I've posted on here a few times about my position in this AF journey
Ups and downs . Diltiazem has been my main drug thus far
Lower limbs swelling with this drug even at 200 slow release
Small price to pay I guess and feel reasonable other than that
I stopped the drug for a week and my legs started to return to normal
But I've had to restart the drug as my heart rate with little effort started to rise so back to swollen legs although not as bad as when I was on 300slow release
It's not good to have a fast heart rate over a long time
So for now it's the drugs
I've been on stop afib group recently and it seems that a pacemaker and Node ablation should be the last resort and also the node can restart itself sometimes
Unless I'm picking up old info
I go and see EP again on August 8 so I'll see what he suggests
I consider myself lucky I'm mostly symptom free
With Drug Tiredness ,swollen legs ,dizzy on left side now an then
Agitated and on edge
Without drugs fast heart rate with slight exertion and more tired
Written by
Hardjuice
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Hopefully your ep can suggest alternative drugs which would give you the same outcome without the side effects you mention. Good luck with your app. Be well.
Like you lucky to be almost symptom free, I take 60mg Diltiazem, and when I stop it can't tell the difference to be honest, does not really affect my HR.
But you are right, high HR is not good for you long term so you need to find a drug which will reduce the rate but not give you the side effects, and there are about 10 different beta blockers and calcium channel blockers, and it sounds like you do need (with your doctor) to find the one that suits you.
Yes generally AV node ablation and pacemake is the very last resort, no turning back from that, and of course the AF is still there, only the ventricular beat is controlled by the pacemaker.
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