From the bottom of my heart

[Bernis]

Hello all. I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation many years ago and have sailed along quite happily with very few episodes (and always self reversing) until now. This episode however has lasted for 10 days. My beta blocker has been changed but I have not reverted back to normal. I find it frightening and exhausting and am getting conflicting messages from health care professionals. The first and foremost question is how long to leave this before dialling 999? Help!

[IanMK]

Hi Bernis

The AF Association has a very active community on HealthUnlocked. The members there will be better placed to advise you.

[Frenchi]

Hi Bernis, I would suggest you ask your GP to refer you to a Cardiologist as you need an ECG and possibly an echocardiogram. If your not under a Cardiologist I would suggest asking for a referral. You can get a quick appointment if you go Private however, there will be a charge for this and any tests. Don’t ignore if your feeling as stated the quicker your seen and so your medication/treatment can be sorted.

Good Luck.

[Blue_merchant]

The key message for all atrial fibrillation patients is the higher risk of stroke due to blood clots forming in the heart that can embolise to the brain. This higher risk applies to all atrial fibrillation - whether short bursts [paroxysmal] or persistent/permanent. Your doctors use a CHAD vasc risk calculator to assess the stroke risk. However good protection against this can be achieved by blood thinning anti-coagulation medicine. Like warfarin or the newer anti-coagulants like Apixaban/rivoroxaban. Aspirin doe NOT offer stroke prevention benefits in atrial fibrillation.

[Goldfish7]

Hi, I guess going to hospital with it depends on the symptoms. If your resting heart rate is over 100bpm, if you are feeling faint on standing, sitting, lying down indicating that your blood isn't circulating well, if you are breathless, have chest pain very low or very high blood pressure (if your attacks are like mine I appreciate that you may be unable to get a blood pressure reading or work out what your pulse is) I'm guessing you need to get to a&e or get an ambulance.

I frequently ended up in hospital as my resting pulse was generally over 160bpm and I would feel cold, faint dehydrated and dizzy even on lying down. In hospital they would rehydrate me, monitor my heart and try different drugs to get my heart back into rhythm usually beta blockers and digoxin in high doses. After seeing an EP a pill in pocket approach allowed me to do the same thing from home using high doses of flecanaide and some bisoprolol - much nicer than repeatedly ending up in a & e!!!