By no means!
My wife has a history of premature atrial beats; in the past had some paroxysmal atrial tachycardia (PAT), but no atrial fibrillation.
On Wednesday I got her a really nice half-decaf latte from our local French bakery. About 1:30 pm she thought she was having “palpitations” but maybe worse than usual.
I whipped out my Kardia Mobile pocket EKG device, and it showed she had A fib at about 124 bpm.
After atenolol 25 mg, rate went down, but AF stayed. After about 6 hours of that we went to the ED.
Then she told the doc (unbelievable hottie just incidentally, wife agreed) that she may have had some of this for a couple of nights prior. So decision was made not to cardiovert (want to do < 24 hours or have to defer due to risk of stroke). Rx given for Eliquis, metoprolol; went home about 1:30. Got meds next morning, about 15 minutes after taking meds (likely unrelated but who knows) she converted to sinus rhythm.

Which is great, but now we know she’s prone to AF, and she may not be able to tell if she’s in it, especially if heart rate is controlled with metoprolol.

She’ll be seeing a cardiologist in consultation, getting a stress echo. May get an event monitor.

But since this is likely to be a lifelong worry now, I just ordered an upgrade of her Apple Watch to a Series from her current SE. The 8 has built-in EKG and monitoring for atrial fibrillation even in the absence of symptoms.

Likely she won’t need to stay on Eliquis long-term unless she starts having more frequent episodes. At her age and risk factors, risk of stroke is about 5% per year, which is pretty high.

I really like the Kardia Mobile device, and have recommended it to a number of people who complain of palpitations. It connects to your smart phone, and the phone shows the EKG tracing, which can be sent to your doctor. Or to me, in my wife’s case.

The approach locally is to take Eiquis or Xarelto for the rest of your life if you afib. It is hard to do considering the outrageous cost and general lack of symptoms.

Glad that your wife is doing better!

Re: “the phone shows the EKG tracing, which can be sent to your doctor.”

I have a “6-lead” Kardiamobile device. With mine it appears that I have to buy a 6-month or 1-year service plan in order to send my recorded EKGs to my physician. So far I haven’t needed that feature because every reading has been “Normal Sinus Rhythm”.

You can consult with a cardiologist for $69.95!

These devices (BP, EKG, whatever) all seem to be designed to get you to subscribe to a service, and sell your information to Google.

my wife has AFIB

We have had a Kardia Mobile EKG for several years now. I like it a lot.

but it does seem to try to drum up business by recommending sending the EKG for analysis

Glad to hear that Peggy is alright.

Glad to hear your wife is ok and under the watchful eye of a highly qualified doc!

My 92 yr old mom in England has been having some afib episodes this year. The NHS attitude seems to be just ignore it due to her age. No meds, no follow up with a cardiologist after a night in hospital. She still plays golf 2x per week and walks 9 holes but has now had 3 episodes on the course.

I'm going to look into the Kardia Mobile for her.

Thanks, guys. Looks like she doesn’t take well to metoprolol—makes her even more tired than usual. I’ve seen that hundreds of times in patients.
We’ll probably try diltiazem next.

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
Glad to hear your wife is ok and under the watchful eye of a highly qualified doc!

My 92 yr old mom in England has been having some afib episodes this year. The NHS attitude seems to be just ignore it due to her age. No meds, no follow up with a cardiologist after a night in hospital. She still plays golf 2x per week and walks 9 holes but has now had 3 episodes on the course.

I'm going to look into the Kardia Mobile for her.

Fly-Sig:

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