Had an unexpected trip to A. and E. on Monday due to near fainting and thumping heart.Unheard of for me. After a good check upThey upped a medicine and sent me home(echo to be done in Jan) after a whole load of blood checks ECG etc.
More faints have followed since Monday together with thumping heart but none of the 'nasties' such as chest pain, breathlessness so it is,I guess, a case of wait and see. What I want to ask is.......I am finding from being a 'get and go' person(I am 82) I have felt I need to sleep a bit in the afternoon.Normal or abnormal in the light of recent events? Any advice welcome.
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10gingercats
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Normal. I'm 75 and like a power nap after lunch but then I always did even when I was working. 20 mins after my sandwich usually. AF does tend to sap energy.
Could the fact that they upped one of your medicines maybe have something to do with it. Could be the higher dose is making you sleepy. Just a wee thought.
Hmm, when I needed to sleep afternoons is was because of an underactive thyroid. Another reason was one of the coronavirus updates being on t.v. and the sun coming through my lounge window - zzzzz!
Had a complex thyroid profile for years and was discharged with no treatment from hospital. Found a good private doc. who was loathe to prescribe thyroxine due to afib .Gave me Liothyronine instaed which helped a lot and I started on thyroxine 2 years ago by another circuitus route.T3,T4 and TSH now within normal ranges so all is well in that area.
Was there not recently a suggestion you might have heart failure? And a problem with circulation in your legs? Either way you probably need the lie down and the faints are trying to tell you something so don’t fight it. If I don’t have an afternoon rest I pay for it later.
Heart failure wasn't mentioned by GP or hospital docs .Swollen legs are definitely a problem . but not most other symptoms of h.failure.A. and E. sounded positive in that they thought, or seemed to think, this was all a bit of a storm in a teacup.But not for me it isn't.
This could be my story this past week. For the first time in my PAF journey of some time I went from my usual attacks of 10 to 20 hours of misery fast heart beats and chest pain to 5 days of e ctopics, feeling rotten and only able to sit about as every time I moved it got worse. Worried about the change in symptoms, especially the chest pain on trying to walk upstairs, I eventually dialled the medics. Their diagnosis was that it was AF and that I was probably going into permanent AF rather than paroximal. They said to increase my beta blocker and this I have done. This morning it seems to have stopped thank heavens so I don't know whether their diagnosis is right or wrong. My husband and I have been self isolating since March and this,I am sure is not helping our 81 and 82 year old bodies.😯
I'd be more concerned about the fainting than the need to nap.
Your heart rate could be dropping too low or pausing, this can lead to loss of consciousness. It won't show on an ECG unless you are connected to one when it happens.
Do you have a Kardia Gingercats ? If so you could do an ECG when you feel faint and send it to your doctor. It can be a little hit and miss just having one at the hospital as your heart could be fine at the time.
Regarding sleep. I think it is very important with afib. Indeed if your body tells you to get some kip in the afternoon I think this can only be a good thing. For me personally lack of sleep can / does result in afib or a higher HR at rest.
Reinaway wrote
"Their diagnosis was that it was AF and that I was probably going into permanent AF rather than paroximal"
I can't promise anything - however you may well find being in permanent afib will not be as bad as you think. It gives your body time to adjust and the effects are not felt so much. I'm one of the lucky one's as (so far) med's are working very well. My cardio did say before I started on them that they would try a couple more treatments and if they didn't work they would leave me in permanent (with rate control etc). I actually felt a sense of relief at the time. There were two reasons
1. I know where I stand.
2. After a few months it would be unlikely I would feel many effects from it.
Rate and rhythm control would be very important of course.
Sure Gingercats. I understand such devices can make you more anxious. They sort of sit in the corner of the room and you think should I check or not. As soon as you do the anxiety level rockets.
Hope you get things sorted.
Paul
Edit - just more thing to add. As soon as I go near my ECG device my HR goes up. The second or third reading always drops by at least 5 beats (often 10) a minute. The last time I was in afib the reading was sky high with just the thought of using it. The worry of a negative reading was enough to trigger this.
Now I can't recommend doing this as the readings are not always accurate - it's what I did though. I have a Fitbit watch and I would put it on and just forget about it. An hour or so later (when totally forgotten) I would just hit the HR button when I remembered I was wearing it - instant reading without the worry. It would show my HR was normal and low which took away the stress of doing a full ECG. Knowing this relaxed me and then I could check using my full device without worrying so much.
Any AF episode leaves me needing extra sleeps for the next few days. After a bad attack, I can sleep 12-14 hours at night and also have a couple of hours in the afternoon. Hope you get it sorted, the fainting needs investigating I would think.
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