Hello every one.. bare with me I'm typing this while having anxiety attack..
I recently had an ablation procedure done Monday of this week and I am very worried as I have super anxiety about every health issue I have whether it be a pain I feel or a sensation any way I wanna know if my dizziness which I started feeling ever since I had the ablation is normal or if I need to be worried that they messed up.. I get dizzy if I excersize or if I get up pretty fast sometimes I could be sitting down watching a movie and instantly feel off balanced now it only lasts for a few seconds at most but when it does it freaks me out that maybe it's my heart not finding the right path or something worse.. please ease my pain
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kevoreally
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Kevoreally, Breathe in slowly, breathe out slowly. Now do that about 20 more times. And make sure you spend part of each hour focused on your breathing, while relaxing.
You are healing from a big deal assault to your heart on Monday. It's not unusual to feel some weird feelings, and I think that A Fibbers, in general, are pretty focused on physical sensations, and it is so easy to overthink and worry right into anxiety. Are you on new medications since your ablation? Often they have some side effects of dizziness until you adjust. Also, maybe they are lowering your blood pressure so it would be helpful if you don't get up too quickly, and to move your legs to get the blood flowing before you stand. The blanking period, when your heart heals is a minimum of 3-6 months, and many EP's say that it lasts a full year. You are in week one. You have a long way to go, so please give yourself the gift of gentle healing, of time to get better without worrying about what may or may not happen. Take this moment, then the next hour and just be. I know I sound like a broken record, but meditation, mindfulness, and yoga will help your heart and your spirit as you heal.
I take 50 mlg of zoloft and 325mlg of aspirin it could be the aspirin but I'm not sure but I have been suffering with anxiety for 4 years and it is now health anxiety and with this surgery I feel it's 20x worse also it is agoraphobia too so I have a whole list of anxiety disorders but all at once.. any how I don't meditate since I had the procedure because idk if my heart or the ablation will have negative effects since I had the operation.. I sound so weak right now thanks for your help so far though
So your anxieties seem pretty deeply entrenched, and a big part of your life. So when you combine that with the ablation, naturally it seems much worse. Are you seeing a therapist for your anxiety because that is more effective than just taking Zoloft, that clearly doesn't seem to be helping too much. Many years ago in graduate school I took a stress management course and I remember clearly the day the professor said the simple sentence, "what you think determines how you feel". So simple, so true, and it made me so cognizant of the fact that negative thinking was not an option for me because I didn't and don't like feeling anxious or down. Try writing lists of all the positives in your life, journaling your negative thoughts to get them out of your head and then just leave them alone. You are in charge of how you think. If you change the way you think you can change the way you feel. Meanwhile, we are always here to listen, and hopefully help.
I second Grandma's reply. Stress and anxiety come from between our ears, and so do the means of settling them.
Pay attention to what's happening, including your emotions. Make notes so you can keep track.
In particular, note each emotion you feel and how long it lasts.
I'm serious!
You will find that they don't last long.
You will also find that whatever condition is bothering you, it hasn't killed you, since you're making notes about it.
In time, you'll see patterns in both your physical and emotional experiences. That information will enable you to anticipate and cope much better than when you're sitting in a dark vacuum chamber with no perspective but fear.
Meditation stabilizes the mind. Mindfulness extends the practice to daily life. Find a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program and participate. You will find some pretty amazing tools, and the biggest surprise will be that they're in the same place the anxiety comes from - between your ears.
Keoreally - you're less than a week after ablation and as well as at the issues with the heart healing, you will have had, I assume either a general anaesthetic or quite heavy sedation for several hours. These will take time to recover from. I remember feeling very 'spaced out' for several days following my ablation. My mother always said that it takes about a week for anaesthetic gases to exit your system entirely (she was a consultant anaesthetist for many years). So it's not surprising that you get dizzy when you stand up too fast. As as for exercise - my EP stressed no more than very gentle pottering for the first week post ablation and for a few weeks after that, no more than a gentle walk. Even though ablation is only a 'procedure' rather than and 'operation', it's a massive deal for us and it's perfectly normal to feel anxious and be very tuned in to what's happening with our hearts. Try not to worry.
Worrying is the biggest part of my life.. always has been I am an over thinker as well I fear that if the dizzy spell is from my heart it could be deadly I do run up and down the steps (to get to my room) I'm sure the aspirin is the cause of my dizziness but it still worries me because everything so far could be "deadly" and I won't know it and it bugs me out because I fear the unknown part of death my ablation was Monday I doubt I should be feeling anestishia not to mention it was literally an hour and half procedure at least it felt like it ( it was 5 50 when I went there and 744 when I got out and back to my room there must be a way to know what's actually causing this with out having to go back to the hospital ( tired of being stuck in a place for so long (I was in there for 4 days doing nothing I have ADHD and can't sit still) and I don't wanna go back how can I be sure to know what is the main cause of the diziness? If this went away I would worry less as I don't feel anything else wrong it's just the dizziness and since doctors said to me I shouldn't have any side effects since the ablation they said I shouldn't feel anything so it concerned me but all I could think about was leaving so I didn't tell them I felt dizzy for that main reason of freedom and because it could simply be anxiety but I don't think it is..
I would agree that your main worry is your worrying - it becomes a habit - breaking it is as hard to do as is breaking any habit but for health and sanity you need to do it.
1st week do nothing, 2nd week do a little - gradually increase your activity as your heart will take up to 3 months to heal and you may find that during that time your heart rate is higher than normal, you get breathless on exercising and the odd funny heartbeat - all normal effects.
Getting dizzy on standing can be caused by low blood pressure, I have had low blood pressure all my life and always get dizzy on standing. Nobody messed anything up because if that had done you would have had much more immediate and much more intense symptoms.
If you are having frequent symptoms that make you feel ill then you need to get them checked out by your doctor but I rather suspect you would have done that already if you really thought there was something wrong and just wanted a wee bit of reassurance?
Does aspirin cause vertigo or lightheaded feeling? Cause my heart beats normal (from what I can tell even though it's a bit heavier beat or faster which is normal) but I only get the dizziness here and there I take 325mg of aspirin I just wanna make sure I'm not gonna die from this vertigo feeling trying to sleep and I can't because I'm so anxious and I have Diarrhea which makes it even more anxious because I get dehydrated quicker and can't keep up with the water intake I'm just a mess sometimes I just wanna give up makes life easier :/ but I'm not one to give up I just can't fight this anxiety disorder and it bugs me
I looked up Zoloft and the list of side effects includes all the problems you describe! Do you have to take it? Please get in touch with a health professional asap.
I have taken zoloft before the ablation with zero problems everything I mentioned has been after the ablation also I don't have low blood sugar the dizzy affect literally lasts for 2 seconds and goes away
Since you've had the ablation the worst part is over. Now just let your body get back to normal. It will take a little while but trust me it will be fine in the end
Your not the only one who's going through it, i still feel like ive been kicked in the chest by a horse and its been nearly a month since my ablation, very short of breath, chin up though buddy, we can all deal with it together
Read through some of my earlier posts, u will see all my worrying what was very simular to your worries, you are definately not on your own, i still feel ruff as hell and its been nearly a month after my ablation
If your sugar levels are low, this could give you some of these feelings. Our bodies are so complicated and the brain is sometimes not our friend. You can tell it to buzz off; but few of us know that. As suggested by others, address the concrete things first with medical help when useful. Good luck with each step.
You seem to be trying to resume a life of normal or above normal activity before you have given your heart a chance to heal. Start up very slowly and remember it takes 3 - 6 months minimum to heal.
Please ask your employer if you can stagger your return to work as doing a full shift on your feet will be too much for just a couple of weeks out. Listen to yr body and if you feel tired or your heart rate goes up, please stop and rest. I did too much returning to work after 2 weeks and because I felt so well after several years of feeling very ill with AF, my ablation failed and I was left in a far worse state than before. I had to have a second a few months later and thankfully that worked.
There have been quite a few people reporting the same experience on this site so please learn from our mistakes.
Please consider some CBT to help with your anxiety, even if you have had some before. New experiences sometimes need more help and as someone who suffers with a generalised anxiety disorder CBT most certainly helped.I did very well until something serious came along which completely threw me. I am now getting more CBT. It is hard to accept that we need this intervention but I know that it can help, I also know that anxiety and worrying causes more problems than it solves. I do wish you well, you dealt with your anxieties to undergo the the ablation so be proud of yourself and when you are feeling better from this ,seek help.
My best wishes to you, as so many have said time is a great healer in this instance, Kath
I have done CBT biggest waist of my money.. spent big money on someone who told me everything I already knew on my anxiety including the techniques nothing she said or tried was news to me it was a waist of time and money any how I believe with out going to the hospital again that the cause of my "dizzy" feeling which isn't even really dizziness it's more like blood rushing through my body super fast which causes a slight dizzy or light headed effect for literally Milla seconds nothing where I black out or feel like I will fall so I'm pretty sure it's the aspirin doing this other than that I feel great nothing to complain about besides boredom and anxiety here and there
Kevoreally I have never heard of aspirin causing dizziness but I am not a medic so if you are concerned you must go see your doctor and ask advice. Why are you taking that much aspirin anyway?
It's not a dizziness it's more of like the feeling you get when you stand up really quick you get the blood rush effect and it creates a dizzy like feeling maybe vertigo is the closest thing to how I feel but it's nothing threatening or so it feels like nothing harmful but my nurse told me it's to make sure I don't have blood clots idk why it has to be 325mg though but it is and only for a month
Aspirin is no longer recommended to stop clotting in AF patients as it is an anti-platelet not an anticoagulant. Asprin is used in people who have had things like stents inserted and after a stroke or heart attack.
Aspirin does not prevent clotting it prevents platelets clumping - different processes. Most AF patients would take an anticoagulant such as Wafarin or a newer alternative type of drug called a NOAC - novel oral anticoagulant to prevent clotting.
Maybe query why you are prescribed aspirin in the first place with your doctor - preferably an Electrophysiologist who are the experts - not your nurse!
What you describe still sounds like low BP to me but I stress we are not medics here so cannot give you a diagnosis.
I was told by my Electro guy who told my nurse to prescribe me aspirin to prevent blood clotting if the thing you said was true then these people are out of date haha I'll call tomorrow they aren't open weekends (the office)
Look at the AFA site which is the UK AF site for confirmation, link from here with leaflets to download so go armed with hard data otherwise my experience is you will be poo pooed and told they know better, they don't always.
If in US - there is an equivalent organization so check their recommendations but my understanding this is also common practice in the US.
I just checked for my own interest and the fact sheet on asprin on the AFA US site does say asprin is used in the US in low risk patients AF - that is with no other risk factors such as high BP or other diseases or old age - whereas advice in the UK is that it should not be used so looks like there is some controversy about that.
CBT doesn't work for everyone, over thinkers tend to do better with meditation in my experience - but this needs practice.
Rsearch shows that it is the relationship between the therapist and client not the protocol which is the difference between what does and doesn't help, although some people do find that it can be very helpful. My experience as a retired therapist is that CBT is also a short term therapy with short term results.
There are lots of practices and therapies for anxiety which can be successful you just have to find the one that word for you. CBT particularly helps to challenge your thought processes whereas something like meditation or mindfulness is a much more wholistic and longer lasting practice which is good for improving your physical as wellness as well as mind.
Mayo clinic Loads of info for AFibbers and renowned as the best cardiac clinic in the US, I don't see aspirin listed as a recommended Anticoagulation for AF?
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