have heard that people can have a bout of A-fib once and never again.
Thanks for sharing, I'm sure this will help another poster at some point.
Take care
Jodie

[mnm1207]

Silly question...who is at risk for A-fib. It looks like you had all the necessary tests, but they didn't detect this before? Should this be something to worry about? I am so sorry you had to go through that....you must have been terrified.

[jkfrench]

Who is at risk for atrial fibrillation?
Atrial fibrillation is most common in people older than 60 years of age. However, you can get atrial fibrillation at any age. Sometimes, atrial fibrillation has no cause, but your risk goes up if you have any of the following:


Heart disease caused by high cholesterol
A larger heart size caused by high blood pressure (which you do NOT have)
Damage to a heart valve ( you do not have according to your tests)
An overactive thyroid gland (verified from blood work)
Lung disease (NO)
Heavy drinking of alcohol
Use of certain medicines
You do not have any of these issues going on so don't worry. If you had A-fib, your doctor would have had you in the office sooner rather than later. (even though it is benign)
I have thought on several occasions that I have gone into A-fib. Example My heart would pause for 2 seconds or so and then escape into PAT. However the PAT was not the normal PAT that is described (vial the internet). I would have a heartbeat of 220 with PVC's thrown in so it felt like A-fib because it was a fast irratic rythym. BUT...it wasn't A-fib because it finally got caught on tape. it was PAT with PVC's.
However, my doctor did told me that sometimes it could be A-fib but not to worry because it wasn't happening all the time. (about 2 times a year)
It is NOT something to worry about. My 75 year old mother has been in afib for over 5 years. She travels and walks and does not let it affect her life in any way. 75 years old. She tells me what she always tells me...eventually it will go away lol
I wish I had that attitude.
Don't worry....Jodie

[Jeff]

Because Sami's afib was a sort of "lone atrial fibrillation" it was hard to catch. Holters are great for symptoms that happen every day. When they only happen occasionally, it's luck of the draw to catch them on a holter. So she got an event monitor.

But the thing with Sami is, she was feeling something she knew wasn't being caught on the holter or EKG. If you had your holter and there was at least one good example of your symptoms in there, then you can rest assured it was reviewed (first by computer, then by human eyes), and determined to be harmless.

And judging from your profile picture you're pretty young - like Jodie said it usually only comes when you're older.

But don't take my word for it - have a look at this graphic: