Well guys and gals, its been a lovely sunny day down 'ere in the far reaches of Cornwall and my heart chucks a wobbly.
We have had to have our much loved cat, a Torty of indeterminate age, but at least 20/21, put to sleep on Thursday ( she was a rescue cat). I have to confess to being gutted and very affected by her loss. Sleepless nights have followed.
Today felt v unwell, got the kit out - heart rate 44 bpm, BP shot up but has been higher. Felt totally crap .... HR stayed between 44 and 58 until 4 pm. Now back to normal which for me is 65 bpm, although the ideal is 72 for me. Haven't felt so crap for ages. Now feel brilliant, once again!
Stress coupled with emotions that are let loose are clearly the cause of this issue, and this supports what a great many of us feel about triggering AF. Mercifully did not lurch into AF.
Stay well y'all.
John
40 Replies
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I’m so sorry to hear about your loss, what a great age she was. I’m sure she had a happy and contented life with you and also gave you great pleasure.
Oh John, I think that could have well been enough to send me into an episode. When we had to have our elderly cat put to sleep I was there and felt like an executioner - it's no exaggeration to say I was traumatised. So understand the sleepless nights.
Pleased to hear your heart behaved (sort of), always good news. Best wishes.
Irene, that describes it exactly ....an executioner! Even though the dear cat was quite ready to go ( having multiple feline medical conditions). I think that in using the word trauma also describes the family of 'stuff ' we talk of like, trauma, emotions, stress, even anger and frustration all of which manifest themselves differently in all of us and can trip us into AF.
Mercifully this time I didn't go there. Thinking about it, stress/trauma and food/diet are most likely to kick my heart rate either too low or too high. My last AF event though hit when I 'd been sleeping on my left side.
Thank you Jalia, our poor little old lady was ready to go and was a release for her. The one thing I think of is putting her life into perspective. I mean, when she was a newly born kitten I was 54/55 years old and living in Northern Sydney with no thought of returning to Britain. Just think in terms of ones own life, national and international events, and throughout all these years our TP was growing and having her own life experiences (if you see what I mean) and then as a rescue cat she chose us. I hope your two have a wonderful life.
I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend, John. It’s a terrible burden to bear - even without AF the stress is awful. I’m glad you feel a bit better and that AF is lying low. Take care.
Thanks Finvola. Must say my chest now feels nice 'n light and free - now - certainly heaps better than say, 6 hours ago. For me, it seems a pattern, when my heart plays up and then settles down it is this light and free feeling that tells me I am fine. Weird.
I'm very sorry, still remember having our Hector put down 😭 💔
Sorry to hear your news John, many of us have been there and know how you feel. One things for sure, Torty will be so pleased to know you are back on track.....
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Hiya FlapJack,
Many thanks for your kind words. Yes getting back on track now, she has left a big void around the house, but also an unforgettable one.
How lovely Bob. We lost our chihuahua and our Siamese in the last two years both 18 yea old and the house is horrible without a pet. The problem is we are 80 and wonder if we are too old to rescue even an oldder cat/dog. What do you think?
Where we live ,there are several Borrow my Doggy businesses where you look after a dog owned by someone else during the day when they work. Not such a commitment. Might be worth a look?
Yes, we are having TP cremated too whereupon she will be returned to us. Don't think Chrissy wants another pet at least not yet but in time I think we'll get another rescue cat, probably an older one. Meanwhile it gives us a bit of an opportunity to travel around Britain while we are still able to. Its something we haven't done as part of her multiple feline medical issues were hyperthyroidism and she was in her second round of remission from feline diabetes and although we had a cat whisperer it wasn't fair to leave TP with her for more than a couple of days at a time.
So sorry you have had to say goodbye to your little friend John, I think the feelings that we experience after the loss of a much loved pet can be greatly underestimated.
Thank you very much for your very kind thoughts. Yes, they do have a way of entering our lives and our hearts ( even AF hearts). She always knew when one or the other of us were unwell and in the few days after I had knee replacement surgery she always came onto the bed and tucked herself down between the side of my neck and my shoulder .... and purred till we both went to sleep.
She was an extraordinary Torty. Even now her legacy is for me to kick my ass into gear and get these times of low heart rate checked out. Actually, all my medication, including Bisoprolol has never been reviewed in over 10 years, except Warfarin of course.
TP and her life with us as a rescue cat ( aTorty) was an experience in itself. She sort of chose us, saw a couple of suckers :-), but you are right, even after 10 years with AF I am still learning about AF and she has left me with another lesson - emotions and how they impact on the heart and its well being. Certainly the last 36 hours have been a bit OTT !
There is no doubt John that stress and grief can affect how your heart feels.
So sad that your cat has died, the emotional effect on your heart will undoubtedly make you feel physically unwell. The term broken hearted has been around since Elvis was a lad. This is particularly relevant to us AF sufferers who are so aware of our hearts.
Since my AF has ceased to be such a regular occurrence I am however acutely aware of my heart whenever I am upset, under stress or whenever I do anything even slightly physical. even just having a demonstrative conversation can make me feel awful.
Added to this awareness I get acute nausea and my ever present Tinnitus is raised to maximum volume at these times.
I am often found saying “maybe I should adopt a totally sedentary existence” as these symptoms can really be debilitating.
I am still not ready for that but there are times when I am sorely tempted.
I hope you can find a way to put this very sad occurrence to the back of your mind and you just are able to treasure the memories.
Thanks very much for taking the trouble to comment. Must say stress/trauma/grief in the context of AF is a new one to me - yep, food and diet are my more usual bedfellows. But there again this loss has hit me very hard and I am just stunned at the behaviour of my heart especially the HR dropping so low and hovering so low for so long ( well a long time for me anyway).
However, I have to sit back and admit that this is probably a little wake up call as I have to admit that regardless of food and/or stress, my HR is tending to trend lower and lower and now that I am more mindful of this I am thinking a little heart to heart chat with my GP is now called for, particularly as my portable handheld ECG device is also increasingly show "suspect irregular beat"
Maybe a little over 10 years on 5mg Bisoprolol daily is something that needs to be visited.
I used to be on Bisoprolol but only 1.25mg per day.
Even at that dose my EP instructed me to stop taking it as it was seriously affecting my heart rate. I still run at 40 - 50bpm when resting. I also feel awful on waking and it can take me up to an hour to get my metabolism running.
All that said I have just returned from a 6km walk and I think that gentle exercise can help enormously in body and mind.
Yeah Pete, I'm at last thinking this is the road to walk along. Must organise a similar visit with my GP ... always a pleasure, she is late 30's, crackin' looker, sense of humour. I enter her room usually with a 'g'day mate, 'ow yer going' in my best Aussie accent and she relaxes then rolls her eyes - she never knows what I'm gonna come out with this time. We usually only meet two or three times a year, and one of them is for my mandatory DVLA bus drivers medical.
Stress is the worst AF trigger for so many of us. I was dreadfully traumatised by the death of my tabby cat, Kiri, and could never replace her.
There is one thing that you can do which will give comfort. Plant a tree in her memory. It will be a comfort to see your Torty Tree growing year by year.
Thank you for that jennydog. What a totally brilliant idea.
So sorry , saying goodbye to our fur family is so hard. What a great life you gave her, treasure those happy memories 🐾💕🐾💕 I’m sure they wait for us over the 🌈 bridge
I’m interested that you said HR went down to 44, ..... mine does same , on a regular basis , leaves me so tired. bHad a recent 3 day monitor, but have not had results yet.
May I ask, as I usually sleep on Left side, could someone tell me the significance ? Can it affect heart rhythms?
Thank you for your kind words. HR dropping to 44 has been the lowest yet that I've recorded. It certainly doesn't happen on a regular basis, BUT, as I have said to others over time the trend of my HR is to get lower and lower regardless of whether I am experiencing a food issue or stress.
So, I guess the thing is so long as I can recognise the problem when it hits then I can take action to look after myself.
Since April 2015 I have only had one AF event, that came about in the early hours of 15 February 2018 when sleeping on my left side.
It has never returned when sleeping on my left side, or indeed it simply has just never happened since.
My AF seems to be vagal ( vagus) nerve in origin and so food ( and now stress /trauma/grief) plays a big part. I can only guess ( not very medical/scientific I know) that something happened to the digestive system that night following my main meal of the day which inflamed or in some way stirred up the VN when I was sleeping on my left side. Just don't know, and I don't think medical researchers know either. That bout of AF lasted 5 hours but my BP took another further 21 hours to return to normal.
As I understand it, on the left side our hearts are more 'squashed', whereas on the right they have more room to move, so always better to sleep on the right side if AF starting at night is a problem.
So sorry to hear about Torty,we do love our furry friends so much. It's a really upsetting and stressful time,and as they say ..' something has to give'
Hoping your sorrow eases as time goes on and heart calms down .xxx
Sorry to hear about your loss John. Our pets are such an integral part of our families. My first Atrial Flutter episode was a week after our 17 yo dog died (this was before I’d been diagnosed with AF).
Thank you very much for your thoughts. For me it was a double whammy, the loss of poor old TP on the one hand, and the big jolt I got from feeling and observing how my heart misbehaved. Obviously, the two go hand in hand - but - it has prompted me when things have settled down to get a review of my medication. It will be the first review in 10 years. not that I plan to ditch the Warfarin, but, the Bisoprolol is now creating some questions in my mind. And there are other meds too that need revisiting.
Well, onward and upward ( if only I could get my HR up in line with the phrase).
I’m so very sorry for your loss, I had similar three years ago and it took ages to get over it, even though I knew it was absolutely the right thing to do at the time I then went through an awful few months of feeling like I’d killed my dear little friend.
I take a lot of comfort from the visiting cats who come through my back garden, one of which is the absolute youthful image of my black semi long haired girl. There’s a torti of the type that’s black and orange mixed together, she looks like burnt toast so she’s “toastie cat” and a gorgeous snowshoe Siamese who wants to be our best mate and will come in the house if we leave the door open, he hangs around our (thankfully very quiet) street in all weathers for such an exotic beast.
I’d love to get an older rescue but like you want to have a few breaks but as we both get older I can see this not happening as much so will hopefully give another little black cat a Home.
Best wishes to you and hope you feel better soon..
Thank you Visiting cat ............ we don't have many cats in the area, one neighbour has a young one who adored TP and always wanted to play - the problem was TP was so old she had pretty much forgotten how to play. Another neighbour has a Bengal, but it doesn't fraternise
There again TP, even in old age was very much the Alpha Female. Perhaps, when other cats nearby realise she is no longer on patrol they may come around.
Yes she probably kept them at bay being a grand old lady, most of my new cat friends only appeared after I lost my girl.
The one I had before her had a rather disreputable looking boy friend cat who used to meet her at the garden gate, after we had to let her go he kept turning up looking for her, he made me cry a few times.
Gosh they really do hurt us when they leave us but they are so worth it : )
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