Living With AFib and new to me Anxiety

[CA67]

In October 24 I collapsed in a hotel room and was rushed to the hospital. After 5 days in the hospital I was told by a cardiologist I had AFib, no signs of heart attack or stroke.

I recently had cardiac pulse ablation surgery. Post surgery physical all is going well. I’m currently in the blanking period.

However mentally I’m having challenges.

After I got off Beta Blockers, which I didn’t respond well too and now only on blood thinners, my state of mind and daily movement is better.

What I’m struggling with is lack of sleep. I can go to bed easily around 10pm, but every night around 2am I wake up in a panic, sweat, shaking and can’t control it. I breathe, meditate, count etc and nothing helps. I lay in bed spinning for 4-5 hrs. This makes my BMP go up and I’m afraid I’ll stroke. My cardiologist has said I won’t be you never know.

No sleep = anxiety for me.

After laying there 4-5 hrs I wake up get ready for work, but really non functional until about noon.

I’ve started seeing a therapist and I’m hopeful this will work and provide me tools.

I travel a lot with work and right now extremely nervous to fly, so dealing with this too.

I’m almost finding that I’ve become more of a homebody since I’m tired and have no energy.

I’m reaching out to the community to see if anyone has any suggestions?

thank you in advance.

[Stilltrying2]

Hello and welcome

I am sorry for what you are going through. It sounds like, your health is improving and you have taken the step of getting a therapist, which is a major step towards healing. I hope that reaching out here will help too. I have found most of the members of this community to be kind and encouraging. Personally I have had sleep issues for years. I have found that when I get my sleep under control, it helps with the anxiety. I like to listen to positive messaging of some sort while I sleep. It helps calm me when I wake up in the middle of the night. I try to concentrate on the positive messaging rather than the racing thoughts in my head. It helps me most of the time. It may help you. I know that what works for one may not work for another, but it might be worth a try. Every little victory counts, and you have already taken steps in the right direction.