One episode

I am an RN ...practicing for 30 years, and the personal experience I have had with healthcare leads me to avoid the current conventional care unless necessary. I experienced a self limiting episode of atrial fib several years ago. We had pizza late one night and mine had green peppers, so to avoid heartburn from them, I chewed 4 Tums and went to bed. I want to comment that I hadn't taken Tums in over 15 years. I woke up about 2 hours later to pee and felt funny. I then realized my heart was beating with the classic irregularly irregular rhythm of A Fib. I was not short of breath. No chest pain. Not dizzy. The rate was somewhere around 120. My 19 year old son was awake so I went and sat with him because I was a bit nervous. He put his ear to my heart, and was very concerned to hear the rhythm and wanted me to go to the hospital.... But my personal belief that the less medication the better kept me home. Realizing the potential risks, I did take 4 baby aspirin. Over the next 60 minutes, I found myself having the need to urinate every 15 min or so, and not just a little bit. After about 75 min or so from the onset of the A Fib, I was just sitting still, but felt something like a "click", and then realized I had converted back to a NSR. I then went back to bed, and haven't experienced it again since. I chock this episode up to the burst of calcium provided by the Tums I took. Not taking them again! I think by waiting it out, I save myself a hospital admission, an administration of IV calcium channel blockers, and possibly a Rx for anticoagulants!

I think having that kind of knowledge helps you make the best decisions possible about if and when to get medical attention, weighing benefits against the risks. In addition to my limited (but growing) medical understanding, I rely heavily on my niece for this, who fortunately is an RN in an EP lab.

I hope your assessment is correct and you never have afib again.

I don't remember having a frequent need to urinate when I was in AFib (not in the beginning, before I went in for a diagnosis, and not more recently). A lot of others have been reporting this.

I had a weeklong episode of AFib about 8 years, when I was on a weeklong bike ride (averaging 80 hilly miles a day) and the temperature every day was over 100 degrees (about 10 degrees above normal). I don't remember now if it was actually nonstop during that time, or just very frequent, but from memory my heart seemed to be in AFib during that whole time. I think it was my distrust of the medical system that kept me from running to the doctor to have it looked at, since otherwise I felt fine. And, in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't, since I didn't have another episode until 6 years later.

That's interesting; that taking all those Tums might have caused your episode. I wonder if I need to stop taking calcium (when I was trying to manage mine through dietary changes alone I had been taking supplemental calcium during that time).

And, you're right, if you'd gone to the emergency room, you likely would have been put on anticoagulants for life.

Hi Tirednurse & Diane,
Having to urinate in AFIB episodes is very common as a result of the additional ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) hormone release inside the atrium that AFIB episodes often trigger in excess. It causes 'the big pee' in most cases though may become less with time as the body adapts somewhat as part of the overall remodeling process.
Shannon

I can relate to your experience. My first afib event was after eating pizza. Subsequent events that occurred during my sleep were traced to taking a calcium supplement at bedtime. I was unaware of the importance then of optimizing intracellular magnesium and potassium.

Among the many considerations noted in your post, is that an intake of calcium (especially if you are low in intracellular stores of magnesium) will often be a trigger as calcium is excitatory if it dominates heart cells.... so it may have been the excess calcium load from the Tums, but could just as easily have been the high sodium load in the Pizza. Again, if you are marginal in potassium stores and then have a high sodium intake, afib can be the result. Adding to either or both of those deficiencies (the Mg or K) is the fact that a high-carb meal load helps deplete stored magnesium and potassium due to the metabolic requirements for insulin production.

You are wise to consider your dietary intake choices and assess nutrient values for the critical electrolytes needed for proper heart function.
There is an abundance of related reports that you can scan through to get an idea of the many complexities that are involved with atrial fibrillation....check this link: [www.afibbers.org].

We welcome you to this group. We are all here to help guide you to research resources.
Jackie