I suppose it had to happen! Three years and two months free of AF after my cardioversion.....and bang....I woke up last Sunday with my ticker dancing a very fast version of the light fantastic! Off to A&E and fast tracked through a packed waiting area to be looked after with amazingly close and interested attention. Overnight stay and sent home, slowed down, to look forward to another CV.
Two things struck me. How easy it is to be lulled into thinking I was free of this annoying condition - and second, what amazing treatment and attention I received through our NHS. Not the same with all hospital trusts possibly; but I can only hope we are all treated this way when needed.
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Dadog
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Hi Dadog! Thought we hadn't heard from you for quite a while. Not what you expect to happen after all that time.
I have been in similar situation ..4+ years AF free and thinking that was the end of AF and then waking up to the old familiar feeling ! Have you been taking any anti arrhythmic drugs since your last DCCV?
Glad you were seen promptly . I have also had excellent treatment from my local hospital when presenting with AF.
Yes, still here, Sandra - and reading most of the forum every day. I'll always remember how useful and reassuring the posts were in my early AF days. I guess it can be easy to become complacent when things are going well - and all of a sudden brought down to earth!
I am only given Bisoprolol (which I was told in hospital, was a rate controlling drug as well as a rhythm controller). Rivaroxaban for anticoag. I've been told to go back to 5Mg of Bisop now and after the CV.
That is a great time line tween events. I have never gone longer than 18 months before an event and then they started happening in shorter succession. *Why I had the ablation. Hoping to beat the 18 months event free.
Hope that does it for you, Rider. Ablation was considered today when I met the Cardiac guys. General concencus was that as CV had worked so well on the last two occasions, we would try it again.
At my age, a CV every 3 years would see me out nicely! 😃
Lovely to hear from you again Dadog. What a shame it had to be about AF coming back!Hope you get your cardioversion quickly and are soon back in sinus rhythm.
Thanks Jean. I haven't really gone away...always here in spirit, if not posting too much! After all, if I remember rightly, you and I are the founder members of the CVC (Cardioversion Club)!!
I'm intrigued by your enthusiasm for your A&E department, just what did they do, other than be interested, and monitor your heart? I'm only asking because my only experience so far with A&E and AF was a little disheartening, and my experiences when visiting them for other things or in the company of others has been generally less than what was hoped for. And yes, where is it?
Glad you had such a long time without trouble, and I hope it works for you again!
I've scibbled a wordy account of what went on at my hospital for all to read. I think it is more about how things are done . There is primarily the arrest of what's going on and then to try to find out why it's happening. I think in many hospitals the latter doesn't go very far. My hospital were noticeably intent on checking everything and looking for information that might lead to something positive on the causes.
I had a brilliant time with my A & E, thanks to them my AF was diagnosed and treatment started in 9 hours from original, first onset. That time I believe was critical to getting on top of this beastie. I attended East Surrey Hospital at Reigate. Brilliant, they kept me in for 6 days and did all imaginable tests before releasing me back to the care of my GP, condition identified, treatment ( medication started) and two weeks later an appointment was made for cardioversion.
Thanks for all your responses, everybody! There seems to be a general interest in the expected standard of hospital treatment we should receive- but I'm never quite sure what that is. I'm looked after by the Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals Trust in Surrey, who IMO try very hard in all departments. My recent A&E experience went something like this.....no waiting and went straight to a small office where a doctor asked questions, took BP readings, filled in a form and sent us to the main waiting area. (I think he was there to filter out those who didn't need A&E). Whatever he checked was apparently sent electronically to the main Triage office.
We then went through to the main waiting area which was packed. called out within 2 or 3 minutes and checked out - blood taken, ECG done, history checked and cannula fitted. Immediately sat in a wheel chair and taken straight to main hospital Resus unit, on a bed and fully wired up for monitoring.
I know this is pretty much your experience, momist; but for me it all happened so fast, with so much grace, interest and good humour. The main interest thereon, was to slow heart rate down and then find out why it happened. They were notably interested in causes. They finally got me slowed down but couldn't find any one reason - found me a comfortable bed with a deep mattress (the trolley was hard!) and left me wired up in Resus and on an increasing Bisoprolol dose. They were very busy, ambulances arriving and trolleys wheeled in and out yet I was still checked every 10 minutes or so; and brought water, tea and a sandwich as required!
St. Peter's are restructuring their A&E and seem to have split it into children's, serious trauma and what might be called normal. I guess broken arms and sprains might still hang around (the current wait was signed as 2 hours that day) - but where there's a need there's a fast reaction. We are told here quite rightly, by Bob, often enough, that AF in itself, won't kill us but I got the feeling that in my case they were going to make sure there was nothing else going on that might! I was kept in that night just in case! Reassuring. Can't really ask for more.
Again, thanks for your interest all.
David
Hi there Dadog,
Sorry to hear about that ........... how crap is that !
Understand how you feel, same thing happened to me about 6 weeks ago. Nearly 3 years free of AF ...... then WHAM! woke up in the early hours of the morning with my heart thumping and banging away like it was trying to clamber out of my chest.
I had been sleeping on my left side !
In the past my AF has been triggered by food, never by posture, but I am aware that many on here (jeanjeanie I think from memory) trip into AF while sleeping on their left side.
My session lasted for some 5 hours, but my heart rate took another 20 hours or so to drop back to its normal 62 - 65 bpm. During those 5 hours my heart rate maxed out at 149 bpm.
I captured this activity on my handheld ECG device which recorded some amazingly chaotic activity. As if I needed any confirmation of what was going on I strapped myself up to my BP monitor which records an AF event and there ....... bingo ...... it recorded AF.
I have never in the 3 years that I'd been AF free ever believed that I was cured, particularly as I have never had a cardioversion ( I attended for cardioversion but by the time it was organised I'd returned to NSR on my own ) or ablation. I have, however, always believed that a combination of medication and diet has enabled me to manage the condition. So now I know ........ AF , regardless - is about as trustworthy as a politician ( any politician).
Handy to note your remarks about St. Peters ....... another string to my bow. I'm an ex Surrey boy and although now in Cornwall still get back to Surrey for family events and thats worth remembering ........just in case
Well . . . I hesitate to actively criticise the people at the A&E I went to at my first AF. I didn't know what it was, and the ambulance paramedics told me what they thought it was, but are not really allowed to diagnose, and were brilliant at reassuring me and getting me into the hospital. From there though, it went downhill. I was left on a trolley in the corridor for about 25 minutes, and when a bed could not be found they put the trolley into a private room opposite the nurses station and hooked up to a full ECG. From there I could see the monitor screens of about 6 patients, and eventually picked out which one was mine. They left me on the trolley, keeping on checking the screens whenever they passed, and I had a nursing assistant taking my blood pressure at 30 minute intervals and checking I was still alive. She brought me a cup of tea and a blanket after about 3 hours. Meanwhile, a nurse came to insert a cannula, to enable easy taking of bloods for tests, and also I suppose to allow a quick route for drugs if needed. As the needle went in, I reverted spontaneously to NSR. That was 2 am. I stayed on that trolley all night and was seen by a doctor at about 8 am who explained what AF is, gave me an aspirin (!?), and said he would arrange a referral to the Cardio unit. My wife collected me at 10 am to take me home.
I got a referral for myself two weeks later, via my GP, and after that eventually after a second go with AF, managed to get my GP to give me a referral to a different heart unit in a different hospital, and saw an EP. I'm now on a waiting list for ablation. I never got that referral from A&E, my EP has not been able to get any record of the ECG from the A&E or from the ambulance portable equipment.
A&E have a lot on their plates, and they don't necessarily have much knowledge or experience of AF. I don't blame the people there, I blame the 'system'.
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