simethicone

The past 5 months I have had afib three times, for 15 minutes each. The reason the episodes are so short is that I have discovered that simethicone (Gas-X) ends the afib by inducing burping. I no longer call the ambulance and I don't take diltiazem even though my heart rate on the kardia was 185. I live alone and call someone to chat, which also helps. I got dressed to do to the hospital, burped, and got back in my pj's. I pray that this continues to work.

One question: if I call my EP he will tell me to take Eliquis for a month. My arms are covered with bruises and I have a weeping wound on one arm.

For those of you with pill in a pocket anticoagulation, what is your protocol for when to take and for how long?

Quote
windyshores
For those of you with pill in a pocket anticoagulation, what is your protocol for when to take and for how long?

This is a recommendation in 2024 from the staff of a top EP as coming from the doc: "If you have events lasting longer than 6 hrs- take the OAC at 6 hr point & continue taking for 48 hrs past conversion back to Normal rhythm. "

I found when I was in AF that I belched a lot. The belching came on after the onset of AF, but it helped to reduce the tension or pressure to do that.

It's amazing, really, how varied AF is between individuals. My SIL, along with many thousands who have paroxysmal AF, finds it coming on when she gets into bed. So, it's Vagal. The rest of we-the-unwashed suffer during the day, so it has to be adrenergic. When I went to bed at night, that was the only time, with 100% reliability, that I could count on my heart calming and I could slip off into sleep.

Back to burping. I swallow air. I do it while asleep as a CPAP user, and I do it when ingesting or just sitting at the computer. Part of my bedtime routine for ten years now is to get into our hot tub for a few minutes. Drying off my body afterwards, with my torso bent and my leg up on the side of the bathtub, indoors now, causes me to burp several times. If I don't do this, I have to sit up in bed and do it, which kinda ruins the whole routine of slipping away. But, by doing it the routine way, I am relaxed, don't have the distension (and its attendant tension), and my heart would calm itself.

Quote
GeorgeN

For those of you with pill in a pocket anticoagulation, what is your protocol for when to take and for how long?

This is a recommendation in 2024 from the staff of a top EP as coming from the doc: "If you have events lasting longer than 6 hrs- take the OAC at 6 hr point & continue taking for 48 hrs past conversion back to Normal rhythm. "

I think that advice would be in the scenario that the patient would get back into NSR within a relatively short period of time, like < 48 hours. If an episode was persistent lasting longer than that, the standard conservative guidance is 30 days of NSR after an episode. I had an EP that was convinced my stroke risk was very low, so he said 2-3 weeks was long enough.

Although there are guidelines, this issue is a judgment call based on the persons baseline stroke risk. Personally if it was me, and I had only 3 episodes in 5 months lasting about 15 minutes, then I wouldn't bother with anti-coagulation at all. I did alot of research and the risk of a clot forming with 15 minutes is very low based on this research.

In my case, I never covert back to NSR shorter than 18 hours, so I start an anticoagulant immediately, then if I can convert out within 48 hours, I stop the anticoagulant the next day, If I am in AFIB for longer than that, and end up having to get a cardioversion, then I take the anticoagulant for several weeks afterward.

Also, if I was constantly in and out of AFIB over an extended period of time, even if the episodes were of short duration, then my Dr. would want me to be on anticoagulants until I had maintained NSR for 30 days.

My EP told me to do Eliquis for a month despite the fact that the episode in question was only 15 minutes (and I have no other risk factors blood pressure lowish, no diabetes etc.). I didn't take any. It's been awhile and apparently I am safe.

Still doing low sodium V-8, magnesium, eating dinner early, never reclining after eating, only lying on right side. Trying to avoid stress. I think my afib may be both vagal and adrenergic, but mostly vagal?

Thanks for the responses!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2025 03:29AM by windyshores.