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.
Geez,
It seems that the nasty afib is trying to make a comeback...I was doing so well for about 4 months. Pulse in the high 70s, low 80s. Then Mom went into the hospital, and it may be her time to pass on. I pray not, but it doesn't look too good. So in the past month, the pulse rate is WAY up (90-95 range resting), the BP is WAY up (140/90). And of course not only am I dealing with the terrible idea of losing Mom, but now am absolutely freaked out about the heart thing. Last night, bam! 164 beats per minute. I did catch it on the lab provided heart monitor. When I called they said "Umm....try not to freak out, but we will be contacting the cardiologist about this one." TRY NOT TO FREAK OUT...so you can imagine the impact that had. Woke up in the middle of the night with an anxiety attack. Never had one of those before Mom went into the hospital. Cuz in the good old days (before afib), getting rid of stress was not an issue...run several miles or drink a few beers. Now? The stress seems to be attacking my heart, as well as my head. Praying for Mom, praying for me, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I know that in our age group (late 50s), many of you have lost your parents. But I am now learning that no matter how old we are, we are NEVER ready to let Mom go. God bless that wonderful woman and everything she ever did for me. God bless all of our Moms. NSR to all.
Bill
It seems that the nasty afib is trying to make a comeback...I was doing so well for about 4 months. Pulse in the high 70s, low 80s. Then Mom went into the hospital, and it may be her time to pass on. I pray not, but it doesn't look too good. So in the past month, the pulse rate is WAY up (90-95 range resting), the BP is WAY up (140/90). And of course not only am I dealing with the terrible idea of losing Mom, but now am absolutely freaked out about the heart thing. Last night, bam! 164 beats per minute. I did catch it on the lab provided heart monitor. When I called they said "Umm....try not to freak out, but we will be contacting the cardiologist about this one." TRY NOT TO FREAK OUT...so you can imagine the impact that had. Woke up in the middle of the night with an anxiety attack. Never had one of those before Mom went into the hospital. Cuz in the good old days (before afib), getting rid of stress was not an issue...run several miles or drink a few beers. Now? The stress seems to be attacking my heart, as well as my head. Praying for Mom, praying for me, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I know that in our age group (late 50s), many of you have lost your parents. But I am now learning that no matter how old we are, we are NEVER ready to let Mom go. God bless that wonderful woman and everything she ever did for me. God bless all of our Moms. NSR to all.
Bill
Now she's suffering from delusions and paranoia trying to ripping her IVs out and get out of bed, yelling and kicking the nurses etc....
ICU PSYCHOSIS!!! Her blood pressure is spiking to 180/110 trying to fight to get out. And I have 2 moron brothers one ho hasn't stepped up at all didn't even return my phones calls or texts after I told him she's going nuts. The other jackass called me this morning to tell me he's tired he hasn't slept all night and needs to leave my mothers side.
I reminded him I'm coming off an ablation 2weeks ago, and about 40-50 hours with her for the angiogram pre- screening, admission, and then the surgery all after my ablation. But he's tired after 12 hours.
Ain't family great.....can't wait for the inheritance I bet. Thy will be there every step of the way!!!!
Thank you so much for your kind responses. I do have to try and contact my EP today....my wife and I just took off for 3 nights in DC on Thursday, to just get away from everything. I asked Mom to give me those couple days away to just try and recalibrate. I came back yesterday and she actually looks and feels better, so hopefully there is still that small chance she will get better. When I got to DC on Thursday the stress was such that my RESTING HR was 95, so I didn't wait to hear from the Doc, I went back on the metoprolol, 25 mg per day...initially my HR fell to 78 from 95, but is back up to around 85-88...Saturday night woke up drenched in sweat, my first full blown anxiety attack. I have never experienced such a thing in my LIFE....how does that work? How can you get so stressed while you are sleeping? I took some psychology courses back in college, but do not remember ever reading about how anxiety attacks work. I will email the nurse now to see if some kind of medication might be warranted, to get past this rough spell. Again, thanks to all for the kind words. I do appreciate not only the kindness, but the good advice as well.
Bill
I had some sort of frightening event a while back. I woke up and I thought the room was shaking...but it was me shaking. It was terrifying for me. I had been dreaming that my car was stuck in the sand. Somehow a Night terror crept in.
Hugs, Caro
I was eating a bowl of cereal as I read your post, and started my reply. I finished the cereal, and looked down into the bowl and all these little black things are floating on the top of the remaining milk......yuck!
I got the magnifying glass, and I am pretty sure they were little bugs...yuck yuck yuck.
So, anyway, I wanted to commiserate with you, that the mind does strange physical things to us.
Mine was like I was having a seizure. An MRI showed I didn't.
I am hoping I don't dream of bugs tonight!!!!!!!!!!!
A regular Dr. should be able to write a 'scrip for you for Xanax or Lorazepam etc.
Not the easiest 'scrip to get but it seems that the majority of DS members haven't had any trouble in this area. Lol.
My experience (on the other hand) with PCPs is they don't/rarely will write for this stuff.
Good luck and hang in there.
My update...some good news, some, well, maybe bad, maybe not. My 164 and 147 HR incidents were NOT afib, just tachycardia. And they were 121 and 111, according to the study group heart monitor. What, my $25 Rite Aid Blood Pressure cuff is NOT accurate? Of course, when that is off on the high side, it just adds to the stress and the HR goes higher. I have to lose the obsession of checking my HR every 5 minutes.
My EP called me last night. I was almost weaned off everything, but he said he approved of me going back on the 25 mg per day...and that I should actually kick it up to 50mg for awhile and see if that helps with the stress (I was able to sleep through the night and no anxiety attack!). Then later we can see about cutting back, when things with Mom are resolved (as many of you know, the dying thing can last a long time. As our priest said, we don't choose when the time to go is, God does. Mom is ready, I of course am not.
The EP agrees with his nurse that we should try the increased Metoprolol and see how that goes before we consider any anxiety meds...and said I should check my pulse, and if it is ok, that going back to exercise could only help me.
Again, thanks for all the support...hopefully there will be a favorable resolution to all this some time soon, God willing. NSR to us all, and a calm, stress free life.
Bill