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Paroximal Atrial Fibrillation

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Guest
Guest

Hello, I am female and 61yrs old. My first experience of something not quite right namely PAF was in 1995 approx. 13 yrs ago. I had an unusual irregular thumping in my chest and felt quite faint. This came on just out of the blue in the Supermarket and felt so horrible I just had to lean over the trolly untill it went off. It went away after a few minutes but did re-ocurr from time to time.

I went to the Dr's and was given an appointment to see a Consultant Cardiologist at my local hospital. They fitted me up with an early version Holter monitor that did not work too well. As a result they could not find anything unusual in my condition. I thought well what ever it is it will rear its ugly head again one day, perhaps then they will then know what is really wrong with me!

From then on the jumping & thumping in my chest went on and off. In Feb 2006 after a very stressful airport experience I awoke with a really bad jumping in my chest so bad I did not know what to do (I thought I was having a heart attack!) This went on for about 3 hours. My husband took me to the A & E where I waited for another 3 hours before I could get checked out, I thought I was going to die. They wired me up to an ECG machine where my pulse rate was 200 bpm. I was soon taken to another room where they injected me with some drug to slow my heart rate down. This was a rare experience as I felt my body go stiff for a few moments only. After that I was admitted for 5 days so they could keep an eye on me. I did feel much better after a couple of days however as they put me on 40mg Sotalol + Warfarin. I am convinced that the stress getting home from holiday triggered my episode.

In Sep 2007 I woke up one morning with a sharp pain in my chest which happened 3 times after each other. I was admitted again into hospital with a suspected heart attack. I had several tests done, Cardiac enzyme test, Holter monitor, Echocardiogram, Tread Mill & Myoview scan. So all in all I had a very good M.O.T! End result NOT a heart attack just pain from AF.

I am now off the Warfarin (as I am considered low risk) and take 75mg of Aspirin & 120mg Sotalol twice daily which suit me very well with no noticible side effects. Having said that the other night I woke up at 4.am with bad AF wich lasted for just over an hour just as I was congratulating myself how well I have done now for 2 yrs! I tried everything to stop it Coughing, blowing into a bag & massaging one side of my neck but to no avail. The only thing that worries me now is that perhaps one day I will have to have an Ablation operation (it terrifies me!). The sucess rate is only abot 70% so I will hang on until medical science has improved. I have been informed they will only do it on NHS up to the age of 70 so I have 9 years to think about it! I am now going to stop putting salt on my dinner and cut down on the alcholol to see if that will help me. I do drink de-caffinated coffee & tea.

I have found this forum very interesting and it has engouraged me to share my story for what it's worth with you all. This is a very lonley disease, as to look at us we don't really look any different, so to share our feelings and fears does help.

Good luck to you all, and carry on regardless as they say.

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    I am a 66yr old lady who was diagnosed with AF 3yrs ago. I was prescribed Sotalol, then Frecanide, then Amioderone, then Bisoprolol . This drug has been great then I developed tinutus . The consutant seemed to think it was my meds and suggested Verapomil which helped the tinutus but after 4 days I found the AF shot back and I had to return to the bisoprolol and the hissing and chimeing. I have been told that if thesedont work I have to consider Ablation which I,m scared of so much.If anyone can make me feel a little more confident I would be greatful Thank- you for letting me join in your forum.
  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    Looks like I'm back again, thought I was doing rather well.

    I have been a bit stressed out lately and woke up the other night with some powerful palpitations. Sat on the edge of the bed taking deep breaths hoping it would go away. It didn't so I got out my blood pressure monitor just so I could measure my heartbeats. Normally they are around 60 bpm and had got up to 120 bpm. Any way it just dissapeared after about an hour so I was glad about that!

    After another week it started again, flutters continuously up the throat and the AF on and off for 48 hours something that I have never had for so long before. I know now that I SHOULD HAVE dialled for an ambulance where they could have taken an ECG straight away and got me into the hospital. Instead I tried to stick it out and finally got my husband to take me to the A & E where I had to wait over 3 hours to be seen by a Doctor. By then guess what my heart rate had returned to NORMAL! It looked like it was probably a ONE OFF as I was a bit stressed. They want me to see the Cardiology Specialist again (I have to wait for an appointment several weeks waiting time) for a Holter Monitor to check me out again.

    I hope that there won't be a next time but if there is I might just CALL AN AMBULANCE AND GET AN ECG READING AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE instead of sitting in the A & E for 3 hours.

  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    The history of my AF problems is outlined in my posting of August 09. I have recently been discharged from hospital after undergoing PVI & I have also previously had ablation for atrial flutter: this was successful for this aspect of my heart rhythm problems. The standard of care I have received has been excellent, and I do not feel anyone should be afraid to undergo these procedures if recommended by their cardiologists.

    Everything in life we undertake involves some level of risk, and often some pain: pain cannot be avoided during the procedure but good levels of pain relief are provided. At the end of the day the factors that should influence your decision on whether to go for ablation if recommended should be related to the severity of the impact AF has on your quality of life. If it is minimal and you have anxieties then ablation may not be for you. However, if it is chronic and unlikely to resolve itself spontaneously pursing the ablation option should be considered: the fact that I do not know how successful my PVI will be, because I will not know this for sure until about another 3 months down the line, does not really affect my view on ablation as a technique.

  • Guest
    Guest

    Posted

    [quote:db2edeb8b5=\"Anonymous\"]I am a 66yr old lady who was diagnosed with AF 3yrs ago. I was prescribed Sotalol, then Frecanide, then Amioderone, then Bisoprolol . This drug has been great then I developed tinutus . The consutant seemed to think it was my meds and suggested Verapomil which helped the tinutus but after 4 days I found the AF shot back and I had to return to the bisoprolol and the hissing and chimeing. I have been told that if thesedont work I have to consider Ablation which I,m scared of so much.If anyone can make me feel a little more confident I would be greatful Thank- you for letting me join in your forum.[/quote:db2edeb8b5]

    Hello, I really feel for you, it's not an easy decision. I couldn't cope with any of the drugs either (I tried 10!) and have had three ablations. It's hard to simply hand you confidence on a plate, but I'd say that if the arrhythmias are so bad they're affecting your day-to-day life, then do it (because it did eventually work for me).

    There is juts one thing to be aware of; I would take great care not to be bamboozled by doctors if you don't feel OK afterwards. I suffered a complication which has caused me a lot of problems, but only because my post-procedure anxieties were ignored. Had my doctors acted as soon as I told them I had a problem, it would never have become the complication that it did. As with any procedure, there are risks, but they should be very small providing you are properly monitored afterwards, and of course the younger you are when you have the procedure, the better the recovery is likely to be.

    Good luck in making your decision.

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