On a more serious note than my previous thread–on the thread about David Goldberg, the topic of A-fib came up. My H was recently diagnosed with it, and he’s having a tough time. First of all, cutting out coffee and alcohol, but more seriously, the side effects of the medications The beta blocker he takes in the morning makes him foggy and tired, and the blood thinner (Xeralto), is very scary and can cause dangerous bleeds. Plus, he’s not sleeping well because both Afib episodes happened while he was sleeping.
To add to that, one possible trigger may be apnea, which i"m sure he has, but after five months of insurance hell, he’s only now, hopefully, scheduled for a sleep study to hopefully get a C-pap. At this point, he’s starting to think he’d like to push for an ablation to get off the meds (he’s an ex-doc, so he understands the medical issues pretty well.)
So, this whole thing has been an enormous stress, and I was wondering if others have been dealing with it and how it’s going.
It is scary. Hope your DH is doing well. Not only can afib and the meds necessary to treat it cause strokes but untreated apnea can cause cardiac problems, stroke, cognitive problems and has been associated with diabetes and atttentional problems.
@garland, I suffered from afib or something like it and it sucked. Stress brought it on and having afib is stressful so
I was caught in a vicious circle. A beta blocker did work for me and for some reason my problem disappeared.
I have a good friend who just went through this. He had his heart shocked into a regular beat. I think the first time it didn’t work. The second time the shock treatment worked. He had similar symptoms as your husband and now he is fine. My friend has sleep apnea too. Still does.
My father in law and another friend both had afib. They both did the ablation. My father in law had to do it twice. Worked for both of them.
Sorry that this illness has come up. I hope your H can find a good treatment. I can imagine that this is frustrating and scary. My mom had atrial fib for years. This began in the 70’s and shock treatment and medication did not help her.She just went along suffering and taking blood thinners. In the late 80’s she moved to florida and got a pacemaker and this was a lifesaver for her. She lasted nearly 20 years (and into old age). She took coumadin along with this. We always felt that the change of doctor due to her move was very fortuitous. My FIL also developed afib (although he was over 80 when he got it). The shock treatment did not reset things for him. He also took blood thinners, and he from time to time got side effects from them, excessive bleeding on occasion. He had other more serious problems than afib as time went on.
I have not dealt with A-fib, but I do have sleep apnea, and it was wrecking my life in all kinds of ways. Once my body got attuned to CPAP, I realized that I had grown accustomed to living on a virtual non-stop adrenaline rush – and now it’s gone.
There’s an apnea discussion board out there, and members are quick to point out that not everyone has a dramatic response to CPAP. But it can happen. Good luck.
My mother had undiagnosed afib 5 years ago and had a massive stroke. She can no longer talk or walk and is confined to a nursing home bed. She was only 77 years old and full of life when this happened. She had one warning with chest tightness and brushed it off instead of heeding the advice of her friends to go to the ER. She paid for that mistake dearly.
So very sorry to hear that, chocchip. :(.
H’s father had several strokes in his 60s, first mild ones, then a massive one which disabled him to the point of giving up and going off all medications. He died at 69–previously, before the first stroke, he piloted planes, rode a motorcycle, and lived half-time on a sailboat. It was devastating to see this happen, so H is very aware of why he needs to take it seriously. Which, of course, just adds to the stress.
This is a class action lawsuit against Xeralto.
My father was on this drug and we came to discover that he was experiencing many side effects from it that were harming his quality of life. He is now on a ‘simpler’ blood thinner (coumadin, I think) and the awful side effects are gone. You may want to google this to be aware of what to look for. It took a trip to the hosp for us to discover just how bad this drug was for my dad.
Hate to sound like Chicken Little but I do feel that I should sound a warning.
The blood thinner Warfarin (generic name) is a tried and true medication. It may not work for some folks but over the years it has been proven effective for many people, and with few side affects. However, it is like a ball & chain because you must have your blood tested several times a year, which your retired doctor husband probably already knows.
^Yes. He is balancing the problems with coumadin (blood tests but also food monitoring and restrictions), but he may reconsider.
He would like to get off medications entirely…sigh. I am hoping this becomes a possibility.
Unless something has changed, which is quite possible, I thought that patients on coumadin/warfarin had to have their protimes checked much more frequently than a few times a year. When my mom was on it she had protimes taken every week or 2, IIRC. She did not do well on generic, but was adequately managed on brand. One of the advantages of the newer anticoagulants (eliquis, xarelto, pradaxa, etc) was supposed to be the lower need for these intrusive blood tests.
I don’t know the timing (he’s not on it) but my understanding is also that it’s more often than a few times a year.
A relative had her Warfarin blood tests reduced from monthly to about every 60 days on the doctor’s recommendation. Also, he switched her from Pradaxa back to Warfarin, not quite sure why, other than her A1C really hasn’t moved much. Her A1C score is not awful but it should be lower.
^ H does not have diabetes, or anything close to it, so A1C is not an issue for him. He also has low blood pressure and low cholesterol, so this is basically just a thing that runs in his family, unfortunately.
My dad had a pacemaker implanted for his afib, and he did very well. Was this option discussed? His episodes completely stopped and he felt great - much better than before and actually energized. The stress of worrying about an attack also went away.
My father (now in his 80s) has had A-fib much of his life. He didn’t do well on one of the newer drugs. He’s been on good old warfarin for several years and, aside from the frequent blood draws to check his INR, is doing well.
thanks for all the replies and stories, folks. Even though H is a doc, this is not his area of specialty (though he knows a lot of cardiology), but besides that, it’s helpful to hear others’ experiences and outcomes. this is borderline depressing him (not that he will ever admit that), so I’m hopeful we’ll end up with a permanent outcome beyond the medications.
Pacemakers are implanted to enable higher doses of beta blockers when folks tend to have heart rates that become too low at times on beta blockers. There is something called tach/brady syndrome where heart rates vary from too slow to too fast, making dosing of medications to prevent A fib difficult. The average person with A fib would not be helped by a pacemaker.
Typically, medication is tried, cardioversion (the shock) if medication doesn’t work, then medication to keep them in a regular rhythm. There are other, more serious medications to try if beta blockers don’t help. Ablation can be wonderful, but sometimes a repeat session is needed.
An old boyfriend is having an ablation as we speak. His second. He went into a fast A fib when 2-3 days from roads canoeing the Boundary Waters. He slowly limped back to civilization with a heart rate in the 150s. Normal is 60 to 100, lower in the very fit.
The anti coags are a subject of much discussion. The statistics on Xarelto and so on are better for avoiding stoke. But the risk of severe bleed makes them scary, more so in the old and frail with fall risks.
Warfarin works, and is cheap as dirt, comes with dietary restrictions, but depending on the individual, necessitates lab work on a regular basis. More when getting started, and some people stabilize on it well, others need more frequent dose adjustments and thus more lab work.
Garland, hope that sleep study shows the way through this. And that your H complains to his Dr. about the side effects.
Garland, good luck. You know what they say about doctors being the worst patients.