Atrial Fibrillation

Apparently nearly ten per cent of over 65s have AF and live with it quite successfully.

BigBertha1

Thank you all for your responses its very helpful. I'm sorry to hear that you have had to put up with this yourselves. hE has been seen this morning by the consultant and will stay in for a bit longer to see if they can stablise him on drugs alone to begin with. He is fretting about an upcoming holiday in May ( should we cancel) and whether the travel insurance will blossom and will he be able to do stuff i.e. golf cricket etc.
Its a shame really as he has always been very fit, very good about his diet and weight, dosen't smoke, rarely drinks but hey ho thats life if you have a family history.

The consultant will advise on what exercise is advisable but please update your travel insurance by declaring the AF, it may affect the premium slightly. My DH has a watch which gives him the ability to check his heart rate and finds it reassuring, I believe Apple watches have a more sophisticated ECG function.

My brother has atrial fibrillation he has had it for 10 years and I have paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.

I was rushed into A&E by my daughter as my heart beats where out of control in August 2021 . After the ECG showed AF monitored all day then let home. And attended the AF clinic at the hospital they where brilliant. And put my mind at rest . They started me on heart medication Flecainide and blood thinners Apixaban. Went every week for a month then twice a month and then once a month for 2 months and was happy to discharge me into the care of my GP. Also saw cardiologist a couple of times . In fact saw him 2 weeks ago just to check up on me and was happy for me to stay under the care of my GP.

My brother was a HGV driver until just over 2 years ago but took early retirement to look after my sister in law who has MS. Nothing has stopped my brother living his life to the full . He takes statins and different heart and blood thinner medication to me. He has 2 stents in his heart which he had nearly 14 years ago. He's 64 this year.

I do everything I can and my heart doesn't give me any problems. It's annoying when I miss heart beats and then have extra ones to catch up . Had jaundice in 2017 left me hearing my heart beat in my left ear very annoying. Plus found out in 2020 I was born with a hole in my heart but after tests it's not in the connections between the chambers of my heart and I have a strong heart function.

I have a neurological condition which I was born with but that's separate to my PAF. I will be 65 this year.

Having AF or PAF doesn't mean you can't live a full life. British heart Foundation website has forums and there is a AF one. Plenty of people there who will help and advise if your husband needs it.

Your husband can still do everything he wants to do but he needs to be body aware. It will soon tell him if he's doing to much.

Thank you all for your responses its very helpful. I'm sorry to hear that you have had to put up with this yourselves. hE has been seen this morning by the consultant and will stay in for a bit longer to see if they can stablise him on drugs alone to begin with. He is fretting about an upcoming holiday in May ( should we cancel) and whether the travel insurance will blossom and will he be able to do stuff i.e. golf cricket etc.
Its a shame really as he has always been very fit, very good about his diet and weight, dosen't smoke, rarely drinks but hey ho thats life if you have a family history.

I have A flutter, similar to AFib but different! My advice is to be proactive, there's lots of information on the internet. I saw the consultant privately, cost about £100 but I found it really helpful as he had the time to talk to me properly about my options.

ParlorGames

As with any cardiac issue, living with AF is different with each patient and your DH should be guided by his Consultant and the clinical team; he will no doubt be assigned a Cardiac Nurse. Personal lifestyle, diet, weight, exercise regime and willingness to make changes all come into the scenario with AF.

This hasn’t applied in my DH’s case, despite asking he has never had specialist advice from a consultant or a specialist nurse. After several episodes of a very persistent rapid heart rate which necessitated visits to A and E he was just prescribed medication by our GP. He was eventually given an echocardiogram after several requests but nobody talked him through the results. We have managed his condition ourselves through research. Cardiac care doesn’t seem to be a strong point in our area, my son’s father-in-law’s family had to push for a heart scan for him, he had a home visit from a GP because he was so poorly but his family still had to press for the heart scan. He had the scan on December 9th, was admitted to hospital immediately because of a badly blocked valve, sadly he was too poorly for surgery and died three weeks ago. I know of other similar cases so good cardiac care isn’t available to everybody, perhaps AF isn’t considered serious enough for access to a consultant or specialist nurse, I don’t know.

Changing to decaffeinated coffee had a beneficial effect on my DH’s AF. Despite being on Beta Blockers and blood thinner he still had occasional short episodes of a very rapid heart rate - over 200bpm. We changed to decaffeinated coffee and he hasn’t had an episode since. There is also a possible link to a high consumption of carbs so he moderates his intake of carbs and he also avoids processed foods, diet seems crucial for some people.

As with any cardiac issue, living with AF is different with each patient and your DH should be guided by his Consultant and the clinical team; he will no doubt be assigned a Cardiac Nurse. Personal lifestyle, diet, weight, exercise regime and willingness to make changes all come into the scenario with AF.

All correct info.
I had it too.. I needed to be on for 6 weeks Apixaban and Beta blockers before Cardioversion, it worked first time. That was 18 months ago
However I have remained on both but felt sluggish, so I had a 4 day monitor which picked up I had Intermittent 2 ° Heart block so I now have an Anti AF pacemaker.
Consultant thinks the Heart block caused the AF, so far I have not gone back into it, if I do the pacemaker should correct quickly.
The ironic thing is I am still a practising Cardiac Physiologist specialist in Pacing, so first hand knowledge now.
Good luck with OH, might take a little while but it will be sorted and he will be fine.

youtube york cardiology. He is a consultant heart specialist and wants people to be informed. He has several videos on AF

I am on a blood thinner and a beta blocker for occasional AF, known as paroxysmal AF. It has only really happened about 4 times but I am told it is best to stay on the medication so I do. AF is very common indeed and if properly treated need not be a problem.

I was taken into hospital 18 months ago with a racing heart, breathlessness and a pleural effusion. It all came out of the blue. Medication failed to regulate my heartbeat so I had cardioversion which thankfully worked and I haven’t had any problems since then.

I take apixaban blood thinners, Bisoprolol and Ramipril. All good.

Each case is different- so you really need to get advice from his doctors. OH had the same some years back, and he finally had to have cardioversion. They had to do it twice, and the specialist sais it could last for a few days, a week, a months, months .... and the longer his ryhtmn 'held' the ore chances it would not recur. It was 6 years ago, and he is stable, but of course taking medication for it, and has to watch his weight and get regular sensible exercise.

Hope all goes well, as said above, each case is different.

I still take the medications though.

I was taken into hospital in the middle of the night last year with AF and a very high heart rate. I was very stressed at the time. They kept me in for a few hours and sent me home with beta blockers and anticoagulants.
A couple of months later I had a scan of my heart which showed it was normal and I haven’t had an episode since.

I am sure the experts inthe hospital will advise on treatment and future care.
What I would say is to make sure you get regular checks with your GP even if you don't have any further trouble.

I was diagnosed with AF 8 years ago, probably triggered. Y the serious chest infection I had at the time. I had a cardio version 8 months later, easy procedure. It worked for a short while. I now know, the longer you’ve been in AF the more likely it is your cardio version won’t last. 50% revert.

I’m lucky in nit getting a racing heart though the rate goes up if I walk up inclines so I’ve to take it more slowly

I take apixiban, blood thinner and a med that aims to regulate the heart beat.

There’s a more invasive treatment, I think called ablation. My consultant says the risks associated compared with my low level symptoms mean he doesn’t recommend it currently
Hope your husband gets good intervention

Cardioversion not clarification!