So I was diagnosed with persistent AF three weeks ago after a few days in hospital. No follow up from the hospital as yet. I am though lucky enough to have healthcare with work so have an appointment tomorrow morning. Heart rate ranging from 200 down to 40 over the last three weeks.
Any good questions to ask that I might not think of?
Thanks in advance
Click on the link below and you will see a section on the sorts of questions you should consider asking your Cardiologist.....
Hi there
I feel keeping it non technical really helps and ..really important Write down the answers you get at the time it is easy to forget
My questions To my cardiologist are like this
1. If this was happening to you what would you do and when?
2. What circumstances and timeframes should send me to A and E
3. Do I need to lose weight ( honest answer needed) and if so how much
4. Can I have a scan of my heart to check that it is otherwise healthy
Sure you will have lots more but those are my main ones
Steve
I would ask
With some of my hr readings as low as 40, am I really in persistent AFib?
If sometimes my hr goes down to 40 should I be on a rate controlling drug? That's assuming you are.
What records would you like me to keep before our next appointment? That's if you've got an Apple Watch 4 or 5 or a Kardia or some other approved way of keeping track.
Oh, I have just realised that persistent AFib is where you are in AFib all the time but can be cardioverted so that's why you are persistent.
How are you measuring your heart rate? 40 to 200 is a huge variation in AF which is generally over 100 BPM. Mine varies between 80 and 160 in AF so I’m interested to hear what your cardiologist says.
I should ask what tests he proposes doing (he’ll probably tell you without asking) and what he hopes to learn from them.
You are very lucky to have private healthcare as I fought to be referred to a cardiologist after a recent visit to A&E but when I got the booking form to book online there were no appointments available. I may be referred to the AF nurse led clinic but I’m not holding my breath.
Hi. Doc has requested an echo, ECG as well as a 48 hour ECG monitor and 24 hour BP monitor. 200mg of flecainide on top of the other tablets.
Rate is monitored at the moment by a wrist monitor but when in hospital it fluctuated between 180 and 45 so no reason to believe it’s not correct. Doc felt it was probably right.
Back to see him once the test results are in
Very lucky to have the healthcare which I am very grateful for.
As Buffafly said, how are you measuring the rate? If you are relying on some kind of wrist worn heart rate monitor, they mostly do NOT work correctly when you are in AF. Many blood pressure machines also get confused by AF.
He gave me no reason not to believe it and has matched the heart monitor when in hospital so doesn’t appear to be far out.
When I decided that I should start keeping records of my AFib I bought a wrist monitor. If I had taken it a bit more seriously I would probably have bought a Kardia. It was accurate for normal heart rates but not always for high ones. It led to me telling the doctor I was having episodes of AFib a couple of times a month.
It was only when I bought my Apple watch for its fall detect feature that I realised I was having episodes about three times a week.
However, yours might not be like mine so if it is accurate then forget I said anything. And I agree with momist, blood pressure monitors are hopeless too.
If I were you I'd buy a Kardia. Or, if you want to splash out, an Apple watch series 5. I'll never regret getting mine, it records my heart rate 24/7.
Hi physalis mine is an Apple Watch I may well invest in the kardia as well. Do you find there is a difference between the two?
I do find the charge on the watch a bit of a pain but still a good piece of kit.
We have a BP machine and I agree they rarely get it right.
Cheers
Yes, the Apple watch is 100% accurate. If you've got the watch then I don't think the Kardia would give you anything extra especially as you are having full ECGs. Mine was just paroxysmal AF and the watch recognised it if was below 120 and above 120 I knew it was AF so didn't need it to tell me. Occasionally it came up inconclusive but not very often.
For over a year I did an ECG every four hours and recorded my heart rate on a spreadsheet and I found that very helpful. Then I realised I didn't need to do that, I could just scroll down the hr pages and pick out the numbers in one go even those at night.
Brilliant thank you.
Have you suffered for long? How are you doing now?
I'm doing just fine. I had an ablation two months ago and no AFib since. Before that I was getting episodes which lasted about 24-30 hours every two or three days. Fortunately, I was more or less asymptomatic but it had been going on for a long time. The NHS has treated me very well and quickly so I am very grateful.
I only found this forum after I had had the ablation and had attacks of migraine every day for eleven days. I will probably stay as my son has ectopics, not much of a problem but that's how mine started, but one of my grandsons has PoTS Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or Vasovagal Syndrome. Four years and they still haven't got to the bottom of what is wrong with him. I think it's a bit genetic.
I heard today that the name Vagus comes from the Latin for vagrant because it wanders all over the body. Something like that, it's getting late!
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