...but it's better than the final beat I guess. So back last June I started having some real tired days. Long story and I'll try and shorten it. Over the next few weeks they ran every catscan, sonogram, Xray, blood test, check your butt, check your stomach... you name it, I had it. They pronounced me healthy. THis is my civilian doctor, my cardiologist and a second opinion. One day I was in my VA Doctors office feeling good but told him of my problems and yes I was tired. He grabbed my wrist, felt my pulse and there upon declared me to have A Fib. (atrial fibrillation ) No $2000 cat scan.... just a finger on my wrist. Well what more than likely happened was I was in rythem when I was at everyone elses office. I met with my cardiologist the next day(scheduled appointment) and told him what the VA said. He said nonsense. I don't see it. BUT, your symptoms do lead that way... so they put me on a 48 hour monitor. Took it back and got a call. Yup, you got A Fib. Were you sleeping Monday night at 3AM? Yes, well you heart was beating at 170. (He had put me on a 24 hour monitor back in the summer.... but it turned out clean) So we had a likely diagnosis. That was back in Nov. I spent 5 days in the hospital with some breathing/cold/respitory problems. They got the meds all screwed up. Finally they got them right.... but once a week or so I have an event. It always comes with the same basic symptoms. When I tell them what they are they kind of shake their head and say, "that's odd. Makes no sense". I tell them, I know the minute it starts or is coming. They tell me most people don't ever know they have it. Well there must be a lot of tired damn people walking around. But when mine hits... I'm done and not walking. They increased meds and changed them and finally put me on one that is in their words, "Very Aggresive". You read the side effects and it makes you want to order a burial site. BUT, as a general rule I've gotten stronger and am able to finally do somethings without collapsing. LOL But then you have a day like Sunday. I was feeling good. Did somestuff, went to watch my niiece ride in the Nationals. Came home and walked my brothers dog and couldn't finish the walk. It hit. I came home, took the vitals... BP had jumped to 184/100. Heart rate was 127. Sat for a few more minutes and BP came down to 145/75.. heart rate..still125. It stayed at 125 or close from 4 PM until 4AM when I finally fell asleep. That's right, I couldn't sleep with it. I woke 45 min. later and it was 126. I fell asleep sometime later but only for 30 min. Woke again... 30 minutes later woke again...heart 108. So basically my heart beat at 125 for 12 hours while I played couch potatoe or bed boy. I got up, had dentist appointment, knocked around and an hour later I suddenly felt better. Took vitals BP 128/68 heart 68, That's the way it goes. I've had 2 day spells and they're bad. Even when it passes I"m worn out and exhausted for at least another day. It's like running a marathon as you sleep. I'll wake up soaked with my heart just going off. No pain other than at the outset... the tummy pain. Last night I slept from 10PM -7 AM when I had to pee. So that's what's new in my life. A happy heart that wants to race away sometimes. The problem with it is that it's really the heart quivering more than beating. The electircal signals between upper and lower sections of the heart get out of sycn. It can cause blood to clot in the heart and be blown to your brain and things that cause strokes. So I'm forever on blood thinners to eliminate blood clots. In the past 4 months or so I've run a marathon about once a week and sometimes back to back days. Went to a third cardio guy. Said the exact thing the other did, "It isn't going to kill you". If the meds fail to give me a life then there are steps 2 and 3 that they say...."We don't want to do that at this time". I missed hunting season completely last year and it ticked me off. I'm just going to have to hunt closer to the road for now and maybe a few feet lower to the ground.
So a government paid doctor did better than a private doctor and it cost less, I am stunned Glad you're getting better
Thousands less. I can't remember all the test and sonograms and whatevers they gave me. They checked arteries in legs, stomach, checked kidneys, liver, scanned heart, colonscopy, endiscopy, thyroid, drew a couple quarts of blood, scanned carotid arterys, and who knows what else. I told the VA doc my symptoms and he grabbed my wrist to check pulse. He's a local boy. Wanted to work at VA because it's near his family and low pressure. Likes to hunt and ski and stuff.
No such thing as getting better totally. There is no cure... just try to control the events. Step 2 is to really kind of go in and fry the nerves that are giving the problem signals to your heart. That works 70 percent of the time but people have to go through it 3 or 4 times to become one of the 70 percent.... and then it might not work.
My wife had something really similar...tackacardia or something like that. She had an outpatient procedure where they coterized something in her heart that stopped the "electrical short" that was causing her racing heart.
Hope they get that under control, and you can get back out there. Hopefully options 2 & 3 never have to come into play.
It's worth it to try if it's that's bad to deal with. Are there any negative effects of frying the nerves? If it doesn't work your the same as you are now so in my opinion any chance of getting it better I would take!!!
Wow, that's a tough ride. I had some similar overexertion/stress related episodes last year but nothing like yours. I have known people who had the carterization thing done and all have done way better since, but it seems rather drastic if avoidable. Do stressful events or sudden exertion make it worse? I have had to learn to do a few jumping jacks before lifting heavy items to increase my heart rate slowly before lifting heavy items. I was watching the Strong Man competition this weekend and they put a heart rate monitor on one of the contestants and his heart rate shot from normal to 195 in just a few seconds. That would be scary.
Gotta be stressful going through this stuff. Health problems scare me. Thoughts and prayers for you getting through this.
There are a multitude of ways to treat it, and yes this is one of them.... Send me a PM of the meds you're on or have been on, and I may have some ideas you can ask your doctor about... Sadly a lot of our "modern" medical care is directed by the newest and latest medications when some of our older and MUCH CHEAPER medications can be very, very effective. I've diagnosed atrial fibrillations several times through the same method, even sent one of my member from my church to her doctor because she was very irregular again, and she indeed was back in atrial fib. I've seen a handful of younger people who have pacemakers because they had the irregular heartbeats to such an extent that they finally just burned out the whole conduction system and use a pacemaker in lieu of having irregular heartbeats that limit their lives. Oh, and I'd FIRE your cardiologist if he didn't put you on a holter monitor for 3-7 days to try to capture what was going on. That is very basic, and done thousands of times every day for symptoms just like yours.
That sucks, David. Hope it gets worked out soon. Don't you go dying on us. We'll have to find another crazy old guy. NYB is in training, but he has at least 2 years before he gets there.
That's step 2.... but all three cardio guys weren't ready to recommend that just yet. I went Afib again this morning. Been a couch potatoe all day.
Hang in there, its going to get sorted out and fixed... By the way, only Dan Quayle spells potato with an e. Maybe you should do some crosswords while your just sitting there.
