Hi All.
Feeling short of breath this morning thats when I'm sat down ...not flying about the house you understand !
Is this due to AF do you think ? or could it be valve problems as I'm waiting for a scan to see if in fact I do have a valve which is not working as it should.
Take care all.
Hi Christo,
We certainly can't know with regards to the valve issues, you will need that scan! For AF... yes, I at several times during the day I become breathless. If I have my hands over my head - shower, washing hair, cleaning above my head or if I have been standing for several hours. Not gasping, but short of breath, taking a breath sooner than usual in order to finish a phrase. Some say it is stress, anxiety, though honestly I get those moments when I am not in stressful situations. One day I would love it if someone could invent a device that could read palpitations as they don't show up on a Holter or ECG and it makes us all crazy! My AF is blatantly clear on an ECG (150-200bpm and irregular) but those infernal palps.....no! Looking forward to my upcoming ablation to see what shakes out afterwards!
Take care
Hi, When I was on my 7 day monitor and could not get in a shower so had to wash my hair over the kitchen sink. During and afterwards I was so out of breath it was unbelievable I had no strength in my arms so found it very hard to lift the jug of water to wet and rinse my hair. My heart is structurally sound. I do have bradycardia as well as AF and I am sure my Bradycardia is too blame. Had a bad night with palpitations last night but managed eventually to get some sleep, felt OK today, walked 2 mins down the road to my mums for lunch spent about 4 hours out of the house only had mild palpitations after lunch which was not big as I have very little appetite lately, came home and slept practically all afternoon until 6:15pm, started out in armchair and progressed to sofa. No idea what is going on, on calcium channel blockers for AF which are only making my rate more erratic. My Bradycardia is totally being ignored, seeing new doc in the week and hopefully new referral back to cardiologist. Hope you get things sorted real quick.
Janet
Janet. What sort of monitor did you have that didn't allow you to disconnect when showering? I was always able to do this and replace sticky pads when necessary. Sandra
It was a continuous 7 day one no disconnecting at all could not get it wet obviously, the previous one that was faulty and did not record anything (bummer) was a 7 day event monitor which I had a button to press when I had symptoms, it had a total of 10 episodes so whichever came first one week or 10 recordings you take it back, that one I was able to replace the stickers as it only got to record when I pressed the button, I am allergic to the stickers so it was imperative that I could take them off and relocate them slightly but with the continuous one I had hyper allergenic stickers which fortunately only gave me a rash instead of taking my skin off totally like the 48hr one did. I now have a permanent crop circle on my chest because of it. Hope that explains things. Janet
Yes, thanks! I obviously had an event monitor. I had to laugh at the crop circle you mentioned as that is exactly how I would describe what I was left with and it took 9. months to clear ! Sandra
I had a monitor on for TWO WEEKS I were able to take a shower then put on some new stickers and off we go again no problems,the results they found out I had AF now waiting to have a heart scan as I might have some heart valve problems oh what fun we are having. I must say all the Dr's I have seen have been wonderful.
Good luck with your scan, I had an echo cardiogram and fortunately nothing structural wrong so all electrical, which probably has something to do with my very low heart rate also, hope new GP tomorrow can actually get a blood pressure, unlike today when registering, I found it quite amusing when the nurse scratched her head as could not figure out why after 3 goes the machine refused to detect that I had a blood pressure at all. OK so now I am a zombie or something.
Hi Chris
Before taking my new pills, I got out of breath because of my arrhythmia. Normally, I can pick a 60-70kg dead weight off the ground just about, so this was quite a change for me! Sometimes, even getting up to make a cup of tea made me take deep breaths. Definitely something to do with not enough oxygen getting into the blood and therefore everywhere else for me.
Hospital told me to anticipate things I was doing and take a deep breath before doing them. Now got into the habit and it works. But better still if you can get your arrhythmia stopped !
Koll
One of the problems with AF is that it evolves. The different symptoms may be due to various things, particularly medication. I attribute my recent breathlessness to Bisoprolol . While I can spend hours gardening with no problems just turning over in bed can make me breathless if I'm having an attack.
Hi Christo,
Before I was diagnosed with PAF I used to get very breathless at times and was treated for asthma, which I do have quite mildly, not helpful. I still get breathless sometimes, usually when I am unwell in some other way, so I would say listen to your body, don't fight it, especially as you do not have the info about the valve, and call for help if you get any other symptoms. Best wishes, Buffafly
This is an interesting thread, I go bellringing and since being diagnosed with PAF I find that I cannot ring for over long periods of time. This is because I have to have my hands above my head for each stroke. I used to be able to ring for about 3 hours nonstop but just limit myself to no more than 15 mins max. My ablation in 2008 has made a great deal of difference to my life so am happy to put up with this restriction on my hobby. I can do a bit of ringing and still enjoy the social side in the pub after.
Jackie
Same for me, Christo4. I'm in normal rhythm now so breathing is better than when I was in AF, but still have breathless moments for no reason. It can only be either the bisoprolol, or my leaky mitral valve. I shall be interested to see the results of my next echo check.
Dadog.
When is your next echo check ? I thought you were going to say " I shall be interested to see the results of MY scan" !
Yes very interesting, because most of my periods of AF started after working with my arms over my head, looking at some of the above posts looks like it was a trigger and not just because it caused breathlessness.
Short of breath . Breathing issues getting me down 
Eliquis and shortness of breath
Cause of my afib
Shortness of breath
