Greetings from the Coronary Care Unit

[Kaz747]

Last night whilst working on my emails, I felt my heart go 'bang' and it went into a fast rhythm. It stayed around 152 bpm for quite a while so I thought it was Atrial Flutter which I had in April and it was resolved with a cardioversion.

I rang the hospital, was put through to a health helpline as I wanted some advice. They called an ambulance and I was brought into the ED. In the ambulance my rate starting jumping all aound the place so they said it was AFib (which I haven't been hospitalised for previously). ED doctor rang my Specialist who said to admit me and he'd see me in the morning. I was given extra meds and told if that didn't fix things he'd do a cardioversion in the morning. Thankfully in back in sinus rhythm and my HR is 63.

I'm grateful that I have awesome doctors, private health insurance and world class medical services close to home.

Will see what my specialist says when he arrives.

[Kaz747]

Update: heading home soon and being booked in for ablation in about 6 weeks. My cardiologist says it's an aggressive arrhythmia which keeps breaking through the meds but he's hopeful of a good outcome following the procedure.

[Vandalbragg]

How old are you and what meds are you on?

[Kaz747 in reply to Vandalbragg]

I'm 54. I'm on Sotolol which has just been upped to 120mg twice a day and have just been prescribed Rivaroxaban for blood thinning (I was only diagnosed last week with AFib).

[Vandalbragg in reply to Kaz747]

Oh wow. Sorry you had a rough one. As the Grateful Dead once said “I will get by.” We will!

[Hidden]

Sounds like you have a plan Kaz.....fingers crossed for a good outcome, please let us know how you get on. If it’s appropriate, it might be worth looking at lifestyle issues as they can have an enormous impact on AF. Best of luck.......

[Kaz747 in reply to Hidden]

Yes, I've already given up coffee and alcohol, we have a pretty good diet and I go to the gym and pool. I have been under a lot of stress over the past two years (including major ankle surgery and rehab, caring for my mother with dementia who broke her shoulder and spent 3 months in hospital, rennovating a house and changing jobs). My discussion with my cardiologist today focussed on taking time out from work for a while and trying to de-stress as much as possible.

[KMRobbo]

Good luck on your ablation , I had mine end of January for AF and end February for flutter and neither has occurred since. I have been off some drugs for 2 months and all drugs for over a month. With hindsight I would have had an ablation sooner but when I was on a light non intrusive drugs routine it did not seem necessary. Unfortunately it got worse and less controllable over a short period, which I did not see coming.