AF

[schipperke]

How come some AF sufferers are so house bound and cant function with AF and some lead a normal life. I'm the most active person ever with 3 jobs...busy busy !! but when AF Strikes Ive got half the energy/will to live. I still have to do my 3 jobs but takes me 3 times longer. They are all manual jobs!!!

[Hidden]

I think that's the trouble with AF. Some people are very symptomatic, and some just aren't. When I first started AF 7 years ago, I thought I had a severe case of flu. Absolutely exhausted, dizzy and nauseous, and this could last for hours. My only remedy was to lie down until my heartbeat was normal again. As a result of an episode, it could take me a day to return to normal, feeling wan and unwell, with no appetite. You don't say what treatment you have had - thankfully after my 3rd ablation and a pacemaker, I don't have AF at the moment at all. Don't beat yourself up about taking longer to do jobs. You're doing brilliantly if you can do them at all.

Best wishes, Carrie

[BobD Volunteer]

I think it shows we are all different doesn't it. For the same reason some people are very productive and others not so. Take the old saying if you want something doing give it to a busy person. A lot of it is a state of mind but remember the old saying about walking a mile in somebody else shoes. Those of us who have been/are busy bees need to recognise that not everybody functions like that.

Bob

[Beancounter Volunteer]

Hi Schipperke

All respect to you for doing manual work with AF, I am sure that I could not.

I am lucky in that all my work is desk based and therefore not nearly as tiring as manual work would be with AF.

As for differences?, as many have said AF is a very mongrel condition and effects us all in different ways, I am in persistent AF and most of time with no symptoms, but like today when I came home and had to go to a meeting I sat for literally 90 seconds with a cuppa and had to fight to open my eyes to get up and go out. Felt better once I was moving but it was like hitting a brick wall energy wise.

Those who are paroxysmal seem to have a worse time of it, because at least us persistents get our bodies used to the AF, but you can't get used to an sudden attack, and anyway generally I don't have the raised heart rates that so many paroxysmal sufferers get.

I have had one "attack" and I thought I was going to die, and felt like a limp wrung our dish rag for days afterwards.

I think I'm one of the luckiest given my condition and AF, and perhaps the answer is simply what others have said we are all different and we all suffer differently.

Be well

Ian

[CDreamer]

Consider yourself very lucky. I had PAF and when in a bad episode my BP would drop to 70/30 ish and I couldn't even sit up without faintingl. At other times I could just about function with plenty of sitting down. I was very active, I exercised, swam, scuba dived, gardened, walked and sailed competively at a national level. I competed in a round the world race so incapacity didn't come easy for me and it wasn't all in my mind!

[Hidden]

Hi schipperke -- I would say that this all depends on your heart rate. If you are in AF , permanent or otherwise with a normal rate then you are very lucky . I have never had this. However , if you heart rate veers towards the 200's then however busy you might like to be it would be foolhardy to push yourself .

I was in fast AF afew years back with a resting rate in the 140's -- had a particularly busy day planned & didn't want to let people down. More importantly, to me, I didn't want to 'let on' that I was in AF as I was sure that my family was fed up with it! ( not far wrong ) . I got on with it at a slower pace. This was not a good idea -- I ended up being carted off to AE at the end of the day to spend 2 days in AMU before electrical cardioversion.

Sandra

[MarkS]

I think Yatsura has a point. I was "lucky" in that my HR in AF was below 100. I could carry on pretty much as normal - continuing to play hockey, go cycling, etc. My times for a cycle were typically one or two minutes longer over a 30 minute ride (and not hanging around). AF is supposed to reduce blood flow by about 15-20% so if you are fit then you can easily handle that. In AF my BP was low-ish so I needed to get up slowly from a prone position to allow time for the body to adjust. Once up I was OK though.

However after my ablation I also had Tachy as well as AF with HR approaching 180 for a day or so. That wiped me out. I was so relieved when it stopped. So I can understand how difficult that must be for people to handle on a regular basis.

Mark

[Therealsue]

I'm very much the same as Mark. Heart rate during AF was typically less than 100 unless I was running in which case it went as high as you would expect it to doing exercise, but with a vastly reduced pace. Like Mark I'd also feel dizzy if I got up to fast from sitting or lying and really every normal thing, like walking upstairs was more of an effort than it should have been. Thus far, since ablation last May, I've been AF free. Good luck