Afib: No Symptoms and High QOL

[bayonnejoe1]

I was diagnosed 5 years ago with Afib. Being symptom free, I never noticed till a nurse at my GP picked up and I was refered to a cardiologist. I was already on a beta blocker, atenolol, over 10 years, for HBP. Added Apixaban. Both tolerated well. Heart has checked out defect free and working well. I've never had an incident of tachycardia. Heart monitor indicated I was in Afib 27% of the time. As I've said I am blissfully unaware of it and have an active and high QOL. My doctor and I have decided to only address rate. I decided against flecenide. I just couldn't rationalize using it since I don't get tachycardia. My questions: what's wrong, or dangerous, about this approach? Am I missing something here? I know Afib tends to 'get worse', but heck I'm in it a quarter of my time according to the HM and I'm living well at 65 years.

[Hidden]

As far as I know .....nothing. Any treatment for AF is only to improve quality of life, because there is no cure, and anticoagulation, so it looks as if you’ve got it licked. If your rate is controlled then it is unlikely that your heart will suffer so carry on enjoying life.....

[CDreamer]

I agree with FJ - treatments for AF after prophylactic anticoagulation are to improve QOL so if you are symptom free, no need to introduce toxic drugs which will carry more risk for little or no benefit.

Personally I believe the fewer medicines you take — the better as they all have affects and most are not good. There are many people like yourself and I think they find it quite hard to understand why some suffer but when you do feel bad and your QOL is so poor you will do almost anything to find some relief, speaking only for myself!

Enjoy and be thankful.

[BobD Volunteer]

Nothing wrong at all. Any and all treatment for AF is only about quality of life (QOL) so provided that you are anticoagulated for stroke prevention and your rate is well controlled there is no evidence that your outome is any better or worse than anybody else. Obviously it would be foolish for you to try marathon running or similar extreme sports so do listen to your body but otherwise you are actually one of the lucky ones.

[doodle68]

HI bayonnejoe, welcome it's good to hear your relatively 'positive' experience of having AF. Thank you for telling us about it, I am interesting to hear about different experiences.

I guess it just reinforces how different we AFers, our bodies and our experiences all are .

Long may you continue to be well...

[bayonnejoe1]

I realize how relatively lucky I am with my day to day Afib. My confusion has been around Afib itself, sans tachycardia (or even bradycardia). It's hard to accept Afib per se isn't bad, but that's what I am trying to get my head around. BTW I should mention, initially I went to a doctor who permitted me to do the old aspirin regime. End result:. My heart threw off a clot and I lost peripheral vision. Instant Quadrantanopia. Again, all things considered, I was lucky. Johns Hopkins docs said it was just luck I wasn't dead or disabled. Afid clots being inclined to larger size. Coping well BTW with my limited vision loss. TY to everyone who responded to my post. Very much appreciated.

[Hidden]

I think you are doing great. I would love to be a person with no symptoms of a fib, much less anxiety Im sure. I would say if it isnt broke, dont fix it. I think if I were in your shoes, I would do exactly the same thing re saying no to flecainide.

[Ianc2]

Have a look at some of Doodle68's comments. I was very taken with the legacy research she mentioned.