I have been on sotalol for several years now (I am 47 and had my first episode of PAF in 1997), and my usual "episodes" last for a few seconds only. However, at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve I started abruptly into an irregular rhythm. I thought I would see how it was in the morning as I didn't want to rush off to A and E unnecessarily. In the morning it was still happening. Bearing in mind that my usual episodes last a few seconds, I was still reluctant to make the trip to the hospital as I was pretty sure that by the time I had traveled down to the hospital and waited the usual two hours plus, I would have dropped back into sinus rhythm.
By nine o'clock in the evening on Christmas Day, it was still happening, so I rang the NHS line for advice. Their advice was to get to A and E within the hour. I didn't do this as by the time I'd changed from my happy Christmas outfit into the scruffs of someone who might be hanging around in a hospital for several hours, I found I had gone back into sinus rhythm!
There were then a number of tears on my part. I started to question my sanity, I started to wonder whether I'd imagined the whole thing (despite my husband having listened to my chest and confirming my fears), wondered whether despite my feeling like I wasn't letting it stress me that it was all stress-induced and it the mere thought of going to hospital calmed me down and made the heart revert to normal.
Should I have gone to A and E? What would any of you have done? I haven't been to see the GP to report it, should I?
I was discharged from the cardiology department at Glenfield Hospital a couple of years ago as I was largely asymptomatic.
Emma
