Hi I have only had one incidence which started in my sleep of AF so had a query - does AF come on gradually or does the heart just start to beat rapidly and erratically.
The reason I ask is that I had a quick run of fast heart beats last night (around 10) which then went away - is this AF trying to kick in?
Could be. What meds are you on if any? It could be lots of things as well . Unless you can catch it on ECG it is hard to diagnose
Prior to my so-far successful ablation, there definitely was a pattern of precursor heart beats and sensations prior to full-blown AF episode. Not sure what the actual acience says.
With me, the heart beat became irregular immediately - there was no warning other than what I called a 'digestive one'. Bloating, wind that wouldn't clear or just a strange indescribable feeling in the gut - these would all tell me that AF was probably imminent.
That was pre-ablation of course.....those symptoms now simply remind me that I probably have IBS and I should watch what I eat!
For me, I had a few occurrences that resolved in a few hours, maybe even the next day. They occurred after intensive physical activity. Then I got stung by a yellow jacket and it set me off. For 3 days I had AF and it wouldn't go away. Didn't know I had it until I went to the ER since my chest began hurting at which time I was told by the docs I had AFIB. All I knew prior to that was that my pulse was racing and wouldn't slow down. So they electro cardioverted me and I was good to go. But a few years later it came back out of nowhere. No physical stress or anything else abnormal. This time they put me on an anti-arrythmic which converted me. About 8 years later, it came back while sleeping. Back to the ER. They increased my dose and I was back to normal in minutes. Now I'm on MgO2 after learning how low my magnesium level was and doing research on line that seemed to indicate a pretty good correlation between low Mg levels and AFIB. Time will tell. I take flecanide which is a pretty tame anti-arrythmic compared to others. Its been around for a long time and works quite well for lots of folks. But like anything else everyone is different and we all react differently to the same drug. MIght not work for all. I've had nearly every test under the sun except being catherized but I did have an EBT done which showed I had a perfect calcium score eliminating the need for questioning the presence of plaque in my arteries since the presence of high levels of calcium is a pretty good indicator that a person has blockage. I have what is called "lone AFIB" which is basically bad electrical conduction between nodes with no other problems associated with my cardiovascular system.
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