@susan.d Have you ever tried high-dose taurine? That helps stabilize arrhythmias for many.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotekeeferbdeefer Was reading about it a little and cortisol is highest in the morning yes that is usually the case but for some it is reversed— I know this because I have had 24 hour cortisol monitoring and mine is lowest in the morning and highest in the evening.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotewindyshores I want to try to address root causes before I am forced on a blood thinner (I have declined for 3 years). I do not take any meds but have bisoprolol and diltiazem in my bag. I cannot feel my arms on beta blockers. The ambulance and hospital use diltiazem for me but it sinks my blood pressure so I am leery of it. This last time I only took 1/4of a 30mg pill, not ER. I do try the Vby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey Carey will it be ok to continue my fish oil capsules, I hope so Not a problem. Their blood thinning effect is minor and personally I've been taking them for years with warfarin, Pradaxa, and Eliquis. I've never had any doctor voice a concern about them. I mean, really, fish oil supplements in reasonable quantity are no different from eating a typical Japanese, Mediterranby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotekeeferbdeefer They poked around and burned the tissue inside you. Think about how that might feel if it was on the outside, like your arm. It would be irritated and inflamed for a while. Your heart tissue has electric properties, which make the irritation show up as jumpy muscle tissue. It will get better. It will heal. How's your diet? Read about anti-inflammatory diets. It mightby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteElizabeth What is a non-valvular Afib, is that better than what most of us have? That is what most of us have. It is the garden variety.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
I also have Silverscript for Medicare Part D—prescriptions. My insurance advisor said that Silverscript is raising monthly premiums for 2020, so you might want to check it. I also take Eliquis and will probably need to change to another plan. I’m afraid that manufacturers’ coupons don’t work if you have Medicare.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotesusan.d I don’t know what material is used in a pacemaker but it’s foreign. My primary doctor once suggested I get the pacemaker shell implanted in my arm or leg and test it before it ever gets near my heart if I every need one. I am not a fan of pacemakers. It could fail. I won’t be able to get my MRI’s that I need. Traveling to Russia and some other countries would be risky. I witnessedby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Can you ask your EP to change this? I also have a pacer and it is set so that it records all my Afib. (I suppose my EP took into consideration my typical Afib rates.) The EP can set it anyway they want to as the newer pacers are very versatile.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteDavrosT Hi all, hope you're doing good. So does anybody on here suffer with both of the above? I mean fun fun tion I know we all suffer with the first one. I only ask as I've recently been diagnosed with CFS and I've found my afib has become much more "active". Not that I've had a fully blown (touch wood) episode yet but my heart has been increasingly irriby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteWhy is Afib given so little attention? Even if it's not going to kill you, it's considered serious, isn't it?In the ER the only attention you are likely to get is something to convert you. The ER doesn’t provide continuous care—itheir job is just to get you out of the emergency and send you home. For actual “care” for Afib, you will need an EP and EPs do take it seriously—by mby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotesusan.d Pgrove1: I was successful on flecainide from 9-14 to 3-6-19...15 year run of minimal AF. Hopefully with your 5 minute episodes you should be ok. I had a flecainide overdose (3 pills in 24 hours with 121 weight) in August, stopped flecainide and had an ablation with Dr. Natale on 9-19. .When you say that you took 3 pills in 24 hours, how many mg were the pills—50? 100?by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotepgrove1 Thanks Carey. The side effects of flecainide make me a little nervous. I know the chances of proarrhythmic side effects are very small (especially for someone with a structurally normal heart) but it’s still slightly concerning. I’m planning to do daily or at least every other day ECGs with my Apple Watch or Kardia 6L for a while just to keep an eye on things but I’m trying to just rby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Question: once the Watchman flex is approved (March-ish?) and hopefully Medicare criteria for installation are eased, will Dr. Natale be doing ablations and Watchman installations in one procedure? I ask because I have not yet had an index ablation (I’m steady on flecainide so far) but when I do, it would be nice to have a Watchman installed at the same time unless there are contraindications toby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteI would ask them to just do a stress-echocardiogram instead. No dyes, no radiation, and it's pretty much the gold standard of cardiac screening tests.Quote That was my choice too.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
I had acupuncture for many, many months in hopes of it helping prevent Afib but I didn’t notice any effect. My acupuncturist was well trained in China. He also prescribed herbs that were grown safely on a family farm—no effect sadly.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteI’m told to stop being a couch potato and start on my treadmill 5 minutes twice a day on the lowest level and work up and then go to cardio rehab after 3 months which I have a Rx anyway before the ablation to do. I am doing cardiac rehab and really recommend it. The facility I am going to gives close medical supervision and is flexible to make the most suitable program for the individual. Thby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
I certainly sympathize and would also find an explanation enlightening! I really hope your ANS figures out how to deal with this. Strangely, I did develop Neurally mediated hypotension at 62, though there had been some faint ghosts of it earlier. A recent “valve fix” helped a great deal. I had the opportunity to ask the head of the heart failure clinic at Vanderbilt if she saw a relationship bby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteLots of Symptoms but the worst is when I stand my HR increases by 30-50bpm. If you are seeing an autonomic specialist I’m sure you are aware that this must be POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). I have another type of dysautonomia (Systolic BP drops precipitously when I stand) so I am very interested in the connection between the autonomic nervous system and heart function andby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Today at rehab I met a woman who had had open heart surgery to replace a valve. She was doing really well and said how much the rehab program had helped her. I don’t know what choices you will have but she had gone with a bovine valve and it is working well. Keep us updated.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quoteamyorca Hi Daisy, Are you going to have open heart surgery? Or is it something you can have done non invasively? As Carey said, mine was done in June. It wasn’t non-invasive, but much less invasive than open heart surgery. I got a “new part” via a catheter though initially it looked like I’d need open heart surgery. The cardio thoracic surgeon I consulted with at Cedars Sinai recommendedby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey As for which to do first, I'd say do the valve first. It's the more important procedure, and also the much bigger one that will take months to reach full recovery, so get that out of the way first. It's also a good idea to do that first because sometimes valve replacement can cause afib. But if you want Natale to do the ablation, I would call his office and talk to themby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
I went to Dr. Alfredo Trento at Cedars Sinai when I was faced with mitral valve surgery. I was impressed. Cedars Sinai is rated third in the country for valve surgery from my research. My situation was less complicated and he recommended a transcatheter procedure rather than open heart. Yours is more complicated but if you want to consider traveling for a second opinion, that is a place to considby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteGeorgeN And if you had one of the new pacemakers that “stomped out” ectopics that could help. I have one of these and I think it has reduced my burden. How does it work? Some here have big complaints about ectopic? I’m happy with my solution, but others may be interested.When the pacemaker detects ectopics it speeds up for a few seconds. The heart will follow the pacemaker’s higher, bby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteGeorgeNMost of my episodes would come on at 3AM. I noticed that if there were a couple of ectopics in a two minute monitoring, it was very likely I'd wake up in afib. And if you had one of the new pacemakers that “stomped out” ectopics that could help. I have one of these and I think it has reduced my burden.by Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteIngrid Daisy Thanks for your response. It was very helpful. Do you still have AF episodes? Do you have any side effects from the flecainide or Eloquis? How long did you have Afib before you had the pacemaker and how long have you had Afib for? IngridI haven’t had one since January, and that was at a time I had some flu-like illness—inflammation and dehydration can bring it on. I take aby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Ingrid, Others can tell you more but I can comment on some things. I also had a low resting heart rate, about 47 daytime and 43 at night. I never found that flecainide had much effect on heart rate but the beta blocker you need to take with it, will—as will diltiazem, which is the main point of taking it when you have an episode. I used it during episodes in the several years before I realiby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteCarey That kind of success rate combined with the near total lack of complications (a single pericardial effusion in the whole study), the speed (avg. 92 minutes), the lack of need for general anesthesia, and the lack of risk to the esophagus and phrenic nerve makes this nothing short of huge. The afibbers out there who are considering ablation but haven't done it yet should seriouslyby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteThe Anti-Fib Is anyone having success using Drugs to Convert out of AFIB? I know many have used Flecainide with some success. How about other Drugs like Propapfenone, Amio or Illbuteride? Specifically I am wondering about how people feel before they convert to NSR. I can often convert using Flecainide, but it causing a sort of drug-induced Heart Failure. I feel queasy and uneasy, haby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuotePompon Here in EU, we're usually very cautious about names we write in our posts. Common use is to only give our Dr's name in private messagesI’m curious about this caution. If someone is looking for an excellent EP in a certain geographical region, it would seem that the best way to help them would be to post the names of EPs whom members have knowledge of or experience with. Thatby Daisy - AFIBBERS FORUM