Can someone help me please

Hi Elizabeth, please can you explain by what you meant when you said 'They didn't get me the block thing.''?

What is th enature of your problem? AF Flutter?  Any returning symptoms would surely be the same, or similar, to those that got you into A&E in the 1st place?

Hi Elizabeth,im a 48 year old male, living in South Australia.

I have had pulpitations and flutters that always seemed to settle down again, for at least the last 20 or so years or so. I became used to this and had an 'It'll be alright' approach to it all.

Late last year i thought i had the flu, or perhaps a virus. During this time, I did get a little bit of discomfort and a tingle down my left arm which only lasted 5-10 seconds and as always, went away. I kept soldiering on ,thinking that it'd all resolve itself. In the end, my chest became rattly and my wife said i was looking grey and called an ambulance (which i thought was a bit over the top!)

The came & hooked me up to an ECG. My heart rate was going between 130-160 beats/min., so they took me to hosptial.

Turns out i had atrial fibrillation and a tachycardia(AKA- fast beating heart) induced cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart).

An angiogram revealed that my left ventricle was severely enlarged & had an ejection fraction of only 25%.  It also showed that i had a moderately leaky mitral valve into the bargain.

I got zapped back into rhythm in mid Jan., but only stayed in rhythm for several days. the only way i knew i had gone out of rhythm was that i began to feel a little bit more tiredd at the end of the day and my blood pressure machine has a function on it that told me i'd gone back into atrial fibrillation. This was confirmed by my cardiologist a couple of days later.

I was put on Amioderone and zapped ain a couple of weeks later, zapped again & have stayed in rythm since. Each time I got zapped, my chest was sore for a couple of days, but apparently this is normal.

A couple of months have gone by & i've made a great recovery and things are almost back to 'normal'.

I guess at the end of the day, it would seem that symtoms can be many and varied, depending on the large variety of types of heart failure that exist. Even the same condition and can vary a lot from person to person.

All I can really suggest is that you listen to what you body is telling you and don't ignore it like I did!

I hope this is of some help?

Hi Elizabeth, what kind of pain. What symptoms do you have?Did you have cardioversion? I was born with a heart condition soIm very aware of anything happening. I went into Atrial Flutterand had cardioversion, I was a bit uncomfortable for a few days after but it settled. I had ablation two weeks later. Please don't ignore any pain or discomfort. Everyone's symptoms differ, if you have any questions phone your local hospital and ask to speak to a rhythm nurse for advice.