AFIB – Sonya Lira Photography

Monday night while watching TV, my throat closed up, and my heart started racing.

I found my Kardio Mobile my cardiologist had me buy and checked my heart rate.

It said AFIB I tried it 5 times and all 5 said AFIB. Off to the ER, we went. This thing is great for anyone that has heart rhythm issues.

I walked into the ER and told them I was in AFIB and they took me straight back this was a good thing because there was about 40 or 50 people in the ER.

My heart raced up to 178 beats a minute then down to 130 back and forth never going below 130. It took 3 IV injections of metoprolol and a digoxin pill to get it down to 120 as time went on slowly by 7 a.m. Tuesday it was in the 70s. I had about 12 hours of fast heart rate, and my whole chest felt bruised.

I developed fluid in my lungs from the afib but they kept me until Wednesday evening and finally I could go home.

They upped my metoprolol dosage and added amiodarone to the mix, so far so good. They said the fluid would go away from the fluid pills it was mild fluid in the lungs caused by being in AFIB. My current heart rate is 57 – 62.

It seems the mitral valve that is already damaged gets worse during AFIB, but when the heart rate returns to normal, the valve returns to its previous state.

I feel okay I have been a little more tired than usual but last time it took me about a week to get over the AFIB episode.

I am thankful I did not have to do cardioversion again and everything turned out okay.

I was able to go one time to rehab then I went into AFIB.

I was in AFIB for 8 days straight medications was not stopping my crazy heart beats. AFIB is quite exhausting your heart rate goes high then 30 beats slower then higher again all this back and forth feels like your heart is running a marathon. It makes you physically drained and exhausted. You can not even think about taking a walk any form of exertion increases your heart rate. Your chest pounds and you just can not breathe good it is a horrible feeling.

My dr suggested a Tranesphogeal echo to check out for any new clots, the new stent and my mitral valve all which could be causing the AFIB. As it turns out I had no new clots, the stent was fine and the mitral valve was the same.

My AFIB was from a chain of events. Apparently my body hated the heart attack so much that it decided to rebel against me. It has also screwed up some of my blood work which the Dr.’s all tell me will even back out in time.

He was able to get some good pics in 3D of my heart and then came the fun part.

They had to do a Cardioversion which is a procedure used to return an abnormal heartbeat to a normal rhythm.

I was already under deep anesthesia from the tee echo so the cardioversion came next.

It is like in the movies when someone has a heart attack and they bring out the paddles to shock the heart. They do this to get the heart back beating correctly.

My heart has returned to a normal rhythm but I feel like I have been beat up. Hopefully I will feel better in a few days.

I am adding another medication this medication hopefully will keep my heart in rhythm it is called Amiodarone it is a antiarrhythmics. I hate taking medication but it seems I have no choice.

Life is good and great medical care is essential.

Tag: AFIB

Afib again

My beating heart