Adventures of a Racing Heart - Afib Adventure number 4 (MARCH 2021)

Adventures of A Racing Heart – AFib 4!

 So, following on from my last post – I had just started getting over that mystery Lethargy-cum-Virus-cum-Fatigue (frustratingly, by doing NO exercise at all, AGAIN!) when I had the good fortune to be invited for my first Covid-19 vaccination in March 2021.  I was a bit earlier than most people in my age group because of the heart condition.

That was an amazing efficient and pleasant experience with marvellously friendly staff and volunteers.   Well done to Britain’s NHS (National Health Service) – although, mysteriously, the Government seemed to have taken all the credit for how well that has been done!

Then in the middle of the night, I woke up in AFib.  My heart felt like it was trying to break out of my ribcage.  It was odd, because I had often had palpitations and periods of tachycardia following my Ablation in May 2020 and, naturally enough, panicked that they were AFib.  But when the Big Baddy actually arrived, I could feel the difference straight away.  Took my Pill-In-The-Pocket (PIP) and waited half-an-hour as instructed and took another, as instructed.

Alas, though they work on the tachycardia, all they did the AFib was slow it enough that I could at least get back to sleep – as there was no point in showing up at A&E in the middle of the night!

This time I decided not to go to my local hospital, but instead to try Addenbrookes in Cambridge.  They were amazing – I presented them with a written account of my AFib travails to date (the weeks spent in the local hospital – they were very shocked by that!) and they just said “Well, it’s obvious to us that a DCCV is the way to go, but it will depend on the cardiologists…”

A (very young) cardiologist came to see me and concurred with them and within a few hours I was cardioverted right there in the Resus dept!  It was incredible. 

The only downside was the use of Ketamine – when I woke up, I was having weird nightmares and I was frightened to go back to sleep in case I died!  Then I found that, although I was awake, I could only move my left hand!  Eventually, the rest of me came too and I was able to slur and croak “Did it work?” and, happily, it had – first time.  So, they advised me to start taking a regular 50 mg dose of Flecainide and discuss this latest episode with my Electrocardiologist at Papworth.

As luck would have it, I had an appointment with him just five days later and he advised that I could wait and see what would happen (if it was just a blip caused by the Covid-19 jab) or be put on the waiting list for a second ablation.  I chose the latter thinking that there would be a long wait, due to Covid-19 backlog, and I could wait and see while I was on the waiting list!

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Terminology

A&E                             Accident & Emergency Dept.  Used to be called Casualty (Emergency Room in the US)

Addenbrookes            Huge teaching hospital in Cambridge.

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

 Bpm                            Heart Beats per Minute

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 then restarts beating (otherwise you are in BIG trouble) and, better still, it beats with a proper rhythm (NSR).

Electrocardiologist     specialists in the electrics of the heart (think electrician to the normal cardiologist’s plumber!)

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

GP (General Practitioner)   family doctor (General Practitioner)

HR                       Heart Rate

Lone AFib or AFl           

This means there is no structural reason for the arrhythmial - that is, nothing obviously wrong with the function of the heart.

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

Papworth               Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.  The UK’s premier         Heart and Lung facility.

PIP                         Pill in the Pocket - a prescribed drug to be taken if you have     AFib or bad palpitations

Tachycardia          fast Heart Rate (over 100 bpm usually)

TOE                       Trans-oesophageal echocardiogram (to check for a blood clot     in the heart) which could cause a stroke)

TTRMP                   I made this up!  Time To Recovery Medical Profession 

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

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