Living with Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)

[mamashanshan]

I’ve lived with this for 5 years, it’s worsened. I always had low blood pressure, until I ended up with Empyema, they have no clue how I ended up with it, it’s a third world country disease. I ended up in the hospital for about a month, had to have my right lung scraped out, then tubes put in to drain the infection, it was a horrific disease!! I kept being treated for pneumonia for over a year, before this all had happened, I had a stroke two years prior, I was always doing some type of activity, always have ate healthy, all this happened! One never knows what will be thrown and put onto us, I also have Chronic Lyme’s Disease, this causes a lot of challenges. Each day I’m so grateful I’m here, I care deeply about others, we learn how valuable life truly is. At any age we can have something happen, and end up with big health issue. I’m sorry many have to live with this disease. Seems we have much more life challenges these days. Many blessings to all that have to suffer.

[robertalee]

I have AFIB too. Cardiac Ablation worked for me. I tried it all and was miserable. Ablation was a miracle. It saved my life.

[carolbenson]

Thank you for giving a thorough overview of these heart issues!

[reneehughes]

I started experiencing AFib symptoms and had 2 strokes within 9 days of receiving the 1st covid booster shot. Had to get a pacemaker {2 + years ago) and just had the watchman procedure done in 11/23 so I could come off blood thinners. I highly recommend the watchman procedure if you're a candidate for it.

[elitebicycleracers]

Thank you, this is a very helpful overview for someone like me who was just diagnosed.

[deathnrosary]

I was born with it. Didnt find out until I was pregnant with my son.
It makes my asthma worse. And one tiny pill is like night and day.

[susanmajury]

I've had my heart zapped 5 times in last 2 years. Started Afib Friday again trying to work through it. Biggest problem is loss of breath after minimal exertion. I may have to end up going to hospital.

[LOTR_BTTF]

Had my first Afib episode in 2009 (when I was 24). After a few more episodes over the next few years, I finally got myself into better shape and cut out a lot of risk factors (stimulants like caffeine, alcohol, etc.) which has helped a lot. I never really got it too often (even before the lifestyle changes) but now I typically average about one episode every 2-4 years or so (and they can usually be fixed pretty quickly by a quick trip to the ER for an electric cardioverson). Fortunately they've never been frequent enough to cause major life disruptions, however they are just frequent enough to be aggravating/expensive - plus my heart doctor has never thought they were frequent enough to get more testing done (other than a heart echo which didn't find anything) to determine what the cause is (I have suspicions based off conversations with my mother that my now deceased father may have had it but never diagnosed (not what he died from) and it's inherited). Also, while they haven't been very frequent to this point, I do worry a little they will get more frequent as I get older.

*Update March 2021: It looks like my fear is coming to pass - after only having occasional episodes for almost a decade; I've now had three new episodes in the last six months (and two in the last 1.5 months). I've cut out about every risk factor I can - I guess now at 36 I'm just at the age where it's just going to start happening more regularly - I'm probably now looking at an ablation in my future.

[sdturner]

I've just recently been diagnosed with AFib. Interesting info to know.

[petemoore]

I had the Cardioversion treatment, pad on the back, pad on the chest, light anaesthetic and a few Joules to reboot the heart...
Had been struggling with AF for around 12 months, not helped by the procedure being cancelled because of COVID-19 but I maintained a fitness regime rather than just being a victim. Walked for an hour, twice a day, every day. Am now in the recovery stage but still taking same meds, same exercise but, and this is the killer, my BP is way lower, my resting heart rate is way lower.
My Blood Pressure was dithering around 148 over 108 - not good!
Resting heart rate was around 98 beats per minute - also not good.
Now 115 over 73 with a resting rate of 65...
Obviously, a lot of that is the meds that I'm on but I am really hopeful that there won't be too much variance once I'm reducing the drugs.
For you people still waiting and wondering what kinds of treatments that are out there... There are many, so don't give up hope. Here is a few..
Oblation, Radio Frequency... Shove a catheter up a vein in your leg, enter your heart, uncoil a wire and start using radio waves to burn out the the connections around the various parts of the nerves in your heart.
Oblation, Cryo, as per above, only using extreme cold to freeze out the errant nerves.
Oblation, Radio-Nuclear... not to sure about this most recent innovation but what I have read seems to be both effective and all very Star Trek. It uses a very targeted, pulsed beam of radiation to achieve the oblation results.. I was lined up for my procedure when I read about this and was raging with jealousy. It was a patient from Carlisle, with the procedure done in Newcastle... I have relatives in and around Carlisle. There's a really good selection of takeaways near to the hospital, not to mention the off-licences (bottle shop), whereas, near my local hospital, NOTHING!!!
Speaking of nothing...
Cardioversion involves stopping the heart for a while - 32 seconds in my case. This lets the heart settle down from all the frenetic activity it has been doing and take pause. Rarely, and it is possible, that the heart restarts spontaneously in the normal sinus rates. Mine didn't.
I think that could be because I'd been thinking about what happens when you die..
Am 66, near 67, had a fair bat at life. Married twice. Two kids. And generally messed the whole thing up.
Have to tell you that, when they stopped my heart, there were no 72 virgins, nor 72 barmaids, or even, a voices calling me towards a light. No heavenly chorales or smell of sulphur. Nothing.
I was dead, in the truest sense of the word, dead. Nothing, nada, zilch, nothing.
Am going to have to think about this for a while, and its implications.

[marylouirick]

Stress cause mine, relaxing after l retired. I learn went u sleep ur heart rest. So l take a nap each day. 💤B/P IS GOOD.BUT must not eat fast food, coffee bacon, soda
Salt, no no. Loss 20pds.

[tonyoliver]

My heart just completely stops for a beat. Then I get this terrible rush like I'm going to pass out.

[Bihigos]

I'm fourteen and I have this, it affects my life so badly I have to miss a ton of school because of it. I had surgery before when I was ten or nine but it never helped me. I miss so much school that I get so much make up work that I just don't even feel like doing it. I feel like it'll only get worse when I'm older and I won't be able to work. I'll have to fill out for disability and make 10, 000 dollars a year and never be what I want and make a living. I've been wanting to get into online school but my mom just doesn't believe me and still thinks that I am capable of going to school some days. It's just so hard an I get so stressed out that it makes it worse. I just wish it could go away. I get so tired that I almost passed out in the nurses office at school. I just worry for my future and I think that I'll just grow up being a nobody.

[jhunepm]

such a very helpful video. Thank you so much!

[josesalas]

cure cure cure that's what we want

[TO-psqq]

I am an AFib patient. I eat jalapeño peppers to set my heart into a normal sinus rhythm.

[KolinIndika]

It's very helpful .... Thank you so much!

[piroskamerk]

I have AFIB more than 4 years I just had my 2nd chateter ablation!! My life is changed 😥

[viqmu]

I have AFib since i was 34 years old, now im 63 so i try a lot of different treatments, im taking Flecainide 150 mg and metroprolol ER 50 mg, but when i start taking Magnesiun Citrate, the symptoms disappear complete, this my experience so talk to your doctor first.

[Krzysztex]

Does a pacemaker fix this permanently? I had 5 ablations and 3 cardioversions but I still have to be on medication (for 10 years now) . I'm 30.