Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group
Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia) which involves the two small, upper heart chambers (the atria). Heart beats in a normal heart begin after electricity generated in the atria by the sinoatrial node spread through the heart and cause contraction of the heart muscle and pumping of blood.
Hi, I am new here but not new to afib. Started to have episodes at age 13. Went through all meds (only Verapamil worked for years and then it stopped working. All the other meds made the afib worse). Then I underwent three ablations, then I gave up and had an AV node ablation which is very helpful though I am now pacemaker dependent (but my AV node wasn't working well to begin with so I haven't lost much). I am now in afib state about 50 % of the time.
I have a question which I hope someone could answer: I seem to be coming down with ET --Essential Tremor. Could there be any connection to afib? I am wondering because it suddenly occurred to me that afib itself could be seen as a sort of tremor in the atria?
There has been ET in my family but no afib.
Dear Cyber reader, what do you think?
I have a question which I hope someone could answer: I seem to be coming down with ET --Essential Tremor. Could there be any connection to afib? I am wondering because it suddenly occurred to me that afib itself could be seen as a sort of tremor in the atria?
There has been ET in my family but no afib.
Dear Cyber reader, what do you think?
I'm a nurse and have cared for quite a few patients with a fib...I have never noticed any higher incidence of ET.
I'm wondering why you are still in a fib half the time...shouldn't the pacemaker keep you in rhythm all the time??
I had a total AV node ablation but the pacemaker is wired so as to follow the rythm of the atria. It's as if the pacemaker replaces the AV node. However, when the atria go into an afib state, then the pacemaker reads it as noise and makes the ventricles pump a basic steady rythm of 70 beats per minute. If I am lying on my back it feels like a drum in my chest, but it's still an improvement over the afib I used to have.
I have been told that when the pacemaker goes into its default rythm due to afib in the atria, the heart pumps out about 20% less blood than when it takes its marching orders from the atria because in that state and without the AV node, the atria can't participate in the heart beat (I found out that even though the heart pumps from the ventricles, the atria still participate).
I say "marching orders" because the default rythm is like that of a marching band while the atria play modern jazz at the same time!
The pacemaker is a computer and keeps track of afib, that's why when it is read every four months the technician can tell me exactly how often I am in afib. I was also told to my amazement that I, like a number of other people, have some beats that are generated from some random points in the ventricles (it might not be random but I didn't get the technical term). This is reassuring because it would give me more time to get help in the unlikely case of pacemaker failure...
Well this might be more info that you were looking for!