I’m 70 and very active. I live in the country on 6 acres and do all the manual labor as my husband has undergone three open heart surgeries. I want to be cured, if possible, so I can travel outside the state. I rarely have any warning before an attack. I know when I am out of rhythm but lately, it has not warranted a trip to the hospital. Unless I get over 100 bpm, the doctor told me no need to go to the ER. I am on warfarin and want off blood thinners.

Thanks to STOP A-FIB, I have been able to educate myself about A-fib. My elder sister also has A-Fib and has for years. I have two younger sisters, neither of whom have A-Fib

I have learned no one takes better care of your health than you do, The patient has to do all the work and the research. I am always primed and loaded with questions when I see my doctors. To date, no one wants to “rock the boat”. They say my meds are working.

Thanks to STOP A-FIB.org I have been able to educate myself. I can only hope that my research will lead me to a “cure” or at least, off blood thinners and meds.

I was very intrigued after reading your story since I too have experienced the same issues after suffering my first A-fib episode (at least the first one that was properly diagnosed). It happened during labor day 2008 weekend after a long day of golf, drinking too much coffee and having a couple of drinks at the pool. My A-fib episode was very stressful since my heart rate and blood pressure spiked and the whole thing (ride in ambulance etc.) was very traumatic. They got it under control after about 14 hours with Cardiazem and sent me home with the diagnosis of “holiday heart”, telling me that this was just a one time episode. About a month later I had my second episide while on a business trip and spent another night in the hospital. This is when my sleep problems began. I would wake in the middle of the night with heart palpitations, cold sweats etc. They put me on metropolol which exacerbated my sleep problems and made my heart palpitations even worse. Since then I have had about five or six A-Fib episodes. I too thought this was related to sleep apnea and had a sleep study done, but the results were negative. After switching my medication to Diltiazem my sleep improved a litttle but then got so bad that I was getting depressed with increased anxiety, whcih of course increased my risk of a-fib. It was not until my doctor prescribed remeron, which is an antidepressant that I was ablt to get better sleep. Now my doctor has prescribed to me a drug called Zoloft, which is a selective seratonin uptake inhibitor and almost immediately my sleep improved and coincidentally my afib episodes have also subsided. By the way, I also had a heart monitor put on me when my sleep problems occured and they were also negative. I personally believe that my Afib issues are related to stress and I have been doing a lot of things to change my life style that has been effective. I drink less coffee, do yoga, eat smaller meals, avoid alcohol and just try not to overdo things. I usually feel an episode comng on when I have done too much and/or do not get enough sleep.

Having said all this, I definitely believe I am suscepitble to Afib and no matter what I do I can succumb to an episode. It is for this reason I am strongly considering a catheter ablation procedure.

I hope you find relief no matter what your origine of afib. I can honestly say that not sleeping (i used to sleep upright too) is a very dibilitating problem and you are doing the right thing by doing a sleep study. i would also check into other treatments as I have done if you find that apnea is not the culprit.

Regards,

John

While at work, I just had this very unusual feeling in my chest. Just a funny feeling..kind of like a bubble machine. I knew the feeling was odd, but no pain so I just said to my colleagues “if you see me stretched out on the floor, get me some help.” They immediately got me a ride to the ER. In the ER they asked me if I had ever been told that I had an irregular heart beat. Answer was No. I was admitted to hospital with A-Fib diagnosis. It took 6 hours to convert me with medication. This was the first I have ever heard of A-Fib. I did tell them that I had self diagnosed PAT’s during sleep. No one seemed to care. When I went to my cardiologist for a follow-up after 24 hour hospital stay and echocardiogram, I mentioned that I had talked to my internist about a Holter monitor because of the rapid heartrate history that I had. That was 2 years ago. He (the internist) sent me to go get one but at the same time my husband received a cancer diagnosis and my time then went into curing him. No Holter. Forgot about it. Husband died last year and still I forgot about that monitor till this hospitalization for A-Fib. Now all of a sudden everything is starting to make sense to me. However, Dr.s just don’t seem to get it. I believe I have sleep apnea which leads to A-Fib. However, with my monitor (cardiologist OK’d it) I sent in 4 episodes(that’s all that fits on it) per night till I was afraid to even go to sleep. I slept sitting up in a chair and ditched the monitor. When I went to find out what the monitor revealed my cardiologist said every thing was normal….nothing wrong. However, my heart rate did go up on those occassions to 100 bpm. Not so bad but why from 65bpm to 100bpm at least 4 times per night. I told him I wanted a Sleep Study. He looked at me like I had 4 heads, but said he would mention it to my internist. I will be getting my sleep study within the next couple of weeks. I had just learned to live with light-headedness and ADD and everything else that goes with Sleep Apnea. Doctors don’t want a cause to be found for anything….they just want to treat a symptom with a drug. Thanks for listening. I hope I don’t have A-Fib at night but it sure feels like it. I did go to the ER another time and they said nothing was wrong. I fully believe Sleep apnea is the culprit…I mean no Oxygen to your brain dozens of time per night. I will let you know. Again, thank you for listening.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and what triggers you have.

Mellanie

Take a look at: http://afibtreatment.com