Atrial Fibrillation

[GT3Manthey]

Don1 said:

Well today has been so bad I've doubled up on the pill in pocket drugs, a few hours apart. Never done that before. Or had to do that before. Still not settled.

Interesting graphs Don

Have just washed the programme on the tein doctors .

May I ask how long you’ve had this ?

[Don1]

Five years or so.

[Athlon]

Don1 said:

Well today has been so bad I've doubled up on the pill in pocket drugs, a few hours apart. Never done that before. Or had to do that before. Still not settled.

Have you tried the old tricks? deep breath and squeeze down like you are on the loo? a glug of ice cold water? hold your breath and see if the rhythm settles albeit briefly? All these have worked for me in the past, esp the first one

[Don1]

Yep, also done the rapid legs over head. It's a really unusual one. Feels very different from the normal.

[Athlon]

Don1 said:

Yep, also done the rapid legs over head. It's a really unusual one. Feels very different from the normal.

maybe pop to A&E and get them to do heart massage, I was amazed how fast it works, they do voodoo on your neck..

[Badda]

Don1 said:

I thought I would live up to a promise and share with you some of the EKGs I've got. I use a Kardia device, that allows me to record to my phone. This was brilliant, as the cardiologist said it aided him diagnosing me much quicker.

This was today. Resting heart rate of 54ish, then this...... This has been happening for the last hour. No idea if it's worth taking a Flecainide or not. But as I'm trying this, it's getting wosrse, so I may.


Next up is something I call 'butterflies'. It's a fluttering in your chest. This is what it looks like on a graph:


Then there are thumps. You can actually feel this if you are touching my chest.


Finally, this was a really bad one. I know it's bad when the bottom line is all fuzzy....



There you go. Hope this is of use to someone.

Loads of p waves in the graphs suggesting that this is sinus and not AF at all. What appears to be irregularity is actually ectopics. However the bottom graph shows a rhythm of 150-300 if it’s standard measurement. This needs adenosine or electricity ASAP imho.

[GT3Manthey]

Don1 said:

Five years or so.

Ok tks . Figured I’d ask as this is new to us so trying to gauge various time spans and symptoms.

As previously mentioned my wife’s issues started during her spell of covid so we are interested to know of others this has happened to.

Last two days she says she has been better with the last big ‘attack lol being two days ago.
Since then it’s just been gentle but still noticeable

[Don1]

Ah. Italian figures show a 25% death rate for AF plus Covid. I haven't seen anything around Covid causing it, sorry.

[GT3Manthey]

Don1 said:

Ah. Italian figures show a 25% death rate for AF plus Covid. I haven't seen anything around Covid causing it, sorry.

But just for clarity there is definitely a suggestion that Covid has been a cause of AF for some recently ?

Sorry but i'm trying to take on so much info in a short space of time ahead of us actually seeing a cardiologist

[Don1]

I haven't seen any, sorry. It does stand to reason though - viral infection, strongly affecting the CV system. Covid is such a new disease they don't unerstand it at all, but the basics described are what has caused my issues.

In my 20's being imortal and all that, I played rugby with a chest infection. That ended up as myocarditis and pneumonia, we think that cased scaring on the heart. Which now causes this....

Good luck.

[GT3Manthey]

Don1 said:

I haven't seen any, sorry. It does stand to reason though - viral infection, strongly affecting the CV system. Covid is such a new disease they don't unerstand it at all, but the basics described are what has caused my issues.

In my 20's being imortal and all that, I played rugby with a chest infection. That ended up as myocarditis and pneumonia, we think that cased scaring on the heart. Which now causes this....

Good luck.

Tks again Don

[Don1]

Badda said:

Loads of p waves in the graphs suggesting that this is sinus and not AF at all. What appears to be irregularity is actually ectopics. However the bottom graph shows a rhythm of 150-300 if it’s standard measurement. This needs adenosine or electricity ASAP imho.

Interesting, let me have a read up on this, thank you. Bottom graph - both pills, sat down an 30mins later was back at 90bpm. The bpm was showing 210-250 during measurement. I think I have a graph showing 216 average somewhere around.

[Badda]

No worries. The bottom one is certainly AF with rVr. The others are not AF but a sinus rhythm.

[Limpet]

I was diagnosed with AFib yesterday. Had a week or so of feeling generally unwell, tired and becoming breathless when even exercising gently, with intermittent fluttering sensations in my chest.

Called 111 yesterday who got me into the GP same day who caught it on the ECG, and sent me straight to into the AECU at the hospital. 3 more ECGs, a chest x ray and ultrasound later, I’m walking out with a months worth of beta blockers and thinners, and a follow up in 3 weeks to discuss treatment options.

Have to say, I’m feeling load better just from the drugs after less than 24 hours, but will see how we go.

[matc]

Athlon said:

Have you tried the old tricks? deep breath and squeeze down like you are on the loo? a glug of ice cold water? hold your breath and see if the rhythm settles albeit briefly? All these have worked for me in the past, esp the first one

Blowing in to a syringe is a pretty good trick too. Having said that, when my heart was really bad the only thing that sorted it was getting a nights sleep!

Reading this thread I consider myself lucky that the ablation surgery sorted mine out for good - living with it for 10 years was definitely long enough!

[Don1]

I will post the graph tomorrow, but today was wiped out with 275bpm event. Didn't feel very well....

Edit - here's the graph. It's a 30 second reading. I count about 140 peaks....

Edited by Don1 on Sunday 20th September 14:18

[Don1]

Well, arse. That last graph was AF along with flutter in 1-1 conduction.

So I'm being booked into hospital for a double ablation. Hurrah. Will report back about it all.

[Athlon]

Don1 said:

Well, arse. That last graph was AF along with flutter in 1-1 conduction.

So I'm being booked into hospital for a double ablation. Hurrah. Will report back about it all.

Both sides? I have had that, it's a long job. Sadly mine did not work at all but hopefully it will go well for you.

Tuesday night mine started and despite 250mg of Flec it ran for 19 hours second dose of 200mg seemed to get it back to 96bpm and then it slowly settled down.

Good luck with the op, best thing from my point of view is mine was done under a general rather than local..

[kurt535]

Don1 said:

Well, arse. That last graph was AF along with flutter in 1-1 conduction.

So I'm being booked into hospital for a double ablation. Hurrah. Will report back about it all.

very late to the party...yes, shark's tooth....let us know their rx for you...likely to be similar to af on a number of counts.

[this is my username]

Has anyone used an Apple Watch to monitor persistent AF?

I'm about 8 weeks in to it. Beta blockers didn't work, now on a calcium channel blocker (Diltiazem) which hasn't done much for the last 4 weeks but I'm now sometimes seeing a reduced heart rate late afternoon / evening (I take it in the morning).

Have been monitoring my heart rate using a Kardia device which is great but of course only works when you use it - I'm wondering about using an Apple watch (series 4 or later) to give me alerts when my heart rate drops. It sounds like it could be useful but since I haven't been able to work since this started I would appreciate others' experiences before I spend the money!