Currently in Franschhoek South Africa on short holiday with Friends. Personally I have been in permanent AF for many years and have for a while now been using both a Kardia device and more recently apple watch app to monitor my own AF.
During breakfast yesterday I was using the watch App to check my level and our friend, who saw me using the watch if he could try it. Of course I obliged and the result wasnt what was expected … Atrial Fibrillation with rate of 138 bpm. I have checked him a number of times since and after 24 hours the result is pretty much same. Although he says he feels fine and his Blood Pressure is ok ish I still feel I should encourage him to get some professional medical advice. Obviously dont want to be seen to unnecessarily nag and spoil his holiday but cant help but be concerned. Am I being over cautious/anxious or should I continue to encourage a visit at least to a local Doctor. Apologies for the post but any thoughts very welcome.
Written by
JJPenparc
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When I was diagnosed with paroxysmal AF in the early morning of January 2010 in deep mid winter Britain, my first symptom was, gee I feel rotten, think I'm going down with flu. At that time no cardiac symptoms at all. A few hours later I took my BP ... it checked in at around 136/80 ish .... which, at the time was normal for me, aged 65. HOWEVER, during the hours that followed my BP fell, and continued to fall till late afternoon and my ill feelings worsened I checked my BP which by then had got as low as 76/50 ish ...... I though I'd better do something. Admitted to A & E with a HR of 156 and a diagnosis of pAF and the rest is history.
Looking at a wide range of posts on this and the previous forum hosted by Yahoo over the last 14 years I have developed the view that AF is a past master of disguise and will be all things to all people. If your friend is in the age range of 55 to 65 I would kidnap him if necessary and bundle him off to a doctor at the very least.
Be interesting to know what other posts say. I might add that my diagnosis was complete and treatment started within 9/10 hours of starting to feel I was going down with flu. I was also kept in the cardiac unit for another 5 days while more tests were carried out. I still hold the view that such speedy attention to my problem has resulted in my AF being minimally invasive in my life.
My mother had undiagnosed AF with a fast rate for some years before diagnosis. She assumed it was normal to feel how she did and just carried on regardless. Unfortunately, it caught up with her eventually and she was hospitalised with heart failure resulting from years of elevated heart rate, according to the cardiologist treating her. She was also lucky not to have had a stroke in that time, too, given she was in her late 70s when finally diagnosed.
I would certainly be urging your friend to get checked out in the circumstances. I don’t wish to be over dramatic but my thought is it’s better that he’s found out about the problem this way than suffer the consequences of undetected AFib by either developing heart failure, or worse, suffering a stroke The latter has happened to others on the forum, I believe, who also had no idea they had AF beforehand. Your friend is lucky to have someone who cares enough to nag him into doing something about it!
Yes I would encourage your friend to see a Doctor as soon as possible. Many people have undiagnosed AF as they have no symptoms or their symptoms do not worry them but should still be on medication to protect against stroke.
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