Awful day Afib is getting me down.

Hang in there April.  Afib is managable and treatable.  Get a good cardio doc who can advise you on your treatment.  You can get this under control with the right meds and possibly surgery.  Your doctor will guide you -- and if he/she doesn't  -- find one who will!!  Suzanne

You are so normal for what u r going through, but I know that doesn't help much. Just know that u have a lot of people who understand and have been and are going through the same thing. Take lots of deep breaths and turn on some music to drown out your heartbeat. Watch a comedy on tv. Call your doctor and get reassurance. Thinking and praying for u tonight.

The meds will kick in. Make sure they are taken on time. Keep occupied w things u love.

It can be a bit overwhelming at first. Although Afib can vary a bit from person to person, your symptoms and feelings sound fairly typical.

The main thing with these symptoms is to make sure your heart rate is not going too high.

I had no symptoms when I went into permanent AF, until I started to go downhill. After about 10 days of feel crappy (thought I had the flu or some other nasty virus) it got to the point where I couldn't walk 20 metres without stopping to rest and catch my breath; not good for an otherwise healthy 48 yo male.

It was at this point  that my wife told me I was looking 'grey' and called an ambulance to me. Paramedics did a quick ECG printout and said something was abnormal with my heart; strange beats, rate varying between 120-180, so was admitted to hospital for 4 days whilst tests were done and diagnosis made.

Cardiologist suspected that I had been in AF for several weeks with an uncontrolled heart rate which in turn caused my left ventricle to become s verily enlarged(AKA a severe cardiomyopathy) which in turn caused it to very poorly pump oxygenated blood around my body, which in turn made me feel crappy and lethargic(flu or virus type symptoms).

Twenty months on, and 5 cardioversions and an ablation later, life is good again. Have lost 15 kgs, left ventricle has shrunk back down to normal size and has an ejection fraction of 63% (was 25% when I was first admitted; below 30% is considered severe),I exercise regularly and have made other lifestyle changes to address the list of AF 'risk factors'.

After much googling and reading at lot of research about AF, I realised that there was quite a bit that I could do to help myself deal with this issue and give myself the best possible chance of recovery, rather than just sit around with a 'poor me', victim type attitude (which is perfectly understandable at first, as this is a pretty big deal for anyone to have to come to terms with).

I strongly recommend getting a blood pressure machine(preferably one that has an AF function on it; assuming that you're going to cardioverted back into sinus rhythm) to make sure your heart rate doesn't get out of control.

There is a lot lot of info out there April. Good luck with it all, it generally isn't a life sentence if you take control, get a good cardiologist/Electrophysiologist and make the necessary lifestyle changes(if you need to).

I have found that there is lots of good info and helpful people on this forum.

Kind regards,

Simon

I hear you April. I always get this feeling that when Afib occurs, that I have no control, and I wonder why in the heck is this happening, why would my heart want to do this? Why would my heart choose to act like this, wouldn't it just be easier to beat regularly? Well, clearly something is wrong, and the heart is probably responding in the best way it can. The heart needs some help. It sounds like its either medication or ablation. Those seem to be the options. Are you on meds now? How long have you been dealing with Afib? Are you considering ablation?

Thanks