Hello all, this is my first post. I am 43, decent health (with the caveat I’m about 15 lbs overweight at 6’2” and 215 lbs) and fairly active. On in August of 2016 I woke up with AFib with RVR. I headed to the Duke Medicine ER in NC in the early morning thinking I my time was up. After sitting in the bed for 15 mins ready to meet my Maker, I asked the nurse who was nonchalantly walking around that this must not be serious. She said “We see this daily. Relax, you are fine.” Needless to say, that was difficult to do. My HR was bouncing from 110 to 160 depending on what was going on. They gave me some Cardizem to slow my heart down, but it seemed to work only a little bit. The one ER doc would freak out if my rate went above 120, making me more stressed.
About an hour later, my blood tests came back. My potassium was at 2.9. So, in went the potassium… a lot of it. I converted naturally to SNR around 5 hours later. The staff thought I was on some kind of illegal drugs, given my situation. They wanted to test me. I confessed that I did drink 1-2 energy drinks and ate 1-2 pieces of 50mg caffeine gum a day. I also found out that I had undiagnosed sleep apnea when the EKG monitor kept screaming at me that I was in apnea. The nurse thought it was an error, but then I thought about the same thing happening 12 years ago… another incident of low potassium I had during a 6 mile run sending me to the ER (no afib at the time, just tachycardia with a HR over 200 and severe cramping) and the monitor barking “apnea”. So, my PCP sent me for a sleep study and I have it… badly. So now I am on CPAP and compliant with that (AHI < 0.4 over 30 days).
I’ve been free of afib runs, I think, since then. I am back on a 30-day monitor because I had two episodes over the last 2 weeks of my HR going to 80-100 bpm for 2 hours and the beats feeling VERY strong. I mean I could feel these over my whole body and the bed was shaking that I was laying on. They were regular, though, so I don’t know if I was in afib and my ventricles were trying to deal with the mess, or it was something else. One seemed to start after a week binging on high sodium snacks and sugar free drinks (non-caffeinated) and the other was when I was on travel and woke at 3am with my heart racing at 110 BPM, but went down to the 80-90 region for a few hours, though it did peak again around 3pm to 80-105 for an hour or so while sitting down.
My question is, what is the prognosis for holding off afib? I know it will come back at some point in my life, but what are the chances? I have taken better control of my diet. Cut out caffeine, sans a single cup of coffee once or twice a week if I am not feeling antsy in my chest like I do before my rare PVCs. I haven’t really drank much alcohol over the last 10 years. I make sure I follow the vitamin/mineral regiment on this website and get my potassium checked regularly.
Also, final question. If it comes back, would it be wise to tackle the beast now and get an ablation at my age with only a few attacks?
Thanks!