First encountered a-fib in 2008, secondary to unknown hyperthyroidism that sensitized my heart and eventually led to congestive heart failure. They were unable to shock me back to normal rhythm in ER - spent a week in cardiac intensive care and then 3 months wearing an automatic defribillator vest (in case I went into ventricular fibrillation which is fatal) before the heart desensitized enough they could shock me back to a normal rhythm. (They zapped my thyroid with radiation to kill it and remove the influence of thyroid hormone - so now on lifetime replacement). Then stayed on a couple of preventative meds afterwards to control rhythm.
Fast forward to May 2013 when I found out I was in afib again unbeknownst to me. Zapped me into normal rhythm again and added more drugs. In August 2013 I underwent a catheter ablation procedure where they cauterized the areas of the heart where abnormal pulses are originating. In my case I've been normal (heart wise, but not much else) since then and in fact have gone off of all meds for the heart and only on thyroid replacement and low dose aspirin. I have a 95% chance the afib won't return at this point since having the procedure, which is not everyone's outcome - significant numbers of patients have multiple procedures.
Afib is fairly common, but left unchecked can certainly lead to severe issues in cardiac function and output that become life threatening. My cardiologist prescribed an app for my Iphone from AliveCor that uses a special phone case fitted with two electrode strips where you place your fingers to run an ECG. It allows me to take my own ECG and look for afib (or other issues), but also allows me to email a copy of the ECG strip to my cardiologist for his input if needed. Pretty cool app that requires a prescription for the cover that costs several hundred dollars. (app is free)
http://www.alivecor.com/home
If I'd only know that viewing this site could have relieved me of all these procedures and medications over the years.................damn!
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