Adventures of a Racing Heart - Afib Adventure number 1! (AUG 2015)

Adventures of a Racing Heart - Afib adventure number 1!

I had my first bout of Atrial Fibrillation in 2015.  It was a few days after a two-week holiday touring and hiking in the beautiful Douro Valley in Portugal.  I had some swollen varicose veins and was given Lovenox – blood thinner injections.  A side effect of these is Atrial Fibrillation, but it was about a week after I finished them that the heart problem began.  

I had ridden my bike on the Sunday and woke up at 6 am the following morning struggling to breathe with my heart racing.  I didn't feel like I dying (though how would I know?) so 999 was called and an ambulance despatched.  The A&E dept of my local hospital treated me with betablockers and then I was admitted to the cardiac care unit (CCU).  I was given intravenous flecainide and the heart calmed down from about 180 to 120 beats per minute.   

However, the heart refused to behave and so the next day I was given my first electrical cardioversion (DCCV) and discharged 24 hours later.  I was told I’d be fine in a few days.  In actual fact it was over a month before I felt well again.  I was diagnosed with ‘Holiday Heart’ otherwise called ‘Lone Atrial flutter’. 

This was my first experience of the huge disparity between the time the Medical profession thinks you need to recover (TTRMP) and the reality (TTRRL).  More on this later...

 

Terminology

Atrial fibrillation (AF or AFib) and Atrial flutter (AFl) are two different types of heart arrythmias.  

Lone Afib or Afl means there is no structural reason for it that is, nothing obviosuly wrong with the function of the heart.

DCCV - Direct Current Cardioversion.  Basically, they stick pads on you and zap you with electricity.  This stuns the heart so much it stops beating.  Hopefully, it thens restarts beating (otehrwise you are in BIG trouble) and, better still, it beats with a proper rhythm (NSR).

NSR - Normal sinus rhythm - what most people have! It's doing what it should, a nice regular lup-doop sound.

999 - emergency services phone number in the UK.  Same as 911 in USA or 112 in Europe.

Flecainide - an anti-arrthymic drug.  A major side-effect is its tendancy to cause further arrythmias.  One of the only drugs I seem to tolerate well. 

TTRMP - I made this up!  Time To Recovery Medical Profession 

TTRRL - I made this up too! Time To Recovery Real Life!

 

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