A fibre and Depression

Arrhythmias can be very hard on your peace of mind.

Try to live on rhythm, lots of light in the daytime, regular hours of sleep at night, perhaps try some melatonin if you need help sleeping. May not convince your heart to behave any better, but may help how you feel about things.

And if that doesn't work doctors have all kinds of happy pills to try.

This is a pep talk. Get ready for it. I am 80 years old. Man, that's a shocker every time I write it. I have had chronic afib for maybe 25 years. Before that I had paroxysmal afib for an additional fifteen or so years. When it first cropped up, I took to my bed fearing progressive disability and pitiful death, but when that failed to develop I sought out intensive medical treatment. I took a variety of drugs to control the rhythm, none of which worked. I even took amiodarone, living under it's constant threat of fatal pulmonary hypertension, and it didn't work either. I had a right sided ablation which was needed to counteract the atrial flutter which was precipitated by another of my medications. As the years went by, I became accustomed to not dying and I began to explore my capacities. I found that my shortness of breath was not constant, that exercise, as it always does, increased my exercise tolerance and that my life was delightful. For about fifteen years in a row my wife and I have taken European bicycling vacations of various degrees of difficulty (none all THAT difficult) and have probably stopped those only because my wife fell off the bike three times on last year's Baltic trip and became spooked about the risk.

During all this I gradually developed an unreasoning disgust about this foul disease. It stole years from me while I spent my precious time fretting about my illness, hurrying between doctors, researching cures and generally becoming depressed about my lack of progress. When it finally occured to me to explore the extent of my capabilities rather than lament the scope of my limitations, the sense of freedom was extraordinary.

This rotten condition is a disease of the heart which primarily impacts the mind. Here's the bad news: you will have it until you die. Here's the good news: if you control your anticoagulation you will die when you were always going to die anyway. Do fun stuff. Every time you laugh atrial fibrillation loses. Hammer it into the dirt of inattention, treat it with disdain. If, from time to time your shortness of breath inclines you to rest say, "thank God for atrial fibrillation and this chance to put my feet up and binge watch Psych". Atrial fibrillation is a crummy and rotting little demon, easily exorcised by contempt. All the best to you.

April, hang in there. I don't know how long you've had a-fib, but just remember it is not going to kill you. Explore all possibilities with your doctor for getting you into remission, read everything you can about it -- YouTube has some great videos on in, be proactive, and I promise you, the more you know about it, the better you will feel about it.. If you doctor doesn't answer your questions, get another one. There are good ones out there. It just takes a lot of research and patience on your part.

I was a wreck when I was first diagnosed, but you learn what your triggers are and how to deal with it.

Good luck.