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.
Hi All,
I was at the E.R two weeks ago. In the 2 weeks prior to that, I had two separate 2+ day bouts of a-fib, one bout lasting 4 days. I am 36 years old, 0 CHADS, and was on low dose aspirin. I went to the E.R. at 230am because I was having weird pains in my head and my heart was clearly in a-fib and pounding more irregularly than usual. I also couldn't feel my pulse well. Just felt like something different was going. I'm curious if I was having a mini-stroke. What does a TIA/mini-stroke/stroke feel like?
Anyhow, the consulting EP in the E.R. suggested that if I'm having 2+ day bouts of a-fib often, then I should be anti-coagulated. Is this what you all hear from your EPs?
Also, he suggested a pill-out-of-pocket (POP) approach -- to start Xarelto when the a-fib begins, and discontinue a day after it stops. Does this make sense? I'm concerned because it is my understanding that a clot can form in the left atrial appendage and pop out just about any time it wants, not just within 24 hours of a-fib, or does it indeed break down within those 24 hours, especially with an anti-coagulant preventing any further expansion of the clot.
Thanks for input! I appreciate. Oh and I hate this Xarelto because it seems to always give my lower left quadrant pain and constipation, but this is better than 230am visits to the E.R. for what could have been a mini-stroke.
-Sean
I was at the E.R two weeks ago. In the 2 weeks prior to that, I had two separate 2+ day bouts of a-fib, one bout lasting 4 days. I am 36 years old, 0 CHADS, and was on low dose aspirin. I went to the E.R. at 230am because I was having weird pains in my head and my heart was clearly in a-fib and pounding more irregularly than usual. I also couldn't feel my pulse well. Just felt like something different was going. I'm curious if I was having a mini-stroke. What does a TIA/mini-stroke/stroke feel like?
Anyhow, the consulting EP in the E.R. suggested that if I'm having 2+ day bouts of a-fib often, then I should be anti-coagulated. Is this what you all hear from your EPs?
Also, he suggested a pill-out-of-pocket (POP) approach -- to start Xarelto when the a-fib begins, and discontinue a day after it stops. Does this make sense? I'm concerned because it is my understanding that a clot can form in the left atrial appendage and pop out just about any time it wants, not just within 24 hours of a-fib, or does it indeed break down within those 24 hours, especially with an anti-coagulant preventing any further expansion of the clot.
Thanks for input! I appreciate. Oh and I hate this Xarelto because it seems to always give my lower left quadrant pain and constipation, but this is better than 230am visits to the E.R. for what could have been a mini-stroke.
-Sean
So I still find odd to take a blood thinner only when u need becsuse we all know afib is unpredictable. I hope everything works out for you, Sean!
But what also came out from the study was that over half (57%) of those with symptomatic afib, PRE-ABLATION, were (unbeknownst to them) also having asymptomatic episodes. This was on 7 day monitoring. Again, if they monitored for 30 days or more it would seem the number would be much higher.
So anyway, I am just cautioning you that it is more likely that you are having asymptomatic afib, than not. You wouldn't know it unless you had a monitor for a long time, and even then, things could change, depending on some trigger or environmental factors like say, extreme temperature.
Excerpt:
A continuous, 7-day, Holter session was recorded before ablation, right after ablation, and after 3, 6, and 12 months of follow-up during each 7-day Holter monitoring, the patients recorded quality and duration of any complaints by using a detailed symptom log... In the 7-day Holter records before ablation, 92 of 114 (81%) had documented AF episodes.
All episodes were symptomatic in 35 patients (38%). In 52 patients (57%), both symptomatic and asymptomatic episodes were recorded, whereas in 5 patients (5%), all documented AF episodes were asymptomatic.
After ablation, the percentage of patients with only asymptomatic AF recurrences increased to 37% at the 6-month follow-up. An analysis of patient characteristics and arrhythmia patterns failed to identify a specific subset who were at high risk for the development of asymptomatic AF.
petey
" I read a study that was aimed at looking at the high rate of asymptomatic episodes in patients that had what was thought to be a successful ABLATION..."