Re: Tryin' Hard Not To croak before Reno 2022
Welcome to the AFIB club... Mine was a present on my 49th birthday. literally ON my birthday. So its been nearly 10 years since first episode Mine is "paroxysmal AFIB" which means it happens out of the blue for no clear reason. After 3 episodes spaced about 2 years apart (one while on a research ship at sea that resulted in a CoastGuard ride to shore...) my doc put me on Flecainide, and I haven't had a problem since (that was 3+ years ago). But there are lots of caveats with that drug... ESPECIALLY contra-indicated if you've ever had a heart attack, angina, or tachycardia as it can actually trigger tachycardia.
Learned all sorts of interesting things. The stress of the last 10 years of working probably were the trigger, but undiagnosed (and zero symptom) sleep apnea was probably what caused the underlying damage. Right now I'm good, but there's probably an ablation procedure out there in my future. 10 years ago, success with ablation for AFIB was only about 60% so they didn't go there. The success rate is way higher now. My heart doc says every day/month/year I can put it off, the better the procedure is getting, so for now its flecainide.
Also, they immediately put me on blood thinners when I first showed up with AFIB, but my cardiologist took me off thenm when he was certain that it was just episodic and that I could always tell when it was happening (feels like rabbits fighting in my chest). He says that blood thinners have been very over-prescribed in the past, they add risk of a bleeding stroke even while lowering the risk of a clotting stroke, so its a balancing act. They're a lot better now than the bad old days of Warfarin (the active ingredient in rat poison), so if you need them they're much better than they used to be. Aspirin can actually cause easy bleeding more readily than some of the new blood thinners.
Best wishes, and good health!
Welcome to the AFIB club... Mine was a present on my 49th birthday. literally ON my birthday. So its been nearly 10 years since first episode Mine is "paroxysmal AFIB" which means it happens out of the blue for no clear reason. After 3 episodes spaced about 2 years apart (one while on a research ship at sea that resulted in a CoastGuard ride to shore...) my doc put me on Flecainide, and I haven't had a problem since (that was 3+ years ago). But there are lots of caveats with that drug... ESPECIALLY contra-indicated if you've ever had a heart attack, angina, or tachycardia as it can actually trigger tachycardia.
Learned all sorts of interesting things. The stress of the last 10 years of working probably were the trigger, but undiagnosed (and zero symptom) sleep apnea was probably what caused the underlying damage. Right now I'm good, but there's probably an ablation procedure out there in my future. 10 years ago, success with ablation for AFIB was only about 60% so they didn't go there. The success rate is way higher now. My heart doc says every day/month/year I can put it off, the better the procedure is getting, so for now its flecainide.
Also, they immediately put me on blood thinners when I first showed up with AFIB, but my cardiologist took me off thenm when he was certain that it was just episodic and that I could always tell when it was happening (feels like rabbits fighting in my chest). He says that blood thinners have been very over-prescribed in the past, they add risk of a bleeding stroke even while lowering the risk of a clotting stroke, so its a balancing act. They're a lot better now than the bad old days of Warfarin (the active ingredient in rat poison), so if you need them they're much better than they used to be. Aspirin can actually cause easy bleeding more readily than some of the new blood thinners.
Best wishes, and good health!
Comment