Confused.

[kazzyr]

Hi All I was diagnosed with P.A.F six years ago and had been taking Aspirin, Bisopbrolol, and Dronedaron, a few months ago my cardiologist took me off all meds to see how I went, I had a few episodes and went to A&E only for it all to stop and not show on an ECG, so my Cardiologist put me on a five day event monitor which although i felt symptoms they did not show up on the monitor except for ectopic beats, I have now been told I do not have A.F, so nothing to worry about. I had been on Medication for six years for a disease I don't have? surely this can't be right?

[BobD Volunteer]

Firstly AF is a condition not a disease and you could still have it in my view. Paroxysmal AF comes and goes and a five day monitor is not that long. Some people go months or even years between events so it is quite likely that over five days you didn't have a event. Aspirin was a waste of time anyway as most people now understand. Ectopic beats can be very troubling I know but are different and actually quite normal as everybody has them.

Sadly it seems that you feel that you have been abandoned and I can understand that this makes you worry. If nothing ever happens again then fine but if at any time you feel that you are having an AF event then go straight to A and E and get an ECG to prove what is happening.

Bob

[kazzyr in reply to BobD]

Thank you for your reply, I was told if I have an event that last longer then 5 minutes then call an ambulance, which i will not be doing but will go to a&e if to bad. And if an ecg do not show any thing then just leave it, If it show's AF then the hospital is to refer me back to him.

[Japaholic]

Id try for a second opinion if I were you. You need anticoagulants anyway. You still have AF even if you are not having any episodes.

[Tobw]

I daresay there are many of us who wouldn't display any sign of AF if we wore a monitor for five days, but it's the nature of the condition that it may well return at some time in the next five!

If you are certain that you had "a few episodes" when you were taken off meds, then I would definitely seek a second opinion if I were you because the line being taken by your cardiologist seems to be, on the face of it, very odd.

[Rellim296]

Well, time will tell, because if you have AF it is dormant for the time being, which is good, but it will almost certainly progress. If you don't have AF, that's good too. But if the latter, then yes, the drugs may have been protecting you for no good reason.

I certainly have AF and a 7 day monitor showed up nothing, so all it proved was that I wasn't having little events that I didn't notice. The big ones were months apart some of the time.

[schipperke]

that's bloody chaos...really!!!

[kazzyr]

I guess I will just wait and see, he is refusing to repeat MRI scan or Angiogram as both were ok six years ago and although I'm very happy i don't have a serious heart condition it does worry me as both my parents died of heart disease my father was 51 and my mother was 63, my eldest brother has had several heart attacks my sister has had a stroke and heart attack both by the time they were 50 and my younger brother at the age of 46 also had a heart attack so needless to say when I can't breath and I get chest pain I worry.