New diagnosis.

[Dobroman]

Hello folks. I’m a 67 year old man, a few weeks ago in the course of treatment on my spine, very successful, arrhythmia was detected, I was afterwards hooked up to an ecg machine, the low heartbeat alarm for less than 60 bpm kept going off. The staff nurse who took four scans put the fear of God into me, I should be seeing my GP that day, not the next. Then the consultant said that it wasn’t quite that urgent, I should at least make contact, my bp was on the low side of normal, sats fine and I’d never had any symptoms, but I ought to be on anticoagulant medication.

I was sore after the procedure, lots of needles, so left it until the next day, I couldn’t face the battle with a receptionist. Pain management consultant had promised to send the scans and a summary of her findings, that got lost for a while, half way through a conversation with a GP the documents turned up. The GP wanted her own ecg done and a blood test when I’d been takings apixaban for two weeks.

In the meantime, my GP practice has been taken over entirely by COVID vaccination, nothing else is happening, so I’m left rather in limbo.

I’m trying to get a bit fitter, my back and lockdown have made me very sedentary, I’m using an exercise bike and cross trainer. I’m very grateful for the AF information online.

Does anyone else have experience of AF and no symptoms?

[BobD Volunteer]

Many people are asymptomatic and in permanent AF. You are lucky that yours was discovered as far too many people only find out they have AF when they have the stroke. The apixaban deals with your stroke risk thankfully.

There are some usefull links for education about AF under pinned posts on the right of the screen.

Ask us any questions and somebody wil be able to answer.

[Ianc2]

Hi DobromanI have afib and it is generally not usually a problem unless I try and push it too hard . I am 75 and my fitbit tells me my resting heart rate is consistently at about 52. I usually walk between 8-10,000 steps every day and have half an hour on my rowing machine. twice a week. If need be AF can be fixed by a straightforward ablation as against Afib which involves more complex activity. As you get fitter you will probably notice it even less which reinforces Bob's comments.

[Ppiman]

I believe the risks from fibrillation are twofold. Firstly, the arrhythmia itself can lead to tiny clots (“microthrombi”) forming in the left atrium, creating the risk of a stroke. This risk is largely removed by using anticoagulant medicines. Secondly, tachycardia can be more common in some individuals (i.e. a persistent heart rate over 100bpm) and thus can weaken the heart muscle and heart valves.

Steve

[Decaf_Andy]

I got diagnosed last summer. I'm aware of my heart beat much of the time anyway and so I first noticed it was sometimes irregular 3-4 years ago. One the few occasions AF starts when I'm exercising I can carry on but I've measured about a 20% reduction in power output (so in AF I can cycle with my wife, but not my mates!) I'm fit so AF stops me from doing nothing really. Most weeks I get it for several hours several times; can't find a trigger although being relaxed in evening or going to bed can trigger it. Sleeping is not so easy with all that thumping, but in general I just ignore it. No medication and no plans to ablate or anything. I'll have to go on anticoagulants when I'm 65 (I'm 58).

I'd be interested to hear from other mildly-afflicted sufferers as it would be good to try to track down triggers and techniques for getting back into sinus. So far I've some success if I go into AF out cycling by getting my heartbeat up (in AF) and then stopping for 5 minutes to allow it to go back to rest. When I start again, so far, it has always gone back to sinus.

[KMRobbo in reply to Decaf_Andy]

For the first 20 months of my Afib I used to go running if I got afib 7 to 10 mins and my HR reduced about 30 bpm and I assume NSR . when I stopped running I was in NSR. Unfortunately this stopped working about my 12th or 13th attack.

[marcyh]

I would suggest getting copies of all your tests and reports. These are a helpful record and sometimes raise questions. Good for follow-up.