Echo

Hi Pauline. yes an echo is usual. it's an ultrasound of the heart and it's to look for any structural causes of af like faulty valves. It's not painful and only takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Nothing to worry about.

Hi Pauline, Robyn has just said what I was going to say. I had an echocardiagram soon after I was diagnoses with AF, (last June), I also had a 24 hour ECG just to be on the safe side. Both were fine, one of the upper chambers of the heart was slightly enlarged, possibly with a bit of high blood pressure but nothing major at all, in fact it did put my mind at rest that all seemed fine. That's the odd thing about AF, you can be as fit as a fiddle and BANG, there it is. Hopefully you will be put on the correct meds and be fine. I am on warfarin too, no problems with it at all and once you get the correct dosage you only need to pop down to the clinic once every couple of months or even longer, I did 10 weeks at the last count. Don't worry, there's lots of advice out there and people to support you. It's not life threatening, just a pain in the ****!!! There are much worse things out there too. Good luck. 

Hi, I was dreading the thought of going on to warfarin but I have been on it for almost 2 years now and apart from brusing more easily it hasnt been a problem. I usually have to go for a blood test every 3 - 6 weeks depending on what I eat as some things like eggs and broccoli change the readings