I'm not symptomatic so it doesn't affect me.

i am very symptomatic .hard to breath some time get to point of passing out . so i did ablation had to do two but right now feel best i have in 7 years . have gone to a ep see what they say thats all they deal with is rhythm problems . said ablation chance success for me be around 60 % with few pills right now been afib free for two months after being persistent 12 to 15 times a month quite a change . but if you dont get light headed or out of breath and can stand the nagging flopping around go to bed with music drown out heart beat worked for me for years good luck

The decision to ablate or not depends on a lot of things. I would say the most important would be how has afib affected your life. If you're still able to do all the things you used to do before afib, and the arrhythmia is just a minor annoyance, than ablation isn't necessary. But for me, in the months leading up to my first ablation, I was in afib more often than not, and I am extremely symptomatic.

I had the ablation done because I was symptomatic. I didn't faint, but I would have trouble sleeping from the feeling of my heart in my chest. I would get dizzy and out of breath. I dealt with that for 3 years before my ablation. I was ok living with it at first because I would only go into AF a few times a year, but when it became a weekly and biweekly occurance I had to have something done.

During each of my 3 AF episodes I've had, the main thing that bothered me the most was while beating irregularly, my heart's contractility went way up so it was pounding - not fast - in fact it wasn't really beating faster than my normal. I could feel the pounding in my chest and in my head and it made it impossible for me to sleep. The episodes came on while I was sleeping in the middle of the night and woke me up and kept me up.

So far Flecainide 50mg x 2 per day has kept me out of AF for the last 14 months since they started it on me.

P.S. - I didn't get much of the light-headedness that others have reported - I did have a little but it was only fleeting.

The people I know who are in permanent afib have no symptoms. 3 take only an anticoagulant....the others, I don't know. But, all say they don't even think about afib. Most are active. All are in 60' and 70's.

I have parasysol afib. I Know when I am in it.....heart is racing and noticeably irregular. I am a bit light headed...and have a "special....something is wrong" feeling. I can function when in it. I'm retired. If I were still working, I wouldn't be able to do my job when in it.

I am 59 and my Afib started about 11 months ago out of the blue. No known risk factors. Had been healthy and on no meds. Now I'm in permanent Afib. I failed a cardioversion about 10 months ago that put me in normal sinus rhythm for only 2 days!

I'm on rate control with cardizem and metoprolol. And I'm anti-coagulated with Eliquis. I feel like I have somewhat less exercise tolerance than I used to but don't get short of breath or light headed. I do tire out pretty easily going uphill or climbing stairs. I really seldom feel any "flopping around" of my heart.

I'd love to be back in sinus rhythm and off of these meds however. I have some gastrointestinal side effects from the cardizem for sure. No problems with the Eliquis (that I know of). I'm attributing some increased thinning of my hair to metoprolol also.

I'd like to try to decrease my dosages of cardizem and metoprolol. I'm on cardizem 120 mg extended release twice a day and metoprolol 100mg extended release once a day.

Steve

Hi Troopers,

Thank you for your replies.

Like many people I am symptomatic when I have afib. I still have 7 years to go before retirement, so I guess you can understand my dilemma.

I fully intend to fight this thing and fight it hard. However, if all fail I am also ready to live with it....not much of a choice is there?

Having said that I have remarked a few things that happens to me before I get an attack. Luckily for me it seems to be the same pattern all the time. First I feel bloated, then come mega bouts of PVCs and PACs, then afib. It's always at bed time and once the bloating recedes the afib stop.

So I researched on this and found an article from a guy who was all proud that he finally had this thing under control. Well there was more than one thing here but that's beside the point.

Bottom line this guy realized that his bout of afib were caused by his digestive system and his symptoms was exactly the same as mine. He sait that 9 times out of ten (before he got ablated) he would take a good sip of Pepto-Bismol at the PVC and PAC stage and that would settle his stomach and within minutes his palpitations would be completely gone and thus his PACs would not trigger his afib.

Well....I went and bought a bottle of cherry flavoured bismuth and ate a bunch of raw veggies after dinner to make sure I would get a mega attack later on. Fair enough even before I got in bed I had PVCs and PACs galore and felt really bloated. Before I went to bed I took a big gulp of bismuth and VOILA! within 10 minutes the bloating was gone so were the PACs = NO AFIB.

I slept like a baby when prior weeks I would have to sit in bed until the bloating was gone or about once a week, till the afib was gone.

Don't get me wrong tho! that doesn't mean I found the cure or I will start to rely on bismuth every night. Make no mistake that my situation took a turn for the worst in the past few months and that is most likely due to my body got used to Sotalol and now the afib is back. I will still get this thing ablated ASAP. I know an ablation wont cure it but at least it may be easier to control it for a few years. For me right now, it's all about "Quality of Life".

Well for anyone else who as afib attach to digestive system issues, maybe give bismuth a try....it wont cure it but it may help to control it for now.

And by the way, I soooo sympathize with every one here.

Cheer

Scooby

My afib is same as yours, nocturnal mostly. I found that lying down always made symptoms worse, so now I sleep propped up on several pillows, eat a light early dinner, and am particularly careful getting in & out of bed. I also take a prilosec in the evening. This seems to be helping at this point. No telling how long this will work, but it's nice for a change. Glad the pepto helps , whatever it takes, I'm for it.