Rocksteady heart for one week vacation then back to PAC hell with brief afib

So for the last two months or so I have been getting very frequent ectopics and episodes of a fib every second or third day that only last for 5 to 15 minutes sometimes less. It is gotten so bad I have begun the process of scheduling an ablation in Bordeaux.

Last week my family and I went to Los Angeles and San Diego for a weeks vacation in Disney land among other things. The first day or two my heart was a little shaky in the morning but it went away upon getting up and for the remainder of the vacation it was great. In fact things of been so bad I figured they couldn't get much worse so I pretty much did what I wanted, eating a lot of crappy food, had the occasional beer and just generally enjoyiedmyself. Despite all this bad behavior my heart barely acted up at all and was the best it's been for over six months. It was like I had my old life back.
Went back to work on Monday and all was well but I'm under a great deal of stress at work and have been for a while, by Tuesday night things started acting up and remained bad for most of the evening. Today starting around noon I have had constant ectopics that just won't go away no matter what I do.

Trying to figure out what gave me that relief last week, was it just the lack of stress? I know that stress is a huge trigger for me and my very first episode occurred during a period of high high stress but I find it hard to believe that can be the entirety of it.

I'm tempted to think that maybe I'm paying for the sins of last week today, but keep in mind that the week before I left things were terrible and I was doing absolutely everything that I should.

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this?

Monty



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2013 09:36PM by montos.

Monty, Are you able to take flecanide? It has helped me immensely. Just 50mg twice a day. No noticeable side effects. But 50mg x 2 is not a significant dosage, which is probably why I'm not having any side effects. Also taking 25mg atenolol x 2 and using the supplements recommended on this forum.
Cheers,
Ralph

Monty are you taking a lot of supplements? Did you continue the same on your holiday.

I went through the same thing recently on a two week holiday to an all inclusive. No stress was likely a big part of the improvement. I was eating differently though. Our meals were at fairly regular times and I did not have a lot of opportunity to snack in between, especially that late night fridge raid. I only took supplements in the morning, instead of throughout the day like I do at home.

The only answer I have is a need for another 2 week holiday to continue with the experiment!!

Heck yes, it is the stress. My heart was stable after my ablation for about 2 months prior to seeing my EP at 3 mos. The week before I saw him I had a run of ectopics including some tachy. During my visit my BP was 155/95 vs usual 125/75. It calmed down about 2 weeks later - seeing doctors stress the heck out of me. (BTW studies have shown an upswing in ectopics, post ablation about the 3 month period - so I'm not alone in this situation.) Stress at my job is what started the whole mess, arrhythmias, IBS, prostate infection, boils, you name it...way too many years of dealing with stupid people and bad politics. I now live to avoid stressors.

Tom

"BTW studies have shown an upswing in ectopics, post ablation about the 3 month period - so I'm not alone in this situation"

Interesting. Do you happen to have saved the link?

No, but I found the info while scrutinizing articles on markers that indicate the likelihood of ablation success or failure.

Hi Monty - Yes.. you have to give high marks to stress as a very strong influence... but what else? You were away from home... what might be in the home environment? What about electropollution at home that you didn't have last week..or in an office loaded with electronics and WiFI? . or other environmental triggers such as offgassing from new furniture, carpeting? Construction? Since you were so reactive at the onset to the root canal treatment chemicals... I strongly suspect you have some environmental sensitivity that is acting as a trigger. It could be very difficult to sleuth out but is definitely worth consideration because it's going to continue to be an influence over your heart...no question.

If you are in stress-overdrive 24/7 now that you are home and back at work, the cortisol issue could easily be driving your constant adrenergic tone so finding a means to get into parasympathetic at the appropriate times would be useful.

Jackie

So to answer all the questions:

Ralph, I have never tried Flecande but I have propafenone that I use as pill in pocket though I am very reluctant to begin taking it daily. Do you find the flec helps with your ectopics?

RonB - Because things had gotten so bad I pretty much went off all my supplements to see if that would help and it wasn't doing much for the week before I left on vacation.

Tom - I certainly wish I could retire :-) but at this point that's not an option. I thought my new job was going to be a lower stress option but it turns out to be the same or worse.

Jackie - We had Wi-Fi in our room and it's pretty much everywhere you go. Though I was walking around outside most the time. At home I turn my Wi-Fi off at night when I go to bed so it minimizes my exposure time, but my neighbors all have Wi-Fi as well. I've always wondered if this house that I live in is making me sick though it's 23 years old so all the offgassing should be done by now I would think. We have carpet in our bedroom but the rest of the house is hardwood and all of the doors and baseboards and casings are all real wood.

Getting parasympathetic tone higher I think is not the solution. Lowering adrenergic tone is. I think what happens is that my sympathetic tone gets out of control because of all the stress and then the parasympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive to compensate and that's when all the ectopic start. Lately it's been getting worse and I will get them standing up but if I break into a run or get my heart rate up a little bit , they will stop.

When I'm all stressed out everything is good, it's later in the evening when I'm relaxing that it hits me hard.

Monty

HI Monty,
Yes, I had lots of ectopics for many years, possibly going back to early 1980's. Always took atenolol for my HBP. Over the past 5 years the ectopics increased in frequency and duration, sometimes lasting all day, subsiding at night, then resuming during the day again. I take all of the critical supplements recommended here and it has helped but not enough to completely eliminate the ectopics and subsequent AF. I haven't had any ectopics or AF since I began taking flec on Feb 26. Previously, my AF had been coming at regular 3-5 week intervals along with the ectopics.