Probiotics ?

I'm now within the 30 day window to my PFA.

Episode last night with some gurgling in the abdomen and more gurgling this a.m.

I'm pretty much just taking my Eliquis and supplementing with Mg with an occasional glass of V8.

Anybody else here supplement with probiotics? I have my normal blood work appt next week, fasting.
Is there any other test I might request that would or could provide insight into gut health IF something
is out of whack?

Or too close to PFA to start tinkering with any additional supplements?

And my monthly Loop Recorder report was scheduled for this a.m., usually 7 eastern, so that will be a fresh report to
either send or not send on to TCA showing last nights activity. This is the first episode that will get the "past 24 hours review" numbers vs the usual event flagging. I had made it 3 weeks without an episode.

I wouldn't start any new supplements now if I were in your shoes.

Something to think about:

If the 'atrial kick' is responsible for as much as 40% of stroke volume (and, therefore, cardiac output), and afib is disrupting/diminishing your atrial kick, this could mean that -- when you're in afib -- your cardiac output is temporarily reduced.

Which has the body going into Plan B Mode:

[myhealth.alberta.ca]

One of the first systems that the body is designed to shut down (ie, send less blood to that place and prioritize sending more blood to more critical places) is the abdomen -- GI stuff. It can wait. There are mastodons to be slayed.

This is well proven in heart failure patients.

[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

It's also well proven in young, healthy subjects during exercise:

[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

So, it's entirely possible -- maybe even likely -- that your GI stuff is a temporary side effect of your afib episode(s). If that's true, then ... while probiotics probably wouldn't hurt, they probably won't help much either ;-)

None of this is to say that you have Heart Failure, incidentally, although "heart failure" essentially means that your heart isn't putting out enough blood to meet the body's metabolic demand. In this very strict and limited sense, some people can have temporary 'heart failure' if afib is decreasing their output as I described above.

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Carey
I wouldn't start any new supplements now if I were in your shoes.

Thanks, Carey.

With your experience of 6 ablations, I have another question. What happens IF I have an episode the morning of my PFA? Either early hours or right before or while I'm there since I haven't been told what time to show up yet. Do they cancel it? Try to get me out of AF and proceed as planned? Thanks~!

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NBeener
Something to think about:

If the 'atrial kick' is responsible for as much as 40% of stroke volume (and, therefore, cardiac output), and afib is disrupting/diminishing your atrial kick, this could mean that -- when you're in afib -- your cardiac output is temporarily reduced.

I didn't read the first link since I'm not "young" and apparently not healthy either.

The second one, very complex. Above my pay grade. Last echo, back in January, they said I do have some diastolic dysfunction. When I check my BP here at home, it is always good, only one time was it elevated while systolic was on lower side.

Some anxiety is creeping in, more than usual. Eating similar but I have tried to exercise a little more to build up stamina vs before I was avoiding it because of the AF "eggshell" mindset.

I just want to hang in there and make to the Big Day and not have an episode especially that night or day as the day gets closer.

I wonder how long after the PFA it takes to not ALWAYS worry when I wake up in the middle of the night to just go to the restroom or wake up in the morning and see and normal heart rate and not a AF high rate? The constant sense of dread & eggshells of AF is strong~!

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Qwackertoo
I didn't read the first link since I'm not "young" and apparently not healthy either.

The second one, very complex. Above my pay grade. Last echo, back in January, they said I do have some diastolic dysfunction. When I check my BP here at home, it is always good, only one time was it elevated while systolic was on lower side.

No worries. I only include citations like those as a reference for any who are interested.

The fact that one was a study about 'young, healthy' subjects doesn't mean it's irrelevant to you. It means that the dynamic I described happens, even in young and healthy people. It tends to happen more in people who are only one of the two, or who are neither of the two ;-)

"Diastolic dysfunction" is now commonly called HFpEF -- Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction. What that means, in this context, is that you do have some degree of diagnosed HF, which makes what I'm suggesting far more likely in your case: afib is temporarily lowering your cardiac output, and quite likely causing whatever GI symptoms you're experiencing.

Good luck on the PFA!

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Qwackertoo
With your experience of 6 ablations, I have another question. What happens IF I have an episode the morning of my PFA? Either early hours or right before or while I'm there since I haven't been told what time to show up yet. Do they cancel it? Try to get me out of AF and proceed as planned? Thanks~!

Then you lucked out. Being in afib during the procedure makes it easier for them to identify the sources of afib, so they will happily proceed and hope you stay in afib until they've got catheters in there.

Yes, that's actually the best case scenario...natural and contemporary AF as you're being put under for the ablation. I was in AF for all three of the angiogram and first and second ablations. This way, you don't need to have adenosine or isoproterenol administered to get your heart to squawk.

Thank You Carey & gloaming

I did not know this. One less thing for me to worry & wonder about. I had already started wondering about What If's . . . after traveling all the way and in the hotel and following my 3 nights extra in Austin with nice little B&B stay in East Texas then rest of travel home to break things up a little bit.

Whew~!

I haven't been assigned my nurse in the AF clinic @ TCA just yet but should be in next couple of weeks with pre-op and post-op instructions.

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I haven't been assigned my nurse in the AF clinic @ TCA just yet but should be in next couple of weeks with pre-op and post-op instructions.

You may well have a different nurse giving you pre-op instructions than the nurse-navigator who will be assigned to you post-ablation. Nurse-navigators are like angels (at least mine was!) always available for about a year after your procedure, plus the weekly checkins. I am pretty sure that it was another nurse who gave me detailed pre-op instructions. You won't get your hospital arrival time until the day before. If you are "first up" that means arriving about 5:15 am.

By the way, I was in flutter when I was wheeled into the EP lab and that was a boon as it switched back and forth between flutter and Afib during the ablation.

Thanks Daisy~! Good to know. Many of my most recent episodes have been right around 6 a.m. upon wakening so there is a chance I could be in AF day of but was worried they'd send me home and reschedule.