Atrial Fibrillation

[lionne]

welcome! Yahoo has a much more active forum if you want to try it. It's under Yahoo Health Groups AFib Support.

[MyOrca]

Hi Folks,

Lionne....I was dx'd back in March. I had been experiencing vision disturbances, and loss of function of my left leg when we decided to do an EKG, found I was in AFIB. Had all the tests...MRI, CT scans, echo, carotid scans, and found the heart itself was in good shape, but I had evidence of TIA's (mini strokes) probably from the clots in the atrium breaking and going to the brain.

This brings us to having a cardioversion done a week ago Monday. Took one small shock and I was back in sinus rythym. If you havent had this done, it is painless as they put you out...takes only about 20 minutes from start to finish...actual shock time is a about one second. The results lasted about 12 hours.
They then loaded me up on amiodarone for the past week or so, and I had my second cardioversion done Wednesday...2 days ago....it lasted about 24 hours. Now I am waiting for Monday to roll around and find out what the next step is. Being on the amiodarone and coreg, and tiazac already, doesnt leave much left but ablation.....and if that doesnt work, a ablation of the SA node and a pacemaker.

I am 49 years old, and have been having palpitation issues for over 10 years, and this past march was the first time it was recorded on an EKG. The pumping/thumping/pounding/missed beats goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, week after week, and on and on......

While hooked up to the monitors before the cardioversion, my heart rate fluctuated from 49 to 120 bpm in a matter of seconds. It really was something to see it on a monitor and not just "feel" it.

If you have any questions as to what ive been through, please dont hesitate to ask.