I had 1st cardioversion on the 12th August, went back in to normal Sinus rhythm after one zap,
Felt really ill with chest pains and slow heart beat low 30s to 40s per minute on the 13th ended up being taken to A&E by ambulance. Doctors in A&E were surprised that I had been left on same meds after cardioversion, which are Apixaban 5mg twice a day Bisoprolol 7.5mg once a day digoxin 125 mg a day and recently been put on ramipril 1.25mg a day for poor ejection fraction of below 30%.
The A&E doctors felt my heart rate was due to the meds and has stopped the digoxin and reduced the Bisoprolol to 5mg a day.
My main question is, Is it normal to be feeling so ill, with slow heart rate still of below 50 beats per minute 4 days after the cardioversion, I had read that people start to feel better almost straight away,
What are your experience and would should my expectations be.
Written by
GJMat
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I think you will start to feel better now your med's have been sorted out. I'm not surprised you felt unwell with a HR in the low 30's !
I think if you have any further concerns you should visit A&E again. I'm sure you'll be OK but best to play it safe. It sounds like your HR is going up although below 50 is still quite low.
It may still be the meds that are making you feel poorly. It sounds like you are on the right track though, with the reduction of meds. Is your heart rate above 50 with activity? Make sure you stay in close contact with your doctor as the situation warrants. Meds are very much trial and error and maybe this is still not the best combination for you.
Hi, I have no experience with the slow heartbeat problems you had so no input to give for that,sorry.
I had my first cardioversion about 7 years ago and was on digoxin at that time. I found it a real help and got on great with it.
I was told to stop taking it three days before the cardioversion and not to take it afterwards. This was also on the advice sheet I got with the appointment letter.
There was no change to my bisoprolol. It took me a good ten days or so to feel better but I was a lot more overweight then and it could have been the anaesthetic. I gradually improved though and felt great after a couple of weeks.
My second cardioversion was last September and I felt better straight away (but felt so wretched before it that it would have been hard not to ).
No, its'not normal to be feeling so ill after a cardioversion. A cardioversion should make you feel better not worse and I've had lots so can confirm that as fact.
It sounds like your Bisoprolol may need to be reduced a little more. You could either go back to A&E right away, call the 111 NHS number who will get a doctor to call you back, or wait and talk to your GP tomorrow. Please don't feel you have to put up with suffering as you are, because you can get help and needn't feel guilty about that. We are talking about your heart here - a vital organ, not a pain in your toe.
At the bottom of your post is More you can click on it and scroll down to Edit. This allows you to change anything that you've written. I'm sure you meant to write more than just my name.
"You could either go back to A&E right away, call the 111 NHS number who will get a doctor to call you back, or wait and talk to your GP tomorrow. Please don't feel you have to put up with suffering as you are, because you can get help and needn't feel guilty about that. We are talking about your heart here - a vital organ, not a pain in your toe"
Well Matt I didn’t feel better after my cardio version. I felt like I’d been hit with a truck. I went for a little walk to my local shop and I didn’t think I was going to get back home.
I went into NSR with the cardio version but after a few weeks at my follow up appointment I had flipped back into AF.
I’m still on meds and take each day as it comes now. But it did take quite a while to get over the cardio procedure.
You are doing the only sensible thing in speaking to your doctor. The bisoprolol and digoxin were probably left to try to maintain the sinus rhythm after the cardioversion but, in your case, proved to be too powerful and brought on symptomatic bradycardia. A stepwise reduction is what your doctor is presumably now trying and, I expect, this will continue to try to allow for a more normal heart rate but still with sinus rhythm.
If I were you, I would want my ejection fraction checking again by having another echocardiogram soon to see if the ramipril is having an effect. Some people, I gather, are very sensitive to low ejection fraction. Mine never went as low as yours but I felt truly awful. I think the arrhythmia causes it in some of us and not others.
It’s taken me about 8 weeks post ablation to feel almost normal. I was never on any medication so it wasn’t due to that. I was totally and utterly exhausted all the time and I would fall asleep at the drop of a hat. My HR has actually increased, resting from 69 up to 79 bpm and anything I do raises it to between 120-140 as if I was exercising. The ablation has almost stopped my SVT, I get short bursts now as opposed to the 3-5 hrs I had before.
I am rarely rarely ill and always considered myself a strong minded person who could overcome anything but this beat me.
I had mine last year for SVT, was off the bisoprolol immediately since they fixed the problem area. However it took some days for my system to flush and my HR dropped to 50 for 2 days and has settled at 65-70 ever since. Do you need the beta blocker anymore is the question.
I had a cardioversion in january and went back into NSR. I was taken off digoxin straightaway, but stayed on bis youtu.be/vZMsnA3JiVI oprolol 10mg. My heart rate went down to 44 over the next week or two and my GP reduced the biso to 8.75mg, but I've been kept on that dose ever since . I started to feel better within a day of having the cardioversion and my stamina for activity round the house and for walking improved. My heart rate stays in the range 44 to 50s - and it seems that the medical world likes to keep heart rates down as apparently reverting to AF is then less likely.
Hope your team can sort out doses that soon get you feeling better.
First bout of afib was 48 hours then cardioversion. Took me a month to get over it.
Last year I had 5.5 weeks in afib because my useless local hospital refused to cardiovert me. I spent 20 of those days inactive in hospital and even when I was discharged I was barely able to function due to the drugs I was on. I was cardioverted and it took me about three months to feel 95% okay.
This year I had another 5.5 weeks in afib (yep, useless local hospital refused to believe I wouldn't chemically cardiovert AGAIN), but only first 8 days in hospital. Came home barely able to walk again. Had 3rd cardioversion and it took about month to feel better... at which point I was ablated...
Yes, I have read some people bounce out of the hospital and start running the next day, but I'm definitely not one of those.
I had a very similar experience. They dropped my Bisoprolol to 2.5 and then to 1.25mg because my HR and BP was so low. E.g. If I fell asleep on my back with my hands crossed on my chest I’d wake up with my arms completely numb from the elbow down.
I am now off Bisoprolol completely now and only takec1.25 of Ramipril as well as my Rivaroxaban.
I don’t know if anything else would s going on in your case but in my case I felt great wishing a few days. Hope it’s the same for you.
Hi! My cardiologist told me it would take about 4 days for the meds clear my system before the adjustment and it personally felt better after a week and felt a difference to my medication adjustment after 2 weeks. Perhaps in the next week you will start feeling better :). But we are all different... if you do feel unsure or it’s not improving rather go to A&E to be safe. All the best!
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