Afib and anxiety questions.

[craigcarda]

Hi I'm a 37 year old male from the US. I had a aortic dissection 2 years ago and soon after diagnosed with afib. I recovered well in 4 months back to work then i had a afib episode and it put me out for a couple weeks. Then i changed medicine from metatropol to bystolic while being on lisinprol this time i almost went 6 months with no episode! Then hospital visit and bed ridden for a couple days. This time i felt better for almost 8 months, i weened myself down to 5mg of lisinprol and bystolic and felt better! Bp at 130/67. Felt human! Well another attack hit, this time im going on 7 days with not much improvement and started taking my full doses of 10mg of each. Im extremely restless but tired, i can hardly walk its not like being dizzy. Its more off balance and feeling like i might fall. But this could be anxiety or my medication. Bp is still ok at 138/61. Just curious if anyone else experienced this and what they did! Thanks!

[BobD Volunteer]

Being a UK based organisation not many of us up at this ungoldly hour so may have to wait for other answers. The symptoms you describe are common to beta blockers which i assume your drugs are. (Different names in different countries.)

AF is about finding the right treatment and you obviously haven't yet. Go to AF Associaation main website and read all you can and then talk to your doctors again. Sorry got to dash -- off to a race meeting right now.

[Spoiler]

It is difficult to slow down when I am back in NSR, but then if I go at full active speed ahead, which is my normal lifestyle. I have gotten to where I walk on eggshells. Bam, here we go again in persistent afib requiring a cardio version and ER. I absolutely must cut back on work and get more sleep. I have always been a 6 hour or so max sleeper. I think mine is all a combination of a life time of high paced stressful lifestyle, because I have never done the caffeine, alcohol, or other trigger factors. It sounds like your job is high energy and possibly long hours like mine. I have cut back hours and duties in at least 3 phases, but this afib is a devil to deal with. I am currently babying myself as I have had 2 cardio versions, one on Aug 20, another on Aug 31. Pure dread for my follow up visit to EP on Sept 26th. Fatique after afib for 2-3 days, absolutely! You are young, take it easy on the blood pressure, that is a absolute must to control.....

[Ktomoph_]

Hi Craig

I have now had time to read your posts and it certainly sounds like you have had some scary moments which are having a knock on effect in raising your already high anxiety levels.

After reading the above post I checked out the Brit name of your medication and realise that I am also taking the bystolic (which is nebivolol here) along with my other meds.

You wrote that you 'weened yourself down to 5mg' of the drugs prescribed - can I ask whether this was advised by your cardio team/GP or whether you decided to change it yourself?

The reason I ask is that after a good lifetime and lifestyle, whereby I avoided taking any medication unless absolutely the only answer - because I was either lucky enough not to need it or chose natural remedies such as wearing magnetic anklets for rheumatic pain, tiger balm for headache etc - I do question the cardiologist about every drug I am prescribed. I question what it is for, what strength it is and if I need less, and what will happen if I choose not to take it.

The cardiology team do now recognise that I am capable of understanding a reasonable explanation, and for the majority of the time, a very technical and medical explanation. They no longer just say 'its good for your heart!' Information is crucial. Of course, google plays a big part in how we can truly understand the technicalities of it all.

I suffered, and still do occasionally, 'pre syncope' episodes. After explaining what was happening and what I was doing at the time, I was told it was known as pre syncope - basically that feeling of about to faint. The difficulty of defining what was causing it related to both my condition and medication. Low blood pressure can cause it, as can my heart failure where the heart doesn't pump the blood so well anymore, and the leaking valve. Unfortunately, most of the medication I am on for keeping the heart going also has the properties that lower the blood pressure, and with low blood pressure anyway, it profanely does cause the pre syncope episodes. We are currently trying a much lower dose of one of the drugs - Losartan - to see if that stops the pre syncope.

However, I definitely would not alter the dose of any of my drugs without the go ahead from cardiologist. I wouldn't even have trust in my GP if he wanted to alter my medication!

Craig, I hope you find peace of mind somewhere along the line - and sooner rather than later - as the stress is not good for you. It also sounds like you are working your heart too hard for someone who has been diagnosed with Afib now. Trust what your symptoms are telling you.

take care.