After an ankle injury last August I decided at 41 it was time I retired from playing football. Something I have done from being the age of 8 and I still played Saturday and Sundays. The ankle was taking longer to heal, so after numerous warnings from my wife I decided to quit. I have always been active and knew I had to do something or I would go spare! I carried on with my cardio and weight training and things were good. I had a friend who just started up as a personal trainer / boxing coach so decided I would get the physical rush I needed from that.
It was in the October that I started getting dizzy whilst training. I put it down to a bug, so carried on. At first it was only during the boxing training, but as the weeks went on it got worse. I decided to go to my Doctor who on checking my pulse sent me for an ECG. It was there I discovered I was in AF. A trip to the specialist followed a while later and after another ECG it was determined I had persistent AF. I was placed on Warfarin and Amiodarone (200MG). The plan was to see how the drugs worked firstly and if no luck I was to have a Cardio Version (Hence the Warfarin). I went back a week later for an Echo-Cardiogram and whilst having the scan the nurse informed me I was no longer in AF. I then saw my doctor a week after that and after another ECG showed I was still out of AF he suggested I reduce my Amiodarone and took me off Warfarin. Unfortunately this was short lived, as the very next day I went back into AF. I’d had a coffee that morning and grabbed another going into a meeting. Whilst drinking the second one I came over feint and on checking my pulse I was back in AF. I called the Doc’s who suggested I increase my Amiodarone to 400MG for three days, then back to 200MG until I saw him a week later. Approx 6 days later I was back out of AF and have been now for the past 3 weeks. I’m reducing my meds (Currently on 100MG for a month) and hopefully I can stay out for a while. I think it’s a case of finding my triggers at the moment, but in the meantime I’m pretty much exercising as much as before, so I guess at this present time I am one of the lucky ones.