Pill in The Pocket

[Locksy1]

I am 53 and have had AF for about 12 years, I have had two ablations one cryo and one RF. I generally consider my condition an embugerance to quote Terry Pratchett. When I am well everything is fine I walk, play 5 a side etc. When I have an incident I take 200mg of Flecaide and take it easy for a few hours until things return to normal. I seem to go through phases. I can go weeks or sometimes months without any problems then loads come at once. The strangest things seem to set it off but there is no absolute cause and affect link. Too much caffeine, from coffee or tea or coke. Too much sweet food, a too hot bath, holding on to go for a pee for too long sets it off when i finally relieve myself? I struggle with my weight I am 6'1" 17st,10llb recently i have been gaining weight again during lockdown when I was losing weight down to 16st the AF incidents were much reduced. I do not take any regular medication, I am considered a very low stroke risk. Some incidents appear worse than others. When my heart returns to normal after taking flecanide I can be right as rain or feel like I have done ten rounds with Mike Tyson!! There appears to be no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes after an incident I can feel very very low, so sad in fact that i can be very tearful, this depression leads to me comfort eating and the spiral of weight gain and more AF continues. I find losing weight very hard, the Cambridge diet works very well for me but its too expensive when I am not working due to covid. I have considered another final go at ablation but decided I will wait until I have lost 3st. If at 15 Stone i am still getting lots of episodes I'll go for a 3rd and final ablation. My reasoning is that losing weight has proved as effective as ablation according to my elctro cardiologist plus the ablation techniques are improving all of the time so hopefully the longer I leave it the greater the chance of success. In the mean time I will continue with my pill in the pocket regime taking 200Mg when I need to and try and lose the weight. I don't have any questions but just thought i would share my story.

[Rubymurray25]

May I just ask if you have or have ever been tested for Sleep Apnea? When I joined this site I posted my symptoms and a member suggested I should get checked for SA, something I had never heard of, and indeed once checked I did have severe SA and it was addressed accordingly. When i discussed it with my cardiologist he was really surprised I had never been checked in my 6 years or so of AF and was a firm believer SA triggers AF.