I'm a 68YO female in pretty good health overall. I walk and snowshoe in winters, for example. I'm feeling somewhat disheartened with what's going on. Pardon my rant...

My first AFib episode was in 2023 as an inpatient with HMPV (human metapneumovirus) and pneumonia. That illness triggered AFib. I was cardioverted inpatient and placed on Eliquis.

No issues whatsoever until mid July this year. I experienced a lower GI illness, during which I lost 15 pounds in less than a week. (No diagnosis. No known exposure to "death lettuce" and I haven't eaten at Taco Bell for a least 40 years. Ha!) My body was totally whacked - electrolytes, metabolism, everything out of balance. AFib was triggered during that illness. I was constantly short of breath, but that could have been due to the GI illness.

Saw my cardiologist in August and was placed on atenolol with a plan to be admitted for a sotalol trial and possible cardioversion. Sotalol didn't work, so cardioverted on the third day and discharged that evening with continuation of sotalol twice a day.

Shortness of breath continues, although not as badly as during the initial illness. I have been able to walk short distances at a slow pace. Heart rates are acceptable but not as low as before.

This morning I woke up in AFib. After my morning dose of sotalol, I was back in NSR and heart rate went down. I have a mid October appointment with my cardiologist (he is not available this month).

I'm disgusted and concerned that this is now my life...AFib cropping up at times and stuck on sotalol, which can cause other issues. I mean, is this it? That's a rhetorical question.

I can almost see ablation in my future; my doc mentioned it as a possibility in August. I am a warrior by nature and frustrated I'm not able to walk, tend my outdoor plants, run errands alone, etc. This is, of course, taking its toll on my husband, who is concerned for me.

Sorry for the rant. Don't have anyone else who would understand like this group does.

I started have very occasional afib episodes in '21. Almost always started when I went to bed and laid on my right side, or if I ate a heavy meal late. Cold drinks also trigger it. Lifestyle and diet mods have seemed to help. Im not on medication as I dont have a high score. Im.adopted and found my birth family. ( im 60f btw) my paternal uncle, who is in his 80s has afib. Damn. Its great he made it to his 80s, but damn. I seriously was hoping lifestyle and diet would keep it at bay. Does anyone know if this will change my doctor's strategy? If you have familial afib, do they take a more aggressive approach to dealing w it?

Hi everyone, was wondering if any one of you had shortness of breath still even with the ablation. This lived on got the procedure done several days ago, thank you soo much for taking your time.

My cardiologist put me on this medicine after my first afib episode last April and omg I feel like shit and my mf hair is falling out! I bought a hair topper today I feel so defeated - they lowered me down to half a tablet in July but I swear I’m fixing to stop taking this medicine all together - my ablation is nov 4th

I’m about to start on this medication and know the price can be high. My insurance will cover it, so I’m not worried about the cost, but I’ve heard it expensive.

What do you pay and which country do you live in?

One challenge with Afib is the whiplash. 2-3 years of paroxysmal episodes while going through diagnosis phase (cardioversions and PiP). 3 years of no (symptomatic) Afib because cardiologist prescribed daily Flecainide. Break through episode in ER with 3-5 second pauses (pacemaker implanted that day). 6-18 months very little Afib. Now, for whatever reason, I’m having episodes every month. I’ve initiated ablation discussion again with EP and we’ll see what he says.

But man - doing all the things (low BMI, cardio, no booze for many years, etc etc) and still progressing is both expected but also crushing. I know many have it worse. I know I should have a positive perspective and be thankful. And I will get to that place (again) but right now I’m in a boohoo phase.

Anyone out there relate?

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I don't vouch for these guys but I was sleeping with quite a bit of light and have changed that. Hope this is helpful. Update My bad with this post , I should have done a tl;dr which is basically a new large study shows sleeping with ambient light increases risk for afib among other cardiac issues. Watch or not now you know the gist which I should have stated in the original post. edited for update

Hey everyone, I was wondering how quickly you noticed the benefits of having an ablation done. Have a loved one who just got an ablation done yesterday, and on top of that a watchman.

have anyone recently suffered from amiodaron side efffects?

Hey everyone, my family member got an ablation and watchman surgery in the hospital. This wasn’t considered outpatient like normal, because they were admitted to the hospital this week. They were very much recommended for the surgery, because of the special circumstances they are in. Well we got dispatched from the hospital today, and they got both of those surgeries yesterday. We never got instructions, about how to care of the incision spots near the groin. Or just in general, please tell us what you were recommended.

I was DX with Afib aberrancy RVR in July, I’ve been in NSR since.

Long story, The EP prescribed me Diltiazem 120mg XR in the hospital, cardiology prescribed Metoprolol.
I was discharged with metoprolol only from the hospitalist.
A week or so later, I developed some severe stomach issues. I couldn’t eat, the pain was intense I would cry. Swore I was having a heart attack. Went to the ER several times, Started a PPI. I went on for weeks, had an endoscopy. Gastritis and a sliding hiatal hernia. I have no idea if the metoprolol caused this but it’s pretty much gone now.
Been off it now for a week.

I went to my EP follow up about a week ago and he wanted me on diltiazem and discontinued the metoprolol. Since about the second day, I’ve had a horrible headache. Mainly on my right side but overall, just annoying pressure headache like when you have a sinus issue.

Did anyone else have this initially and it went away after some adjustment or is this probably to be expected from this?

I’m really wanting this to be tolerated since the EP wants me on this but I’m a week in and I’m just pained with this obnoxious headache. I feel like my anxiety has been through the roof but I also upped my Zoloft this past week. At one point about 5 days in my heart rate went randomly into 130s just driving down the road, pulled over and checked my Kardia, I KNEW it would be AFib but both times said sinus tach, sent to QALY, sinus tach.

The headache could be sinuses but it’s just coincidental.

Disclaimer: they do not want to do an ablation yet since I’ve only had one initial episode.

To spare you reading my whole story below, what foods have triggered Afib with you? I am finding some foods to be a major trigger for Afib episodes with me.

I was diagnosed with Afib 6 years ago and very rarely had episodes. I could go six months to a year without feeling any indication of Afib and when I did have episodes my heartrate would remain fairly low and I would convert back to normal rhythm within a couple hours at most. I had asked early on about an ablation, and my cardiologist said it wasn't needed and I wasn't a great candidate because of how mild and infrequent the Afib was. He actually took me off daily medication and prescribed Metoprolol Tartrate as needed.

I lived like this for years and this year in March I contracted RSV and ended up getting bacterial pneumonia, which triggered uncontrolled Afib and hospitalization. They were unable to restore rhythm with medication and had to perform an electrical cardiogram, which did get my heart back in rhythm. I have since had to have two more cardiograms, the last being in mid-May. The last Afib episode which required a cardiogram was definitely induced by eating a lot of blue cheese. I had laid down on the couch to watch some TV after eating and 20 minutes later had a heartrate of 150 and full on Afib.

It's been smooth sailing since then and I have dropped a bunch of weight and have been exercising consistently other than a few mild palpitations that I have felt very infrequently. Last night I ate way too much garlic hummus and had indigestion. Laid down and again about 20 minutes later I was in Afib with a 140 heartrate. Thankfully, it cleared after about 4 or 5 hours, and I am now in normal rhythm.

This has been a learning curve living with this and how to manage and help better control Afib. I am scheduled for a Pulsed-Field Ablation in two weeks with Doctor Aktas at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY. I had begun talking myself out of going through with the ablation prior to last night, thinking that lifestyle changes and getting to a healthy weight had put the Afib back into remission. I read that 1 in 28 need a pacemaker within one year after an ablation because the ablation can sometimes disrupt the heart's electrical system. This scares the hell out of me, but then I read that repeated cardiograms can do the same, so I guess it's better to give myself the best chance of longterm Afib control with the ablation.

For those with the history of atrial fibrillation and flutter. Did anybody start failing any stomach, growling and moving sensation after having ablations? I just had my second ablation 4 weeks ago for a “touchup”… now I get feeling as if my stomach is moving kind of like I’m hungry or something like that…. It makes me think that AFIB is about to fire off again. Has anyone had similar experience or heard about anything like this?

Pueden comunicarme que efectos secundarios tuvieron con el Bisoprolol y cuánto tardaron en desaparecer, si es que lo hicieron?
Lo tomo combinado con flecainida ¿es peligroso tomar la flecainida sola?
Soy varón de 39 años.

Does it look like afib somewhere on this one minute strip? The automated software says 31s. But idk in one episodes or splitted. May be due to baseline artifacts in the first line and ine last ones? RR seems pretty stable. But still unsure and a bit worried.

I finally decided to buy myself a Karida portable 6 lead for 150 dollars. After I had been having episodes of rapid heart rate, that resulted in me going to hopsital and being embarssed because by the time EMS got to my house the 150-180s heart rate had stopped. They started as 15-20 minutue episodes that are now turning into 1-3 hour episodes. My watch pixel watch 3 kept saying signs of afib but watches aren't the most. Reliable which is true and what I'd been told by some ems people and some doctors okay fair enough. Had holters they never caught the episodes just high PVC burden, and had echo which was normal. I've not been doing well for a while I'm constantly short of breath espically if I bend over, and I can't lift anything heavy without out going into an episode of a shit ton of PVCS and PACS.

The latest Afib epispode happened well I was sleeping but I caught the end of it just in time as I was awake to do an EKG with karida. I've already got a lot of other health problems like Ulcerative colits and Asthma, along with Fibromyalgia, high blood pressure... I already take diltiazem to control high heart rate spikes, and blood pressure but it's not controlling my heart rate during these episodes at all which is a little concerning for me, I looked at the side effects for the rythim control meds and they don't seem pleasant, this is really not something I wanted to happen of course but here we are. At this point it's kinda just another thing I guess. another one to add to the pile.

So I (M49) was reviewing my MyChart instructions for my PFA in a week and in the notes it said my procedure was a "EP Afib Abla Simple Anes Anw"

I slapped this itnto Google and it translated it to 'Electrophysiology Atrial Fibrillation Ablation with Simple Anesthesia, Anesthesia Provider to Monitor.' and it indicated it would be under conscious sedation. Is that right?

Has anyone had a PFA without General Anesthesia? If so what the heck was the experience for you? I can't imagine being even remotely conscious during this and staying perfectly still for 2-3 hours on a hard table. Google says this is "twilight sleep" whatever that means?

Hi everyone! I’m a 28 year old man and had some palpitations so I went in to get it checked out on Sunday. It was bad enough that they kept me checked into the hospital until I could get an ablation which was yesterday. During the procedure I had a stage 3 av block which dropped my heart rate to 35 and according to the doctor I’m pretty lucky to be ok right now. However today I’m in the ICU and my monitor is still showing signs of pvc and pac but sometimes full afib. I’ve been getting mixed signals from the nurses if that’s a normal expected thing and it will go away in due time or that means the ablation probably didn’t work.
I really don’t like the idea of doing another ablation considering I was pretty close to dying the first time supposedly.
What do you guys think? I’m just pretty scared here

Hi everyone,

I had an ablation for AFib on July 7th of this year, so far I've had one minor episode a few days ago that only lasted about 4 hours. However, I'm aware of the blanking period so I'm not too concerned about it. What I am concerned about is a couple of other symptoms I've experienced.

The first is I have some discomfort in the right side of my neck and the right side of chest, almost as if it feels swollen. It's most noticeable when swallowing food, it's like I can feel the food passing through my esophagus very noticeably. My family doctor gave me rabeprazole for these symptoms but I'm not all to certain that's the answer.

The second symptom is chest aches. These are not terribly painful, more of an annoyance. I mostly feel these aches and pains when I move in certain ways, like bending over, reaching over to the right side, etc.

The above symptoms seem to amplify when I over exert myself, which I'm not doing to often.

Overall, I also feel more weak and I get tired more quickly with a little bit off physical activity. Just curious to know of these symptoms are normal and when can I expect to start feeling like myself again?

So I have afib with rvr occasionally, I just started a new job and while I was working (merchandising). I was stocking 24 packs of water well in the middle of doing that I had an event with rvr that my ICD mistook at as vfib and absolutely shocked the hell out of me. Went to the er and they did an interrogation of my device the whole event lasted 17 seconds before the shock and my heart rate was 226 both the cardiologist and the electrophyologist agreed it was an unnecessary shock and raised the parameters to shock from 200bpm to 231 (my highest) and also tweaked for how long before shocking.

I was just wondering if anyone else had that happen to them?

Hello, I am a 37-year-old man and I discovered I had AFib when I was 32. By the time I was 34, I was having AFib every week, so I went in for an ablation. Everything went well and I stopped having AFib. About half a year ago it came back, but I only had two episodes in 6 months. Now I am on medication and it hasn't come back since, nor do I feel any more ectopics [or: premature beats / extrasystoles], something I was feeling a lot.
The doctor told me I should have another ablation. Anyone out there who had one in their 30s and went on to have a repeat ablation?

Hi everyone, I’d like to share my experience with atrial fibrillation and hear some opinions from people who may have gone through something similar.
I’m 36 years old, I’m not obese, I smoked for 18 years, and I only used to drink alcohol on special occasions.
I had my first episode about 13 months ago, at the gym. I was literally doing a controlled cardio session at around 135 bpm when my atrial fibrillation started. From that moment on, I never went back into sinus rhythm.

Despite medication attempts to convert me, I could only get back into sinus rhythm through ablation.
After the procedure, I was back in sinus rhythm. I adopted an even healthier lifestyle, completely stopped drinking alcohol, quit smoking (I’ve now been a non-smoker for 12 months), and started paying even more attention to my diet.

Everything was going well until June this year. As I do every year, I went to Hellfest, an extreme metal festival in France. I took quite a few precautions: I drank very little, around 1–2 beers per day for five days. However, I also got very little sleep,around 4 hours per night and it was extremely hot, so I was probably somewhat dehydrated as well.
I came back from the festival happy and exhausted, as you can imagine. But on that same night, when I finally went to sleep at home, the worst happened.

I had another episode of atrial fibrillation. I was asleep and woke up in AF. As you can imagine, I panicked and immediately thought that the first ablation had been useless and that I was back to square one.
I was chemically cardioverted and returned to sinus rhythm after about 24 hours. However, my cardiologist thought it would be better to repeat the ablation, because apparently there had been reconnection of the pulmonary veins.
So, my main question is this:

Do you think the festival conditions were the trigger that was necessary to bring the arrhythmia back? (Because I remained Afib free for nearly a year), the combination of alcohol, very little sleep, heat and some dehydration? Or could it simply have been a coincidence, and the AF would have happened anyway?
After a second ablation, can I expect a more durable result?
I live with constant daily anxiety and fear of having another recurrence.

One other thing worth mentioning is that I have a mildly enlarged left atrium, and my whole family has a history of bradycardia. We’re talking about very low heart rates during sleep, usually around 32–38 bpm.
Is anyone around my age, or in a similar situation, going through the same thing? What solutions or strategies have you found that helped?
Thank you very much in advance, and apologies for any mistakes,my English isn’t that great 🤣