Hello everyone. My husband is 44 and recently diagnosed with afib. Its happening all the time 3 ecgs and in afib constantly all the time. He only knew because he started having symptoms. Episodes of chest pain and breathlessness when we are told his heart rate too fast. Now on Bisoprolol. Bloods are ok, cholesterol fine, no thyroid issues and blood pressure good. Chest xray ok. Since diagnosis of afib symptoms getting worse he is so tired, like I have never seen him, really breathless on small excersion. Thankfully they seem to be seeing him pretty quick next week for echocardiogram and two days later for cardiology.
Just wondered if anyone been in similiar position ? And what comes next. Really worried and he is too after really scary episodes and no apparent cause yet.
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Seaside1005
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I’m no expert on AFib Seaside1005 but a recent episode of it made me very light headed so was in hospital for a couple of days resulting in my meds being slightly tweaked so stop the light headedness. I go back for an appt soon re the AFIB which AFAIK could result in me having tablets to help stop occurrence, an ablation op on damaged parts of heart or an electrical device inserted to hopefully stop or rectify if happens. I only have about 3-4 episodes a year so not in same category as your husband so there may be other options open to him + I think some people live with perpetual AFIB - guess it all depends on how it effects them. Good luck to him.
Thank you so much for the reply, there was talk of sending him to hospital to giving him a shock to see if that would put things right to start with but as they seemed to believe it had been over 48 hours with the afib they didnt in the end. I really hope something can be done to help as it will be so hard for him to be like this for the rest of his life.
I was diagnosed with Afib in March 2021 (41 at the time). I was struggling to run like I used to which put me off running when every run was a “bad one”. Thought it was me just getting older and losing my mojo. It was ok led up by a GP on a routine visit and confirmed with ECG’s. It seem I was mostly in a constant state so was also put on Bisoophrosal (so?) and blood thinners. I had a cardio version in June of that year which has a high success rate. They stop and start your heart and this puts it back into regular rhythm. I felt amazing for 4 days before it reverted back. Since then I’ve had more invasive treatments which again have high success rates called ablations - again these have failed to work but have helped reduce the frequency.
Mine is stated to be quite aggressive so your husband will have a higher chance of these all working.
I would ask about blood thinners at your next appointment and from what I know, the beta blockers he is taking (same as me) makes you fatigued. It’s something I want to re-visit as I eventually want to return to running.
Hi thank you for your message. Husband had been struggling with normal activity, like walking the dog for a while. We all had covid pretty bad in Jan 2021 and had initially put it down to long covid. It wasnt until the first bad episode that we knew it probably wasnt that. He had an op to remove a tumour in July 2020 and nothing was mentioned about his heart then, I assume they would have picked it up then. So the only guide we have is it started to happen some time after that.
He hasnt been put on anticoagulant as apparently his scores in the test they do are low. But I think that he would have to go it fir cardio aversion?
I heard that bisproprol can make you really tired too. Its horrible seeing him like this. Its just so weird that your heart can start doing this, I guess that the echocardiogram will show if there is a reason its happened and if anything else is going on.
Sorry that the things they have tried for you haven't been successful, hope they can suggest more options for you and you can fet back to running! 😊
18 days post quad bypass. i can walk like what your describing and have the same thing happen. i get worn out very easily. i can feel my heart beating fast and some discomfort but i understand what is going on. i have a tendency to walk a little to fast but am learning to go slower so i don't hit that wall. i look back 5 days and remember i wore myself out just putting shorts and a shirt and shoes on.
Hi, You may find the AF Association Forum useful on HU.
I think you will find that a side effect of bisoprolol is tiredness. What size of pill is your husband taking, I am taking 2.5mg in the morning and the same in the evening. Any more than that tires me out.
I have a similar problem but not quite so severe and have been given a pacemaker. This has not entirely solved the problem. The way it works is that bisoprolol slows down the heartbeat and the pacemaker speeds it up to normal but my blood pressure is very low around 80/60. So I cannot take any larger dose of bisoprolol.
The cardiologist thinks that the message between the top and bottom chambers of my heart is confused and so they are going to burn it out with an ablation. The pacemaker will then control the heartbeat entirely and I will not need to take bisoprolol. I will then be entirely dependent on the pacemaker. My GP tells me that she has never known a pacemaker fail in all her 20 years of experience
That sounds horrible! If I were you I might check that it isn’t the Biprosolol that is making him more breathless. I had severe breathlessness GP and hospital all thought it was angina because of a strong family history of heart disease. It took a year to get an angiogram which showed that there was nothing wrong with my heart. The consultant thought it could be the Bisoprolol that was causing the breathlessness. I came off it gradually and I can’t tell you how much better I feel. Still get a bit breathless uphill but so much better. Your case is obviously different to mine but I would check that it’s not the Bisoprolol that’s exacerbating things. I may be nothing to do with Bisoprolol but definitely worth checking out. It doesn’t agree with everybody!
I have been taking Bisoprolol for 18 months. I feel it has regulated my AF but I feel extremely tired all the time. I will persevere with the medication and hope the lethargy and tiredness will improve.
Thanks everyone. Hoping we will get more answers next week after the echocardiogram and appointment with cardiology. He seems to have a cold and I suspect a bit of a temperature which I think by the sounds of it might have made his heart rate faster and possibly making him feel worse? Just got to wait for next week, feeling grateful he is being seen relatively quickly in a very difficult time for our NHS
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