Atrial Fibrillation [edited at OP's request]

dragonfly46

I had an episode a year ago and ended up in hospital in the middle of the night. I am now on anti-coagulants and beta blockers although my BP was normal.
I also had an echogram organised by the consultant cardiologist and my heart was found to be healthy.
Don't worry it is quite common just keep taking your blood thinners.
Try not to fall over as I did and bump my head as I needed a CT scan on my head as I was on anti-coagulants!

Similar story for me... Had Cardioversion in Sept, so far still out of AF?
Will find out later on today as I had 72 hrs monitor on to see if still OK.
I would like to come off the meds if possible, but if I have to stay on, well I will.
It's really common, and the Consultant told me, can run in families? Mum had it same age as I am now.

I was diagnosed with AF 7 years ago during a serious chest infection. I gad a cardio version which worked for a couple of months. 50% of patients find the AF returns.
I take apixivan, a blood thinner. Beta blockers made me too tired.

I had an episode a year ago and ended up in hospital in the middle of the night. I am now on anti-coagulants and beta blockers although my BP was normal.
I also had an echogram organised by the consultant cardiologist and my heart was found to be healthy.
Don't worry it is quite common just keep taking your blood thinners.
Try not to fall over as I did and bump my head as I needed a CT scan on my head as I was on anti-coagulants!

Hi Mynxie - I've had atrial fibrillation (AF) for nearly 3 years - the type that comes and goes again after a while. It's very alarming at first, but the main danger is not a heart attack, but a clot which may lead to a stroke. If you take the blood thinners exactly as prescribed, that danger is greatly reduced.

From my experience, taking beta blockers hasn't decreased my episodes which come randomly - usually late at night or in the middle of the night, but when you see a cardiologist, they may prescribe.

I've got used to it and when I get an episode in the night, I try to get back to sleep and sometimes by the morning heart has gone back to normal - I can monitor by taking my pulse. Other times it continues for another few hours, but by getting up and moving around I can just ignore it and eventually it settles.

There are techniques that work for some people - deep breathing, drinking a glass of very cold water fast - that worked once for me. Being able to monitor the condition by taking your pulse is a help - sometimes anxiety can feel as if heart is acting up, but if your pulse is regular, it's not AF.

Thank you all so much, theses comments are just what I need to see this morning!
I’m off now to peruse the BHF website

I was also diagnosed with Afib recently and like you had a bit of a panic as I had never heard of it before. The British Heart Foundation has a website with an explanation of Afib and a lot of good articles about the condition. This helped to reassure me and you may find it very useful to have some background information before speaking to the cardiologist. It also has an Afib forum which may be of interest. Hope this helps

My mother was diagnosed with AF many, many years ago. She’s 94 and a half now.

Wife was diagnosed with it some years ago, she went through a number of treatments that didn’t work so has now had a pacemaker fitted,

She’s expected to outlive us all!

My Dad was diagnosed with AF in his 60s. He died age 84 from a chest infection that had nothing whatever to do with his heart.