cardiomyopathy and afib

[Drof]

first time post. To cut a long story short I was diagnosed with persistent afib and if that wasn’t bad enough after an echo my EF was at 35%. This has totally knocked me for six and the depression and anxiety and weeping everyday is horrendous. Has anybody been in a similar position as now they are leaving the afib and trying to get my EF up on medication before they try a cardioversion. But it’s the constant afib which is getting me down and they don’t seem bothered about getting that sorted or trying to sort it. I am 64 and thought. Was reasonably fit but obvious I wasn’t. I am now on small dose of amolodipine , bisoprosol apixaban and low dose entresto with blood tests every two weeks since entresto was introduced. I was told cardioversion had its best chance of working if done early, but it’s just getting left to get worse as far as I can see. Thanks for any comments.

[Shar28]

Hello and welcome to posting on the forum. Its such a shock and scary when you have a diagnosis like this. Your feelings are entirely normal. Things will settle, gradually. I don’t know about AF but my husband has Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM). At diagnosis his EF was 10-15%. After about 3 months on meds it increased to 25%. So the meds are effective. And please remember that a normal heart gives an EF of around 55-60%, so your EF of 35% means your heart is still working at more than half it’s normal.

Have you discovered the Cardiomyopathy UK website? They’re a charity and their resources are fab. They have a brilliant nurse run helpline too.

Also, have you seen the AF forum here on healthunlocked?

Best wishes to you and your loved ones.

[Drof in reply to Shar28]

hi, thanks, I am 3 months down the line now and I think it’s the afib giving me more probs than the EF but I don’t know for sure that’s why I am confused. My heart nurse said I have to get EF up first if possible before afib is looked at. But thanks for reply.

[Familyk]

Good morning and welcome I can totally relate to your message. I'm newly diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and left ventricular tachycardia a huge shock as no real symptoms apart from what I thought was long covid. After an mri and echocardiogram my ef is only 32%. In January I started low dose entresto and bisoprolol and felt horrendous for a few weeks. As of tomorrow I'm moving up to mid dose entresto 49/51 twice a day. I've been told I'm also starting 2 other drugs in approximately 4 weeks a 4 prong approach. I'm on 53. My anxiety has been really bad and HF nurse has suggested antidepressants to help with this

It is so hard not to keep worrying and I'm told in time it gets easier. Like you, we are at the beginning of our journey. If you would like to chat please message me directly

Take care and stay positive. There is so much they can do to help us.

Xx