Shocked mentally that I have had (have) AF for 18 hours. Unsure what to do now. AF disappeared after 12 hours on 2.5 mg of Bisoprolol to my relief, with 5 mg x2 Apixaban. Could feel the irregularity in the pulse in my wrist. I am 72, quite fit , go running and did the Barcelonna 1/2 marathon 5 weeks ago and do normally about 20 miles a week in 4-5 sessions but what do I do now? , feel ok, been on tablets for 2 days now, resting heatbeat back to about 54 and rises with light exercise to 70 but what can I safely do?.
Does anyone have simular experience, any help would be appreciated
Written by
rjones
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As I am sure that you already know. endurance athletes are prime candidates for AF. Everything in moderation. Exercise is good but maybe not that much. The anticoagulant (Apixaban) is good news to protect you from stroke and realistically the length of time you may be in AF is not important as many people are in permanent AF.
AF is not usually life threatening but it is life changing so you need to think about maybe managing things a little better. The Bisoprolol will slow you down for sure.
Getting AF , its like going thro a door into a different world with a another perspective.
I did do a hour run with my heartbeat around 130 to 150 , (over exercising) then had many 5 coffees and one double expresso, in one day. All seemed OK, I just did not realise the affect it could have, then went to see Eddie the Eagle and my heart beat just never went down, ( I go skiing so could appreciate the fear, (he didnt) ) tried meditating to no avail, so I did it all wrong. Lets hope it does not come back. Thanks for your help.
Mine started with the odd attack then nothing for weeks and over a five year period it gradually got more frequent - was in AF for 21 out of every 28 days. Attacks lasted between 14 hours and 7 days. Flecainide worked well for me for about a year. Finally had a cryoablation and apart from ectopic beats I have had 2 AF attacks in a year each lasting no more than 2 hours. Only regret not getting the ablation done sooner when an opportunity arose. Prior to the AF I was fit and in rude health. Frequent gym visitor, played football competitively up to 50,cycling,skiing, jogging, etc. Now enjoy walking as dodgy hips curtailed other activities. I have an enlarged left atrium which may have started the AF enlarged due to overexercising maybe, I don't know for sure. Why am I telling you all this? Well I wasted a lot of time thinking it would go away, not believing a fit person like me could possibly get a problem like this, scaring the crap out of myself reading info from the Internet. Getting dodgy advice from cardiologists in France and here in England. My advice - get a referral to an EP ASAP and trust only them. Also read everything possible on this brilliant forum and the AF website. Then move forward and get on with your life!
Hell Mikey, Thanks for your reply, yes I was hoping it wont come back and whether to stop taking the tablets to see if it does.. but I wont, till I have seen the consultant, thanks for you help Ralph
I have found after an AF episode (they last between 8 and 18 hours for me) I feel 'vulnerable' for the next few days. By that, I mean I feel another one could start any moment. I think much of it may be in he mind. Once you get through about 3 days in NSR everything starts to feel normal again. I think all you can do is record the intervals between episodes and the length of the episodes an then take that to a GP (or EP) and get advise about what to do next.
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