I’m back…cautionary tale!

I was pretty active in this forum in 2018 following my Cardiac Cryoablation with multiple complications and being then put on Amiodarone. Long story short I quit all alcohol, started Magnesium and Taurine and quit my obsessive running (I was training for a 50k when afib first started becoming a burden for me). I went off Amiodarone and Eliquis (after having black smelly, loose stools) and have been pretty much afib free until last month. I had it in my head that I could start running again, and did so with my cardiologist ok, and 4 months into marathon training I’m having short episodes of afib. I am signed up for 2 marathons, one this weekend. I’m just whining but I know some of you will understand.

Yes, I have done the same. I figure out that something might be a trigger, I wait a few days to blunt the tendency, and then try the same thing again. I think I can hear Einstein sighing.

Couldn't you at least reduce your addiction to half marathons?

How old are you? How long are your episodes? Are they very Symptomatic?

The important thing is if they are self-terminating in short order.

Yes.. going to reduce to half marathons. After these next 2. I’m 62 and episodes at this point are short duration, 5-10 min. With a resting heart rate in the 50’s anything above about 110 at rest causes symptoms like SOB and anxiety. Counting my blessings it’s not worse. Thanks.

I wish I could be more sanguine about your circumstances, but my learning and experience suggest strongly to me that you won't have a good time of it. I may be wrong about your case, but the nature of AF, and its progenitors, means that any previous activity that has brought it on in the past is even more likely to make it recur over the long run. It's a progressive disorder, so you should not be surprised if you get even more AF over the coming months if you enable the usual known triggers. Additionally, you should hope that it retains is occasional nature and doesn't become 'persistent' AF.

Patti - this book

The Haywire Heart

[www.amazon.com]