Bumping an old thread.

exercising regularly, I’ve lost over 50 pounds, I’m eating significantly better, I’m down to a cigar or two a week and probably the same amount of alcohol.

Overall, I feel great, and then the last couple of weeks out of nowhere, the palpitations that I got from time to time last year are back. They only come at night, usually about two hours before I take my blood pressure pills.

So fucking frustratingly, distracting, my Garmin has an ECG setting and while usually the palpitations show up as “sinus”, a couple times this week they have flagged AFib.

Damn it. Time to call the doc on Monday.

Ronin, I've been in and out of Afib since 2012 and regularly run EKGs on both a Garmin Venu 3 and a KardiaMoble. Whenever I see a scan classified as Afib, I download the scan and send it to my electrophysiologist. That way he can see what's happening when I'm not in his office. He's also had me wear a long-term monitor (Zio by iRHYTHM) to get a better picture. Be sure to take a copy of one or more of those Garmin Afib scans with you when you see the doc.

Yeah, I’m gonna give the VA a shout in the morning. I’m really good at trying to ignore symptoms and hoping they go away, but for obvious reasons not taking any chances with the ticker.

I’m just really frustrated, I’ve been working my ass off, doing specific heart rate training on the peloton, I can bust out unloading a truck for an hour straight in the sun and not feel winded, or take a low impact walk and keep my heart rate about 110.

When I checked my history of prior issues, it’s always around this time of the year when work is at its most stressful. Dr. GPT tries to reassure me by saying it could be PAC, or PVC. (I’m not even sure what those are)

The Garmin actually is able to print out those 30 second single lead readings, so I’ll send those to the doc in the morning.

Every birthday is just one more reminder about how little control we actually have over shit.

A couple years ago, I decided to try to figure out which whiskey I like. Bought about 2 dozen mini bottles of different types (bourbon, irish, Canadian, blended, etc) and brands. Kept it to 1 drink, 3x per week.

Started to wake up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations several nights a week. I was bitching to my buddy about it, and he was the one who made the correlation between whiskey and my heart palpitations. It's still like clockwork - make an old fashioned and I'll wake up with heart palpatations but drink a beer, have a glass of wine, or have a margarita and my heart purrs away.

Long term AFib sufferer here.

Doctor says mine is extremely disabling and he's offered to take me off work. I've declined.

I've had the MAZE procedure, two cardioversions and an offer of a 3rd, PFA ablation that mostly worked but now the weird impulses have shifted and I have atrial mitral flutter.

I'm on Amio 400mg that gets the rate down to 70 BPM but the side effects are nasty. We'll know in a couple of weeks if we're going to do a revision.

I had palpitations so bad they'd wake you up at night.

I was on Amiodarone for a few months until I could have a cryoablation. I hated that drug. My heart rate would drop down to 40 and I felt like a zombie walking around.

I had a cryoablation 11/27/23 and no AFib since then.

quote:

Originally posted by SW_Sig:
I was on Amiodarone for a few months until I could have a cryoablation. I hated that drug. My heart rate would drop down to 40 and I felt like a zombie walking around.

I had a cryoablation 11/27/23 and no AFib since then.

I wish I was that lucky.

Hi Ronin. Some folks may remember I is/was a cardiologist. License still active but retired for 11 years now.
A fib is not to be trifled with. It tends to start out "paroxysmal"--occurring occasionally--then get more frequent. Longer episodes lasting hours are associated with risk of stroke.
Glad your Garmin watch picked that up. My wife's Apple Watch caught her one serious episode, which converted with metoprolol. Her cardiologist wanted to put her on Eliquis (platelet antagonist like a super-aspirin) for life. But there is significant risk of bleeding in the head that must be weighed against the risk of stroke. So if it recurs and lasts hours, she will go on Eliquis, probably for 3 months.

There is actually a clinical trial in progress called REACT-AF. Experimental subjects are given an Apple Watch to detect AF. If they have longer episodes they go on Eliquis for 3 months. When the trial is completed we'll see which approach is safer.

Anyway, you will probably get a heart monitor, e.g. the Zio Patch which you wear for two weeks, to see how much AF you're having.

Seeing cardiologist is the key thing here.

good luck
Dr. Goodheart
Your friendly SigForum cardiologist (R)

I've had a few episodes of something irregular going on, it happened once during a regular checkup when I was in the Doc's office and they captured it in an EKG as SVT. I wore a ZIO patch for 2 weeks and they caught another 9 hour long episode of my heartbeat going 180 bpm. I have an ablation scheduled in 2 months, Doc says he will fix it.

SVT is less dangerous and easy to ablate, usually. So yeah, the Doc will fix it.

Diagnosed with AFIB last fall, Metoprolol for reducing the heartbeat prescribed while I went through all the testing. Ended up with a Stint in February, then Ablation in May both went good, AFIB reversed with the Ablation.

Still on Metoprolol, along with Eliquis and Plavix, also on Methimazole for my Thyroid, initial testing show it out of whack, and it may have been a cause of the AFIB.

Apple watch did detect the AFIB while I was going through all the testing.

My AFib was taken care of with a cardioversion but that was over a year ago. My Apple Watch mostly showed Afib 2% or less each week and then a little while ago it started to fluctuate, 40% one week, 11 % the next. I had my 6 month meeting with the EP scheduled and we discussed Tikosyn but I decided that at 82 I didn't want new medicines. I wore a heart monitor for two weeks and we've decided to go with a pacemaker, I'll be getting that on 10/7.

Last week I had a follow up with my cardiologist and she agreed on the pacemaker. I feel pretty confident being both electrician and the plumber agree.

The main risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), whether continuous or paroxysmal (off and on), is stroke. AF with a fast rate that continues for months can leave the heart weakened, causing congestive heart failure (shortness of breath, weakness, leg swelling); but it's reversible with control of the rate.

Lots of us older guys don't want to take medicine to control the rhythm, like Tikosyn. Or anticoagulants like Eliquis, because of risk of bleeding into the head if we fall.

There is an excellent alternative, and it doesn't involve open-heart surgery, or a lengthy ablation procedure. It is a device, Watchman is the brand name of one, that blocks the opening of the left atrial appendage. This is a little finger off the left atrium, and about 95% of clots that end up causing strokes originate there. It's been shown definitively that putting in a Watchman device, done through a cardiac catheterization procedure, greatly decreases the risk of stroke; and is an excellent alternative for people who are not candidates for anticoagulation, antiarhythmic medications, or ablation.

For folks like UTsig, I suggest you talk to your cardiologist about the Watchman device. Obviously I don't know the details of your medical history, but in general it's something that should be considered. In my wife's case, if she has recurrent AF her cardiologist would likely recommend a Watchman device so she doesn't have to go on Eliquis lifelong.

I'm definitely considering the Watchman, we've discussed it and after the Pacemaker will probably get one. I'm pretty steady on my feet, not prone to falling. That being said I did trip in January and hit my head pretty good. I was very fortunate not to have had complications. I'd love to get off Eliqius, like you said, less medications the better.

Glad to hear you're considering it, UTsig. Sounds like you would be a perfect candidate for it. Again, I don't know your whole history, just giving general advice from a distance. Hey, at least I still have an active license so I'm not practicing medicine without a license.