Hello Chitta and welcome.

I was diagnosed with afib about 6 months ago, so I guess I can still be considered a newbie. I was getting some rapid heart beats for a few days before I went to the er, but one night in bed I knew it was time to go because my heart was racing, irregular and pounding. When I got to the hospital my heart rate was 198. They put me in CCU and eventually got it down to normal with drugs. I now take a beta blocker (metoprolol), and a blood thinner (warfarin). So far I have had only one episode of afib, and that was controlled with taking an extra dose of medicine.

Being a worrier myself, my mind was preoccupied with it. I would just worry and wait for it to happen again. I have a good cardiologist who told me to live my life and reminded me that no-one has ever died from afib. I focus on that and it helps. I have gotten better, and this support group has helped me immensely. They are good caring people, and there is someone here who can help with almost any question you have.

I hope we can help you with your worry, and I wish you many NSR days. God Bless.

Mary Ann

I too am a worrier!! I was diagnosed with afib in 2011. I had three episodes in a row went to my pcp was told I have afib and to have a EKG next time it happen. Since then I have an episode every week to ten days. Just recently started on flecainide in Jan of this year.
Some days my anxiety is overwhelming like this afternoon.
mek3

What, Me Worry?

Diagnosed with persistent afib 2 years ago. Asymptomatic. No other heart issues. On Pradaxa and Bystolic.

petey

BTW, fear is a feeling. You can't deny feelings. Worry is the elongation of fear. With practice, you can worry less. Living in the present is how they say you can accomplish that. I haven't been good at doing that.

petey

I was just diagnosed in November 2012 so I am new to this as well. I was at the grocery store with my roommate and felt a pain that felt like someone had a giant rubber band around my body and snapped it in the front and back at the same time. Then my heart felt like it stopped, then jumped a couple of times and then it just took off! I was about 220 bpm when the ambulance got there, not sure what it was at the hospital. I WAS TERRIFIED and certain I was dying. I even told the paramedic to not let me die. They converted me after about 2 hrs with high doses of cardizem and sent me home the next day (after a zillion tests) with a beta blocker (bystolic) and daily aspirin. Then the second episode was in the middle of the night. I was sleeping, took a deep breath in because I was short of breath...went to roll over, felt a pop and was in afib before I hit the bed again. I was in afib for 13 hrs and scheduled for cardioversion the next morning because the meds weren't converting me. Thankfully I converted on my own when I was in the shower. This time they sent me home with flecainide, xarelto, synthroid and the bystolic.

Today has been a rough day....flip flops and skipped beats. I am in constant fear of going into full blown afib again. I cry, i stress, i have anxiety. But they tell me it won't kill me so i try to focus on that. This group helps....they are very supportive and it gives me a place to voice my fears and hear the experiences of other.

Take care of yourself and i hope you have awesome, healthy days ahead of you!

Angie

Have had AFIB for almost ten years. I wasn't diagnosed until a little over 2 years ago. I am not in it full time. Started off just a few times first year to now every month, every week, the worse being every 2 to 3 days for a few months. I'm very symptomatic when having an episode and have decided to have an Pulmanary Vein ablation. I've never been on blood thinners. I was told to at least take a 325mg aspirin, but haven't done that either. I will be taking Xarelto when I have the procedure. I've tried meds but didn't do too well.

Hi I had my first episode in march of 2011 at 28 years old. I went until jan of 2012 and had my second episode. I had three total that year and another recently in January. I can never concert to NSR on my own and always require medication. I am now pregnant with my second son and am worried about having an episode everyday since i am unable to take daily meds bc of the baby. Stress and laying on my left side after a meal are sure triggers. I am considering ablation after the baby is born but am afraid that it will make my afib worse.

I had my first episode in August 2009 at age 37. This was about two weeks after my second child was born and it was a very stressful time in our house. I had my second episode a couple of months later and then started to take things more seriously. I went full-year without another episode and then had to within two months required electrical cardioversion.
After that my electrophysiologist gave me propafenone as a pill in pocket. I have successfully used it four times but it makes me feel absolutely terrible when I take it.

The last two or three months I've been getting very frequent PACs and put me into Afib for short periods of time on a weekly basis. To be honest, the palpitations are actually worse than the afib in many ways. I've been getting very serious thought to have an ablation.

Monty

October 2012
Six weeks after diagnosis of cardiomyopathy - just as I had learnt to live with Mr ACE and Mr BETA and had (incorrectly) thought I was getting better - I woke in the middle of the night with a scary breathlessness and found I couldn't really stand upright. I packed up the pillows and eventually dosed off after 2 hours of worrying and spent the next day horribly tired and totally unsure what had happened. (no one told me that AF was possible even probable with cardiomyopathy).

The next weekend I had a glass of wine on the Friday night and woke on saturday with the same issue.....could not sit upright - I went to hospital and was diagnosed in AF.
I had almost convinced myself it was the wine that caused it....found a diagnosis of 'holiday heart' and tried to ignore the potential of the problem.
After the second hospital trip I agreed with the logic of CHAD scores and started on warfarin.

The AF is now persistent and the digoxin keeps it in as controlled AF but it gets out of control a few time per day.....Its the price I pay for having digoxin low enough to get back to work full-time though.

I don't think I am a candidate for ablation but then I don't know much about AF caused by cardiomyopathy as in.....can the AF disappear if the heart muscle gets better?

Official diagnosis.....8 years ago at the age of 56 , though I now think there were episodes before then.
Originally there was no treatment , wore a holter for 30 days and did a stress test and an echo all normal.
After 3 episodes the first year I went on Flecainide 50mg 2xday , that was 7 years ago. I have had episodes since then but for the sake of good luck I dont say how long its been since my last one.....long time now :)
The other things that I think have contributed to my good fortune ( of the moment ) weight loss, increased activity, magnesium twice a day, a statin, Taurine
And I too am a worrier......but, Im trying to put it aside for now and enjoy this good stretch . I have been through cancer surgery and treatment in the last couple of years and even that didnt trigger anything but worry and stress can, go figure *L*
jan

First diagnosed 5 years ago at the age of 50. For the first few years I only had a couple of afib episodes a year, but each time I would stay in afib until I was electrically cardioverted. I was on a beta blocker and only took a blood thinner when I went into afib and for a few months following the cardioversion. Then late in 2012 the episodes became more frequent so I tried antiarrhythmics. They made the episodes worse so I had an ablation last year. No afib for about 8 months following the ablation, but then I went into afib. I went back on blood thinners and waited 3 weeks and then had a cardioversion. That was about 3 months ago. So far afib has not come back, but I am still on blood thinners for now. If I have any more episodes of afib I will look into having a second ablation.

Chitta, For me the official date was March of 2010 but I may have been having some episodes before that ,maybe way before that. Waited about 3 weeks to see my gp and his nurse found me to be in a fib in about 2 minutes. They both bitched me out for waiting so long to come in or go to the er. They asked if I wanted an ambulance for the trip to the hospital but I told them I waited three weeks to get in and drove 13 miles to get here so the trip to the hospital a couple of miles away was no big deal. I spent about a year or so with my first cardio doc and tried his favorite drugs for a fib but they did not work and I was still in a fib most of the time and feeling VERY VERY bad because of the drugs and the a fib. He just couldn't get it thru his thick head that I felt as bad as I did. He left town and I ended up with the Dr.I now have and my life has been changed for the better. New drugs and new advice. The currant Dr. says an ablation is not for me at this time as the drugs are keeping me out of a fib most all of the time. I did and still do use the advice of my long departed father and that is "Son---don't sweat the small sh** ". A fib, as I see it, is a bump in the road compared to what many in our population are dealing with like cancer, loss of limbs, cardiac failure, lung failure, kidney failure and the list goes on and on. I have no fear of dieing and refuse to let this even slow me down a little so I do what I can and rest when I have to. A fib is not a killer for the most part so I just go with the flow of life the best I can. So to answer your questions after all the blabbing I'm 68 and will be 69 in a few days. This March will mark the third year of a fib. The progression the first year was way to slow for me and I spent a lot of time researching and trying to figure out the best path to take. The first year was not easy and most of the problems were caused by the drugs. I am on warafin for my blood thinner and will take it for the rest of my life no matter what. You must be your own patient advocate and question everything your Dr tells you and question and find out every thing you can about the drugs you end up taking. At this time I see no reason to have an ablation as long as I stay controlled with the small amount of drugs I now take to control the a fib. This site is the best place to get the information you are going to need but use your common sense to figure out what is right for your body and mind because we are all different in how we react to treatment and drugs. NSR to all Rick

Can't say that my story is much different from the others offered here except that my afib began about 20 years ago following a (5)CABG surgery at the age of 47. At first, my episodes were brief (a few seconds) and infrequent but very gradually they increased. My first serious, scary episode happened about 8 years ago on a camping trip in the back woods of Georgia far from any hospital and I was forced to tough it out - it lasted 5 hours. I went into a pattern of 8 to 15 hour bouts about every 2 months which eventually went to 1 to 5 hour bouts every other day. During this time I was on Warfarin, atenelol, and later sotalol but no antiarrhymics, unless sotalol is considered one. Sotalol helped but after 2 years it became ineffective. Afraid that I was moving into permanent afib I had an ablation a month ago and am doing much better. So far I have had a few brief episodes of arrhythmia (PAC and PVC) with very brief afib but was told to expect this during this postop period. We'll see if the ablation holds but I have no illusions that I have been cured. I'm sure that I will be stuck with this and only hope that I can keep the symptoms at a level that I can handle. Good luck on your journey.

Started for me about 6 years ago at age 55. I think I had a few very brief (a few seconds) episodes prior to that (started after menopause). The first big episode started when I was waiting to have a colonoscopy. I hadn't been medicated yet, they hadn't started the procedure but they had me ready to go and suddenly my heart just started slamming around in my chest. I had a heart rate of 180-200. They rushed me to ER where the Dr took a look at the monitor and said "oh, it's atrial fib" and all the people clustered around just drifted away. Nothing exciting after all!
The next episode didn't happen for almost a year, then it was 6 months, then 4 months and after 4 years or so, I was having episodes a couple times a week. I've always self converted after a few hours. About a year and a half ago I started taking flecainide and it has given me my life back. I've had only a couple short episodes since.
My EP talked me into xarelto in December but after taking it for a few days my stomach was really bothering me and I stopped it. I went back to my daily aspirin. There was also alot of stomach flu type illness going around so I'm not 100% sure it was the xarelto that upset my stomach. I need to give it another try and see what happens. On the other hand I have a hard time justifying the need because I am in NSR. The EP keeps saying that I could sleep through it and I keep telling him there is no way. I've worn monitors for 2-3 weeks a couple times and it has been NSR the whole time. At the same time I know that the next episode (and there will be one) could be the one that causes a stroke.

marikay and I are actually twins.......*L*
even though we are NOT our stories are almost identical.......