the thread of ATRIAL FIBBING

i think the alternatives are further ablations or controlling it with meds

further ablations *ma*y finally jab all the misfiring buttons in the right way to shut off the misfiring, but risk further misbehaviour during the blanking period (which is basically when the scar tissue isn;lt yet grown in to muffle the misfiring)

meds: when i mentioned the tiredness to the other consultant (as my main reason to want to go ahead with the ablation) he said that different beta blockers might not have the tiredness effect? so i guess that's what i need to look into

what is a

-checks text from mmac-

heart echo check

and why

-double checks text from mmac-

do "they" want me to get one?

mmm possibly "they" are reading my posts all week, tbf

Echocardiogram. Dunno. But it is painless!

the suggestion i need one isnt!

this is a hard q to answer w/o knowing more abt yr earlier communications and interactions with them -- or did they just slide into yr DMs on twitter?

ecgs are useful for many many observsations in and around the heart obviously -- sometimes just to rule out something where you have a symptom that's very likely benign but might be an indicator of something it wd be smart to pre-empt? (i have gone from being a total snowlake abt this organ -- WHAT IF IT JUST STOPS! -- to very admiring of its rugged meaty pertinacity -- OMG IT JUST KEEPS ON GOING! -- but mine has been routinely determined, after many of same, to be v-healthy-if-somewhat-wayward…

on foot of an uncle, completely bolloxed after a life of hectic drinking, showing up something in a scan recently

issue could be related to his chosen career but could also have a genetic element so the icy finger of probability has poked out a text as detailed above and hit send, the dick

my mum was convinced i'd be male-pattern bald by 35 based on genetics, she looked at my tousled head aged 45 (me) and said "that's the one thing i've ever been wrong about"

it's a lottery is what it is and peeking inside the works can do little harm unless yr a worrier

coincidentally last week my doctor strongly recommended that I get one soon based on a health issue last january, which could either be anemia (probably likely, my iron is historically bad but I thought it was under control) or some other unrelated heart issue

I've had intermittent atrial fibrillation (lone atrial fib) for 12 years now. It was originally treated with a right heart ablation. That is not now considered the definitive treatment, but that in combination with flecainide it has kept me mostly free of it

The weird thing is that my older brother has had almost exactly the same experience

does anyone else run around bumping into people for an hour three times a week

i somewhat dread being informed that is a thing not to do anymore

5-a-side? Dodgems?

the polycule regrets

xp think of a hybrid version basically yeah

so it's being said ppl with heart issues are at risk covid-style but i don't know if this includes fibbing? i keep being told my heart is basically v healthy, it's just like keeping time badly

Sigh. I don't know either but my bf had an extremely scary day of recurring episodes two weeks ago, potentially connected to working out at the gym? With no chance of insurance anytime soon he was considering flying to another country and paying for private care just to find out wtf is wrong with him but that's off for now, so...very worried, yes. My sense is no one really knows much re covid so far?

i was on a AF mailing list until december which gathered all kinds of info -- no idea how reliable -- but (a) it all just went into a mailbox i never looked at and (b) i seemed to have been signed off it since jan so i'm none the wiser

so anyway i am lined up for a cardioversion in a few weeks (no date yet) which in routine times is an unproblematic and unrisky heart procedure, in-out in an afternoon, at worst overnight if they schedule you for an evening op, just an electric bump to see if they can nudge it back into proper rhythm for a while

i'm guessing it will simply be postponed bcz urgent stuff will be overwhelming the system in all other directions (tho barts doesn't have an A&E so maybe not) (except my last one was at homerton, which very much does).

anyway i guess wait and see what i'm told -- maybe this is how i will find out how at risk i am

In an example of terrible timing my dad's just been told he'll need a pacemaker fitted within the month. Doctor asked him if there'd been any sudden deaths in the family...

yikes, best of luck koogs

He had a tiny stroke before Christmas which affected his peripheral vision and he had to surrender his driving licence for a year (at least) so now he spends even more time watching the sport on TV. Or would if it hadn't all been cancelled. He needs a hobby.

Good luck to all.

Yup.

barts just called to say that my prep appointment next week for the upcoming repeat cardioversion is indeed postponed, until when they don't know

not startled to learn this, and in fact somewhat relieved

Hope fibbers get a bit of clarity soon (and remain healthy!)

Mark today fb reminded me that it is a year since ur book and attendant goodies arrived at my door 🙌

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jSUtkUyuiK8/Tc13_bGMJsI/AAAAAAAALnY/UHcdt2yaU5Q/s400/Fibber%2BMcGee%2BAnd%2BMolly.jpg

just saw this, thx wins :)

yes, its actual real public birthday has been making me combination happy and sad tbh

so it's being said ppl with heart issues are at risk covid-style but i don't know if this includes fibbing? i keep being told my heart is basically v healthy, it's just like keeping time badly

― mark s, Saturday, March 14, 2020

I think this is right

(dad had his pacemaker operation on Thursday, but even as an out patient op I find it odd that they went ahead with it. Was complaining on Saturday of bruising and that the external monitor wasn't finding a signal, but otherwise fine)

all the best koogs

in AF and me news: patient (me) reports no change, all seems fine

a couple of nights now i've woken with the flutter at some intensity -- where generally sleeping damps it down.

the first i couldn't get back to sleep properly and when i did get up (earlier than intended) i discovered i'd forgotten to take my beta blockers the evening before and evening plus morning dose sorted it well enough.

the second it sorted itself out by itself and i went back to sleep and slept well and late. in each case during the wakefulness i lay worrying that i would have to go back into hospital to get it regularised (which there are now other reasons to not want happen). anyway fingers x-ed it's mostly a mix of anxiety and intense dreams.

like i feel absolutely fine and normal right now but during the wakefulness i could somehow sense the beginnings of every CV19 symptom lurking but i know this is a very normal state of mind for everyone awake at 4 in the moming

lol yes :/

since this began ive hugely favoured lying on my right over my left side when trying to get to sleep: on my left (heart side down) my flutter was more evident and this made me anxious and less likely to sleep, but also i'd get a thing where as i did drop off i'd often seem to get a heart skip and this -- real or imagined -- woke me up again in a panic.

now i find i'm *entirely* favouring sleeping on my right (heart side up) bcz the other way seems actively to exacerbate the flutter? i mean i know yr ribs protect yr heart from being actually squished but

anyway this is all so borderline between symptoms real and dremt that i never get good answers when i ask the specialists or (don't do this) try and google it

every now and then i wake early bcz the flutter seems high, like i just necked an espresso in my sleep to jolt myself awake -- and cant get back to sleep

(this time after a stressful dream abt conflict at work) (knowingly caused by me i might add lol)

a weird thing is that caffeine seems not to heighten the flutter, quite the opposite in fact

lol i just got called to be told the revised date for my repeat fibrillation is exactly a fortnight from now, which GOOD i guess but also uh oh (in hospital but not overnight unless something goes awry)

Hope this goes smoothly!

ok so i went into barts cardiology on monday at 10am and smoothly is how it went and i am now out and in day two of recovery post-cardioversion (which i called a "repeat fibrillation above lol: not its name no, fibrillation is the name of the monster) -- in fact despite lots of boring waits* i was out by 6.30pm same day

i: barts was eerily calm and unpeopled compared to any other time i've been there -- never more than two other ppl on the ward, waiting either for cardioversions themselves (very quick procedure) or pacemaker box changes (longer op tho perfectly routine)
ii: nurses etc all cheerful and professional, not at all a stressed environment -- i was due to be sorted super-quick but apparently then bumped by an emergency post heart-op arrival who'd fainted at newham and been transferred… most of my entertainment all day was listening to phone discussion which of newham and barts needed to hold a post-op bad for this person
iii: also eavesdropped: that barts had not had an actual official COVID patient since the bulge in march, tho of course they were testing everyone on entry
iv: thx to newham fainter i wasn't seen till 3ish having arrived at 10 but as noted the procedure is p quick: wheel me to a lab, sedate me, zap me -- sedation wasn;t full anaesthetic, so i was conscious but very far removed from anything going on. my memory of the actual electric shock is a comically cartoonish silent bump in which every item in the room flew up the air and settled again. i suspect this is not what happened.
v: one zap and my heart was normal sinus waves again, first time in 18 months i think. they told me before that they'd try three times before giving up: but it was just one and worked, so hurrah! the first cardioversion i had -- possibly discussed upthread -- i was fully asleep, they tried it three times and it didn't work ("you have a stubborn heart mr s") and i also got a mild red iron-shaped scorch mark on my back from a shock-paddle lol, tho a bit of savlon sorted this out quickly. this time i dodged all of this and was back on the ward and fully awake (no driving or heavy machinery** for 24 hrs!) by 4pm.
vi: so now we just wait and see how long before it reverts to weird shit, 3 days 3 months 3 years? it may not revert! but i suspect it probably will -- something in my structures pushes towards it. but fingers x-ed…
vii: anyway i am back and beefing calmly as i normally do, hullo ilx

*yes i took in a cpy of the LRB to while away the time, no it never left my bag
**what does heavy machinery actually mean in this context? (i will never google "heavy machinery")

nice to have you back, sir :)

that heavy machinery in full

https://d2rd7etdn93tqb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ripley-power-loader-aliens-051617.jpg

👍

I read this thread a couple days ago and was hoping they weren’t re-fibrillation you!

genuinely feeling better since the cardioversion: less tired and sluggish, much less sense that my heart is like skittering and bumping. i'm off caffeine again (my choice, the consultant says it's not relevant but for all its benefits it makes me jittery and anxious)

the arrhythmia may come back (it may already be back, i often wasn't aware of it) but the flutter seems to have been banished for now

i'm on one less med (no DIGOXIN) and wd like to be on lower BISOPROLOL tho this probably won't happen till after my next review (by phone app! tho i think i'll imagine i'll need an ECG leafing up to it, which will be hard to do over the phone)

the one downside is that i've had a near-constant headache for a week now -- really bad on monday till i dosed up with anadin extra (paracetamol aka acetaminophen, aspirin, plus caffeine). so the headache might just be caffeine withdrawal (plus weather pressure effects), or a med side effect (RAMIPRIL is mildly head-ache inducing) or maybe my increased heart power is pumping too much blood into my head lol

aside from monday it's tolerable though -- meaning i can work through

(meaning i am staring at a screen all day: also famously headache-inducing)

i'm sorry about the headache, mark, i really sympathise with you there. on the other hand... BISOPROLOLOLOLOL

seems to be fine today tbh, i think it's weather exacerbated by caffeine withdrawal

so it turns out that six months on my heart is still in good sinus rhythm (per an ECG last week) so my arrhythmia nurses are happy for me to reduce my beta blockers -- which with luck will mean feeling less tired day-on-day.

this is excellent news! i was somewhat resigned to the arrhythmia returning -- it always has done before -- NOT THIS TIME, SO FAR

(rewarding myself with a cup of coffee, living dangerously with that caffeine bump which the experts says is unrelated to all this)

(ok it's more like four months than six i guess)

I have Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and may have to have this fibbing thingy done at some point, it may go away though, and I don't feel like I've experienced any real symptoms for more than a year, and the tachycardia used to be pretty bad, so idk, maybe it went away by itself, have heard that happens. I do have one coffee first thing every morning which seems to be ok, but any caffeine at all after midday and I will not be able to sleep until maybe 4am.