A Scary Walk

Hello all again,
I went on my usual, daily, brisk, 20 minute walk downtown. About 10 minutes into my walk, wham! I suddenly felt "funny". I had to slow down, I felt my throat. My heart was going a hundred miles an hour. I waited, hoping it would slow down. I've had runs of tachycardia before where it would beat rapidly for 30 or 40 beats, but it would always go back to normal or my normal, daily beats filled with ectopics, which I've been having for months. I had to sit down on a short concrete wall, watching the people walk past. I thought I might go into the store and use a landline to call 911. I called my husband instead. By the time he arrived, my heart finally slowed down to just ectopics. Why did this happen? I've never had this when I was walking. It was my sanctuary from the AF monster. I am on Warfarin and 12mg Atenolol, which I am slowly shaving smaller and smaller. Why did this happen? I am sick of this. Sometimes, it brings me to tears of frustration and anger.

I see a cardiologist, who says I have a great heart without any plaque in the plumbing, but who will not refer me to an EP. I see a primary care physician who will not re-test me for my vitamin D level, and who, upon my asking, "Are my kidney functions normal?", nodded her head yes. Then when I asked about potassium supplementing, shook her head and said, "Noooo. Don't fool with that." I told her it would help with my ectopics and again she shook her head. I have upped my magnesium to 600 mg a day and wanted to start on the potassium powder I received from Iherb. I have had ectopics, every 3 to 4 beats, every day for months and months.

As I sit here typing this evening I notice that I am not having my usual nightly ectopics. Anything to do with what happened during my walk, I wonder? Just a slighly higher rate, around 77. Usually, with the ectopics, it's around 60. Can anyone shed some light on what happened? I am to have a barium swallow on Wednesday. Has anyone had any problems with that? Now I'm afraid to go walking or to the barium swallow. Geeze, I just want this to stop! Can't stand it any more.

Thanks for letting me vent like this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

May

Hello again May. I looked up your old posts and you have said you will seek another HMO outside Oakland. Have you been moved into a custodial nursing home since this post?

[www.afibbers.org]

If you are still able to move around by yourself, you really do need to contact the other HMO you spoke of in this thread above. If you are no longer mobile,this will be more difficult but can still be done. Even better, how about dropping the Hmo for regular pay-as-you-go medical advice? The trouble you are having with your doctors is exactly why many people do not use HMOs.

About using the potassium you have legally purchased, you do not need anybody's permission to do that. Figure out how much potassium your usual, customary food intake provides for you. You can use the free nutrient calculator at www.fitday.com to do that. Be sure to enter all food and all drinks into the calculator so that you are sure you know what is what with your dietary intake. Then correct it with supplements or by eating more potassium containing foods, so that you are getting our government's published RDA for potassium, 4700 mg each and every day.since you have mentioned [in a former -post] that you have low bp, do not go over the RDA because potassium tends to lower bp.

If you wish to increase potassium intake by diet instead of by supplementation , there is a Conference Room Proceedings session called Afib Friendly Recipes, and that session includes 3 separate one day menus, each of which provides 5000 mg a day of potassium from food sources alone, no supplements at all, not even low sodium v8.

PeggyM

May, about the run of tachycardia[real fast heartbeat] that scared you so, carry your atenolol with you on walks [no wheel chair or walker, right?] and take one when you feel like that. I have taken atenolol that way and it actually works pretty well.
PeggyM

May - I'm sorry that you've had such an unpleasant experience. As for "not fooling" with the critical electrolytes... on the contrary, that's precicely what you should do... if you have healthy kidneys and are not taking any medications that are called potassium-sparing. Most likely, you are low in both magnesium and potassium as drugs deplete them and it's difficult for most people to achieve optimal intracellular levels without some measure of supplementation... especially afibbers. If you haven't reviewed The Strategy, you should do so. [www.afibbers.org]

It's very annoying and disheartening that your doctor doesn't address the fundamental biochemistry of what it takes to keep a heart in NSR. Drugs don't supply the basic nutrients and in fact help to deplete them. That's a fact.

I agree with Peggy, if it's at all possible for you to see another physician, you should try to do so. Refusing to test for your vitamin D seems very strange when all of mainstream medicine today is now on that bandwagon, big time.

I wish you well, May. I can appreciate how frustrating this is for you.

Jackie

May,

It is possible to order and pay for your own tests. Google:
online blood test
and you will see a number of companies that will allow you do this. You order and pay for the test, go to a lab near you and have your blood drawn and then the results get emailed to you.

Not that you should do this, however if I were in your shoes, I might just take a little potassium and see if things got better, worse or stayed the same. If they didn't get worse, I might add a little more & go on like that.

George

Many thanks to you all for your helpful suggestions. Right now I cannot afford to drop the HMO. I would love to but they are the most economical for me. I don't drive and the station for the other HMO is in a bad section of town. But, I still am trying to figure out how to get there another way. Thank you, Peggy, for steering me to the recipes. I will definitely look into that. Jackie, I am seeing my cardiologist Friday. I will ask her about the potassium and vitamin D test. I think she will be more prone to give me the test. After she puts the lab tests into the computer, I will insist on seeing an EP. I'm finally fed up with the run around from her. George, I have started taking the potassium. I took half a teaspoon tonight. I thought increasing by half teaspoons at a time should be safe.

I have a question, please, on "episodes". I have ectopics all day most days. Is that an "episode"? I know I asked this before, but just wanted a clarification. I thought "episodes" were very fast, very irregular beats. So when someone posts that they had an episode for 8 hours, does that mean their heart was fast and irregular? or only ectopics? Does my ectopics mean I have had an episode for 3 or 4 day? Sorry, I'm just confused on this. I just can't imagine going through 170bpm for 8 hours. Just that 15 or 20 minute ordeal during my walk had me weak in the legs and breathless.

Thanks again

May

May. when i say i had an afib episode, i mean the time from when i started feeling afib to the time i felt my heart go back to NSR. Runs of ectopics do not count as afib episodes with me.

Any time i have a long run of ectopics [usually a run of tachycardia] i have gone right into afib immediately. If i can chugalug a big glass of water containing a teaspoonful of potassium gluconate before it gets to that point then sometimes it will go back to NSR instead, but usually with me a run of tachy means afib here i come. I do know that others have controlled ectopics with electrolyte and taurine supplementation, though. The List contains examples of this very thing.

I think once you get your potassium intake up to our government's recommended RDA OF 4700 MG of potassium each and every day, and your magnesium intake up to bowel tolerance, you will be much less troubled with the runs of very fast hard heartbeats. Can you start now using the www.fitday.com free nutrient calculator to track your nutrient intake? It is a very educational process, bound to be helpful.

In order to help with intake of potassium containing foods, here is the best potassium info page i know about:

[lpi.oregonstate.edu]

PeggyM

"I don't drive and the station for the other HMO is in a bad section of town. "
May, take a taxicab.

Call the cab company and ask how much it will be to go from your address to the bus station, and also request that the driver walk with you to the ticket counter. If the company you call does not offer that service, call another one until you find one that does. Check with them that you can call them from your destination when you are ready to return home, too.

Do not carry your handbag, which flashes a "rob me" sign to those so inclined. Put your money in your pocket or at least in your bosom, and your important papers in a manila envelope, and carry that, but not your money, in your hand.

Tip the driver 15% of the fare, and $2 more for the walk to the counter. Ask the dispatcher you talk to on the phone to figure out the amount for a 15 % tip for you if you need to. I think you will find the dispatcher and the driver to be kind and as helpful as they are able. The tip is important, do not skip it. The bible says the worker is worthy of his hire, and we should keep to that, just as we must keep to the Golden Rule when we can. Never stiff a cabdriver, you may need his strong right arm.

PeggyM

Thank you, Peggy, for the explanation about the "episode". I know I do not get enough potassium from food even though one of my blood tests showed normal. I do not eat enough of the potassium rich foods every day. I went on fitday and started the nutrient log. I think it will show what I suspect about not getting enough potassium. Guess what? I was riddled with ectopics this afternoon. In desperation I went ahead and put 1 teaspoon of the powder into a glass of water and chugged it as you said. To my surprise, the ectopics CALMED down, to almost none. I stood there, very surprised. No, I thought, this can't be. Maybe the cold water shocked my heart into nsr? Or could the potassium have worked that quickly? Wow!
Usually at this time of night, I would be having my usual ectopics every 3 to 4 beats. My heart is still calm. I can't believe it.

Thank you, thank you all for all the great info and for being on this wonderful BB.

May

Yes, the potassium did work that quickly. Did it have any effect on your already low blood pressure?
PeggyN

Peggy, I forgot about that. I did feel a little dizzy after "chugging" it. Lasted only about 10 to 15 seconds, though. Maybe I should have used 1/2 teaspoon and "sipped" it?

May

Also, is there a minimum amount of hours between taking the magnesium during the day? I mean, some people have breakfast at 6, others at 8 or 9. How many hours should I wait before taking the 2nd and 3rd dose of magnesium? Some of us can't do the every 8 hour schedule.

Thank you

May

May
I take all my supplements including magnesium after each meal and before bed for a total of 4 doses. I don't worry if it is exactly 4 hours or such. This is the only way that I can stay on top of taking everything and I figure that is more important.
Cyndie

Cyndie, thank you. I am adding another dose of magnesium to my routine and was wondering about the hours in between. I know it sounds trivial compared to other questions on the BB, and I don't know why I obsess about things like this, but I like your method and will start doing the same in the morning.

Thanks so much!
May