I’m new here, and I wanted to share my odd entrance into the world of afib.

My first big episode came after a birthday party with dinner, dessert, and wine. . . And probably too much of each.

The part that intrigues me is that my afib didn’t show up alone. It came with a condition known as Notalgia Paresthetica, which also has the same triggers.
[www.practicalpainmanagement.com]
The NP is nearly as disturbing as the afib.
When I was seen for my afib, I asked the doctor about a “creepy crawly” feeling below my left shoulder blade prior to or with the afib episode.
When no one could tell me anything, I took a wild stab and Googled “creepy crawly left shoulder blade”.
And there it was . . ,

To this day it astounds me that they seem to be twins, and again, they have the same triggers - food, exercise, etc.
I still maintain that there is some link.

Also, I wanted to add that I had noticed an increase in PACs for several years before my first afib episode, but they were dismissed as benign.
It seems to me that while I don’t seem to have afib episodes lately, the PACs may be happening more frequently.
My EP seems to think that it might be good to do a cryo ablation to hopefully stop it before it progresses.

Hi Grover, welcome to the forum.

Nice bit of sleuthing you did there to find the diagnosis. I'd never heard of NP before. But what do you mean by "they seem to be twins?" Do you mean your afib and NP get set off at the same times?

Thanks Carey.

Well, they are twins in the sense that they both appeared together. They are both still there.
Usually, the NP seems a bit more sensitive, meaning that it is often a precursor to arrhythmias. The NP will actually start to tingle and then burn with a trigger.
In general though they seem to occur at the same time.