Experiences with A-Fib

You're about to get a lot of health advice from unqualified dudes who should be working.

My only experience with it is my mom had it and died from a stroke.

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eating an frozen electrolyte popsicle

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this would never have happened with Otter Pops, js


hope you get some helpful answers and it never happens again though

Tall people get it a lot. It depends on the severity. They may put u on a blood thinner.

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Experiences with A-Fib

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I was about 23 years old.

Was sick as frick but it was the Final 4 and refused to miss it lol. 2 of my buddies came over, we watched hoops and stayed up super late.

I got about 2-3 hours of sleep, woke up at 6am and took some Sudafed while probably still kinda drunk.

8 or 9am, my heart was racing like never before. I worked in an ER, signed it, was admitted heart rate averaging about 180 and topping out well over 200.

That night they told me if I didn't convert on my own by the morning they would have to shock me with the defibrillator, so that was scary. But they said I converted on my own around 3am, so I avoided that shite.

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What's the chances of this being a one off event? Anyone deal with this? No prior history of anything heart related. All my previous stress tests were great.

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AFib is almost always a recurrent thing. its a result of most likely a structural/electrical aberrancy that allows your A to Fib. if you were converted and have good rate control then it should be very manageable. you might need lifelong treatment for things to decrease your stroke/clot type risks, maybe even rate/rhythm control depending on recurrence frequency and other risk factors

My pops is 78 and has to get converted 1x or 2x a year. Hell that's almost outpatient stuff now. His last was a couple weeks ago and he didn't even have to put on the hospital gown. I took him to Memphis a year ago and he went in about 6 AM and we were back on the road by 10 or so.

If I had heart trouble from eating a popsicle and was already on BP meds sub 40, I'd probably try to improve my health.

I have occasional AFib. First time it ever happened was scary. I chose a cardiologist, did some extra tests (ultrasound, etc.) and they found no structural issues. Now I meet meet with him once a year and we just monitor how frequently it happens. My grandfather had an arrhythmia, so there's some family history there.

Docs just have me on baby aspirin daily. I have one of those Kardia EKG devices that's good for peace of mind, as well as tracking frequency to share with my doc.

Only time they will want to intervene with antiarrhythmic meds or an operation (ablation) is if it is affecting your quality of life via increasingly frequent episodes and/or passing out.

I actually haven't had AFib since the initial episode a few years ago, but my irregular heartbeat presents itself as SVT now (a type of sinus tachycardia) every 3-4 months. My episodes usually resolve within 15 - 30 minutes. I spent months trying to figure out what my triggers were, and I think it's just dehydration. Especially after a rare long weekend of drinking alcohol.

Due to the fact that you went into AFib while eating, I would suggest reading up on vagal AF. My type of AF is vagal, and I am able to get myself out of an episode by either forcefully coughing, yawning, controlling my breathing, or even exercising. Most important part I find is to stay as calm as hell, anxiety seems to make it worse/last longer.

Hope that helps, feel free to ask any other questions. You'll be fine, it's pretty scary to have your ticker malfunction out of no where.

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Posted by lsuson on 8/20/21

Lots of people live with afib and not even know it.

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I think I had it for years and didn’t realize what it was until late one night it woke me up; went to the ER, had high heart rate and they gave me meds which controlled it for the most part.

Took meds for about 5 years but eventually I had an ablation, in 2012 I think, and so far that has “cured” it but the doc says it could reoccur. Not taking any meds for it right now; just low dose bp, cholesterol meds & baby aspirin.

The meds worked for the 5 years I took them but I got busy at work once and missed some doses and after that I had some A-fib events & they had to shock me once. So we did the ablation.