atrial fibulation???

so i get home from the hosp sunday and had to go back on monday with my heart beating out of my chest,,after all the cat scans and echo cardiograms they say i have a condition known as atrial fibulation,,aparently i have always had it,,and i do rememeber a time or two where my heart would skip a bit for a second but nothing like this,,,just got back home thurs with toprol as the med for this,,has anyone else had this happen to them,,? they say it's from the strain on the body and the heartmucles after a surgery and is not uncommon..Hmmmmmm...what say you guy's??

I have the same thing and also take Toprol. I am trying to ween myself off of it though; I'm at 50mg from 250mg. 5 more days and I will be off of it, then to see how I feel. Never just quit this medicine, you have to do it slowly!

I did take an extra dose this morning. I'm having an extremely stressful day.

250?? wow,,i had another attack last night in the middle of the night,,i called the cardiac nurse this morning and they upped it to 100 mg in the morning and 5omg at night,,I was sent home with 50 mg twice a day but it looks like that was not going to be enough,,:(

Donna,
I hope you checked with your doctor about weaning your medicine? If you have afib, you're at a higher risk for stroke because the heart beats irregularly and causes the blood to get stirred up in ways that may cause clots. As a nurse who has taken care of many, many stroke victims I would urge you to make sure your doctor is on board with this. If I'm overreacting please, excuse me. It's just that I had a 45 year old man die of a stroke not long ago because he stopped his medicine so I'm a little sensitive. I don't mean to overstep, I'm just trying to help. It's hard to separate my nurse self from the rest of my life. No matter what, I wish you health and happiness! Truly!

I had an episode of atrial fibrillation about 4 years ago, went to my doctor, who sent me to the ER immediately since my pulse rate was over 200 bpm. The cardiologist there tried to cardiovert me back to normal rhythm with medication, which didn't work. So, they put me under anesthesia and cardioverted me by shocking the heart back to normal sinus rhythm.

I was put on Diltiazem to help maintain the normal rhythm, and everything was fine. After talking to the cardiologist last year, we decided to stop the medication and see if the atrial fibrillation came back, and so far it hasn't, which is good, since it's a horrible feeling, having your heart beat so fast and out of rhythm. The doctors all think that the atrial fibrillation was caused by an extraordinarily stressful time in my life, and I think they're right.

The wls didn't cause the a fib to come back.

Good luck!

Caroline

 My boyfriend has this.  He had an attack a few years ago and spent a few days in the hospital.  After a while he was weaned off the medication and then about 2 years ago he had another attack.  That time he spent several weeks in the hospital with several attempts to shock his heart back into rhythm.  It took months for him to get better.  Now he has to take the medication for the rest of his life.  There is a procedure that can fix the problem, I don't know off hand what it is but if it happens again he's going to try it.

The procedure you are thinking of could it be cardiac ablation?

wow, i do that now and ive not had surgery, was told i had cardiac arithmia... sometimes it happens mostly when i lay down at night and it will feel like my whole bed is shaking. my heart racing and i have caught myself getting up to wlak around to get it to slow down.. scary... i only do this every great once in awhile but i guess its not to dangerous. nobody has gave me meds for it ..i guess its something that can gradually go away right ??
 

when i got to the hosp for it they put some stuff that took about 5 minutes to go into my IV and it automatically stopped the abnormal rythym,,God i was so happy,,,it is a very uncomfortable feeling,,aparently they say alot of people don't know they have it till they have an attack,,it is a life long illness i was told,,the two top vessels don't squeeze out all the blood and eventually pools there and can become clots,,they have a comercial on it on tv for the new med out for it ,,pradaxa i think it's called ,,if you have this abnormal rythym tell your doctor before your surgery,,,better to be safe .

Atrial fibrillation can be different in different people. Many people, my cardiologist says most people, don't feel the abnormal rhythm and only find out they have it during an EKG. For many people, particularly older people, it's a chronic condition and they stay in that rhythm all the time. They're usually put on coumadin since the real risk of atrial fibrillation is that the quivering in the upper chambers (atria) of the heart can cause blood clots which can lead to stroke.

What I had was called lone atrial fibrillation and it's considered a one time thing, not a sign of heart disease.

Absolutely, surgeons and anesthesiologists need to know if you have atrial fibrillation, whether you're currently in normal sinus rhythm or not.

Caroline