Love the support from all... I can definitely tell if I'm in afib by the irregular pulse. Anxious to get the monitoring going to see what's up. Emailed my Dr. today about getting on a blood thinner of some kind (not Coumadin), so we'll see what she says. The prospect of a stroke is not high on my list...

Welcome to the forum. See an EP and get a thorough evaluation. Possibly even a stress test. Petey's right - do not rely on the advice of a PCP. They don't often know the specialized issues of AFIB. Nor do many Cardiologists. Hence, the EP specialization. All the best moving forward.

Cheryl...All i can tell you is you re right about it being a journey.
I was dx with afib after gall bladder surgery and had to be electro verted and after everything seemed fine. Every EKG showed I wasnt in afib and I just kinda took it for granted. I was going to a clinic back then because I didnt have health insurance. The Dr. said it was ok to go on an aspirin a day routine and come back in a year. Well there were days I forgot the aspirin and just kinda took my healhcare for granted....Nothing bad was going to happen to me....well 2 strokes and 3 Tia (mini strokes) I take it very seriously. Im not trying to scare you but just let you know my journey and its still ongoing. Please dont take afib for granted...Glad you found this site! Vinny

Cheryl: Like Vinny, I toke aspirin after my diagnosis. I did that for five years because I didn't want to take Coumadin which all my doctors wanted me on. Then I had a stroke. I was fortunate, a year latter and everything works fine except my right eye (visual field cut). However, the fear of another stroke and that complete loss of control (I had right hemi paresis and no speech) doesn't go away. Even now, I'm a little fearful of traveling by myself. So, take good care of yourself, and take the anticoagulant. Brain doesn't grow back.

Cheryl, I'm also a Kaiser patient. Kaiser can be a bit trying at times but persistence and insistence seems to pay off. After diagnosis in the ER, they wanted to do a cardioversion. After hearing the explanation from the ER doc, I said no. I'd wait. That was the last I heard from the ER doc. 45 minutes later they sent me home with no explanation and a prescription for coumadin. Well, I've been on coumadin before for PEs and find it to be a hassle. I wouldn't mind the testing if it was relatively free and accessible but it's not. I didn't like the idea of coumadin but started on it.

I self converted at home after about 17 hours of afib. I got a call from Kaiser's cardiology department for an appointment. Sounded great to me. It wasn't. It was an overview of afib and treatment options in a group setting. I had already done a lot of research and knew almost everything that they offered in the class. Nothing specific about ME. :-) I asked for and got an appointment with a cardiologist.

When I met with my cardiologist, he put me on aspirin. I asked him a few questions which he answered including questions about drugs and ablations. He said I didn't need coumadin. Not too long after that, I was reading comments in this forum and did my own research that made me decide that aspirin is not a good alternative to coumadin. Basically, my cardio doc kept referring to the risk of stroke without any medication of being about 5%. Aspirin lowers the risk. Coumadin or other drugs lower it a bit more but only to about 2%.

After meeting with him, I did some more reading and decided that aspirin still left me with a fairly high risk of stroke, particularly with my history of PEs and my regular endurance exercises that often leave me partially dehydrated for several hours and often in stasis. Since I also travel, sometimes to areas that do not have labs for testing my INR, coumadin/warfarin was not a good alternative. So I wrote my cardiologist and told him I needed something other than aspirin and that based on my research, I liked Eliquis. He wrote back saying it was very expensive, aspirin was good, but that he would write the prescription if I wanted. He wrote the prescription for me and I've been on Eliquis ever since.

I will also get short of breath at times, including when I'm exercising but also when I'm just sitting... or I'll wake up at night gasping for breath, but it's so short a time period that it disappears about as fast as it happens. Since this happens fairly frequently, I asked for a Holter monitor for a two week time period. He arranged for me to get one. I'm still waiting for the results.

I've been hospitalized twice at Kaiser. The first time was for pleurisy in 2005. I was treated terribly. They sent me a survey after my discharge and I let them know in detail what I didn't like about my treatment. The worst of that episode was when I refused morphine for pain. The ER doc told the nurse that if I didn't take it he would refuse to treat me.???? The second time was in 2010 for PEs. I was treated as well as could be expected. It was like going to a totally different hospital. They sent me another survey and I told them in detail how much I appreciated the care I was given.

Basically, I believe Kaiser can be good but you have to trust your own instincts and knowledge about your body. Arm yourself with as much information as you can. Keep the communication open. Be persistent. And if someone isn't responsive, find someone who is. It's a big organization so there are choices.

Todd

Thanks, Todd... Sounds like we are on the same wavelength. I emailed my PCP the other day and asked about blood thinners. She bowed out and said I would need a Cardiologist for that. Since I pick up a holter monitor on Monday, I got lucky and also have an appt with a Cardiologist that same day. I am very assertive and have no trouble saying NO when appropriate. The Kaiser docs I've had so far seem fairly ok with patients who refuse or disagree with their recommendation... so I'll hope for that same reaction with this adventure. I'm not even 2 weeks into this AFib thing, so I continue learning every day. I'm kind of a "non-intervention" gal and prefer to start with the least intervention first. Don't want to be too mild about the stroke risk, though. That is one thing I'd like to stay away from!

Hoping the Metoprolol was going to keep me AFib free, but that is not going to be the case. Had 3 good days with no obvious palps at all, then today was awakened by pounding heart at 3am and had quite a few short episodes the rest of the day. Darn! I guess we all just plug along as best we can...

Best of luck TwinCheryl. BTW, last night, while eating, I felt a little funny so in between bites i checked my pulse. It was racing faster than when I was diagnosed. Took another bite of food and checked again. It was racing then suddenly slowed down to normal, about mid 40s. I'm guessing it was around 120 when i first checked. But I needed to keep my priorities straight. Eat the food while it's hot and if there's a problem, deal with it after dinner. There wasn't after dinner so no further action was needed. :-)

Speaking of priorities, wish me luck next week. I'm running my 10th AR 50 Mile endurance run. I've been having nerve problems with my knee and quad so finishing is looking a bit more difficult than last year. I can deal with the heart and lung problems, but when the wheels go bad, it's all over.

Todd

Oh my, Todd... I'm certainly not as active as you are. Good luck with the endurance run. Hope your legs hold out! Can't imagine doing anything like that even when I was 20... ha ha...