Because I'm not in afib that often, my last event monitor for 30 days showed 2 episodes of less than 7 beats each time, I have a difficult time figuring out if it's just a skipped/extra beat or afib; however, 3 years ago, when I had the two episodes of afib, which lasted about an hour each time, my heart was all over the place..my rate would jump from 72 to 185 then back down..until I converted on my own. It IS very scary..now I'm on cardizem 1x daily and low dose aspirin. Keeping my fingers crossed I don't cross back over again.

Mine is the classic "fish flopping around in the chest", and my heart-rate climbs from low 50s to like 120s. A few years back,when I was running 3 miles a day, I had to really push it to raise my rate to over 100.

I don't get short of breath or light-headed; 'guess we all are different.

My heart rate would jump to 180 then down to 90 then back up again. I would take 12.5 of metaprolol and in an hour or so it would return to normal. Sometimes I would have to repeat the BB. Then afterward I would feel as if I had run a marathon, I hadn't but my heart had. I would be very tired for awhile. It usually happened in the evening or at night. beware of the dark. If I took too many BB's when I did get back into NSR my HR would be too low. So I learned not to overdo them under any circomstances. A long learning process.

I have been in NSR since last summer, so I am thanking the heart gods for letting me learn how to handle this stuff.

Dee

My sister is a poet and wrote this after listening to many rants from me about the frustrations of having afib. I am not a housewife, nor do I do jigsaw puzzles there is much poetic license in this but Im sure many of you can relate to the feelings. . .

SUNDAY MORNING PUZZLE

Lately my sisters heart refuses the simple life,
a plot of land, a few chickens, a goat.
It has become difficult and complicated and rampages

through the backstreets of small beach towns,
tossing beer cans into ditches. It shifts gears
without warning, runs circles to nowhere.

Trashes the house, then begs for forgiveness.
She has come to believe her heart
is a sixteen-year old boy in a souped-up truck.

Stopped at a red light, engine revving, wheels
spitting gravel. How does a heart do what it does?
These days she asks for little, just that her heart

behave sensibly no antics or sulking, no
fib/atrial tachycardia. Is a single day of steady
drumbeats too much to ask? Sometimes her heart

goes mute, a vinyl LP skipping at the end.
Sometimes it drives her to the edge of the breakwater
or back to bed. If her heart is innocent, why

does it brawl even in sleep?
What to call the haphazard organ
grinder playing monkey games in her chest?

Friend? Enemy? Counselor? Cop? When
she woke this morning her heart was already up
to its old flip-flopping tricks.

The heart and its deeper mysteries.
The heart and its cauldron of questions.
If she talks quietly to her heart will it talk back?

Come out of the shadows, beloved, she says to her heart,
And where did they go, those heart-strong days
when she, busy little housewife,

sang and swept cedar needles out of her kitchen
beneath the tree with long swooping branches?
She picks up a small, blue cardboard tile
and snaps it into place. Can a heart tire
of being a heart? Can five thousand
interlocking pieces make up a sky?

Thanks for sharing Nangirl. :)

I don't feel anything either. I can't help you there.

Whats NSR mean?

Normal sinus rhythm. It's what we all are envious of...

Surfrat, it's not uncommon to have atrial fibrillation and not feel a thing. I had been feeling extremely dizzy and fatigued, so went to my family Dr. She was concerned because no matter how much she tried she coudln't get my BP reading (it was that low)..so she sent me to a cardiologist and then I saw an EP (wrong one for me for sure), and found out a lot of people are asymptomatic with the atrial fib, but have a lot of other symptoms. I wish I had known sooner when it was paroxysmal as that is far easier to cure...but now I'm in constant A-Fib and A-Flutter (strangely feel nothing when it goes from one to the other), and I'm planning on NYC for an ablation at Mt. Sinai in July.

Tomorrow, you're suggesting that early stages (paroxsymal) of AF are easier to treat/cure. I'm not sure if I can wrap my head around this concept/opinion. It appears that regardless of lone or paroxsymal and subject to the individual and history of such, that it's still a mess and a total gamble - subject of course to severe existing structural heart disease, damage etc. - is this correct? THX. ;-)

Paroxysmal (off and on) has a higher "cure" rate (and lower recurrence rate) than more persistent forms. But it is just numbers and odds. If you are a winner, doesn't matter if your odds are 20%. Lone Atrial Fibrillation is when there is no primary cause of the afib "they can detect".

Notice I highlighted "cure" and "they can detect".

The success rate in reducing symptoms and afib is higher with paroxysmal than persistent. Please note that I have read that you can sometimes be classified as paroxysmal and other times fit the persistent category. Also know that permanent afib is also known as "longstanding persistent" as all afib, in theory, can be "cured".

The problem is they have found out many "cured" afibbers are having silent afib (asymptomatic). Asymptomatic afib is "dangerous" if not treated. But it is alot easier to tolerate.

Lone atrial fibribrillation is good because it is usually with younger healthier people without structural heart disease, but in some ways it is bad because, in some cases, treating a "fixable" primary cause like sleep apnea or thyroid issues can "cure" the afib, particularly if caught early, sometimes "cures" the afib. Lone atrial fibrillation isn't always "lone". They are finding that many with LAF actually have high inflammation... so there are those that believe that LAF is just afib where they haven't found a primary cause YET.

So what does this all mean? Catching afib early helps your chances of "improving" afib, a progressive disease. Lowering your occurences lowers the chance of getting other bad things like heart failure (low ejection fraction). But some people don't progress and beta blockers (etc) that control rate bring the heart failure risk to minimal levels.

Staying in afib tends to result in larger left atrial size (btw, a large percentage of athletes have that and a higher afib rate) and fibrosis (scarring). Those are 2 predictors of lower success and higher recurrence in ablation for afib.

Now to your question surfrat... paroxysmal and early stages are not synonomous. Afib tends to progress to persistent and permanent (longstanding persistent), but some people have been paroxysmal for 30 years.

Messes and gambles:

If you push any of the top centers for ablation, they will say that ablation is only for symptomatic patients and those patients that refuse rhythm drugs (or failed them) with the idea of not having symptoms and/or having fewer occurences. When you dig deeper, they will not say that ablation is a permanent cure. But going from having fewer occurrences, and asymptomatic ones at that, is preferable (and therefore the risk is worth it.

If you read the websites, they only talk about highly symptomatic young (40 or younger) paroxysmal patients as ideal candidates (also professional athletes that need to make money or whose lives are largely defined by exercise and sports, regardless of their age).

After identifying the patient type above, they jump up to the over 70 year olds that are asymptomatic and they recommend rate control only as the risks of ablation outweigh the risk of long term damage or concerns of lowering your chances for ablation "cure"). Of course, patient preference and money can make ablation a reality as you can have them well into your 70s, even with fibrosis and an enlarged left atrium.

So that leaves alot of people in the middle... asymptomatic, middle age, maybe lone atrial fibbers (even though the definition of LAF says under 60) that want to be able to be off beta blockers and feel more energetic and just not having the thing hanging over your head.

But it is always going to be hanging over your head and that is why it is a "mess". After ablation, your anticoagulation strategy is exactly the same as it was before ablation... based on your CHA2DS2VaSC score. If you were on aspirin before, you probably stay on it. If you were on an anticoagulant, you stay on it or maybe take 325 mg aspirin (maybe not a good idea).

Getting off rhythm meds is a good reason for ablation. If you can get a 5-10 year ride in NSR, not have to monitor the toxic effects of the most effective rhythm meds (the most effective ones have the most toxicity), especially since, as a group, the rhythm meds are effective from only about 20-50 % of the time and they tend to lose effectiveness over time.

That's my take from much research and contacting "the best".

petey

Vinny,

I also feel nothing. I find out that I am in a-fib when I go to the Dr's and the do an EKG on me.