Let's talk Afib for a second........
 

OK, so I know this guy who's had two "episodes" today.

All the sudden, his heart rate goes crazy like a massive shot of adrenaline, chest hurts, starts sweating, can't catch his breath, gets a little dizzy. Some minor shaking goes along with it.
the first episode this morning lasted about 30 seconds and them all the sudden, his heart goes back to normal all by itself but he still felt a little weak and a little tight in the chest.

Then about an hour ago same thing only worse, lasted over a minute. Afterward he went to the bathroom and lost his lunch.
His blood pressure yesterday was 130 over 92, borderline high. No medications.
He's not a hospital type guy but plans to go see a doctor tomorrow.

Question time: should be update his will or is it not that big of a deal?

sounds great..
better yet why bother going at all..
he's going to die anyway ...right..

if you covet his job or don't like him..
tell him it's a great idea...

Sam...get his tail to a Dr. now


Rika

That's not typical. I probably would have seen a heart doc today, 'bout an hour ago
JR

A-fib is generally not immediately dangerous, but does need attention from a cardiologist to determine the cause. Because A-Fib is an extremely inefficient pumping action of the heart beating out of sequence, there is a tendency for the blood to pool and thereby significantly increase the risk of a clot that could cause a stroke.

There are many causes, sometimes too much caffeine, dehydration, alcohol or perhaps an extracurricular electrical circuit that the heart has grown over time which causes the electrical misfire. He needs a full cardio workup to determine why. Most likely he will continue to have them, perhaps with increasing frequency.

I have had two episodes of A-fib about 15 years apart, full cardio workups and they could figure out why other than I was producing too much adrenlin at the time of each. My episodes lasted about three days each before I spontaneously converted back to a normal synous rhythm.

Good luck.

Not something to mess around with.
Take a couple aspirin, lie down and get an ambulance!

fwiw: Walking around every 1/2hr keeps the blood circulating, and prevents edema and/or clots in the legs.
(The veinous check valves and external muscle pumping is the only thing that returns leg blood back to the filters and pump.)

Staff should also know the signs of a stroke:
-Unequal iris size,
-Unable to lift both arms,
-Unable to speak coherently.

Those symptoms warrant an immediate trip to the ER. It's not just the A fib or tachycardia - It's the angina, sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness and vomiting that would have me on the way to the closest hospital.

After posting my previous reply and thinking further, how did he know it was A-Fib? He needs to have an immediate cardiac enzyme test to determine. It could have been a heart attack. I did not vomit with A-fib and have known others with A-fib who did not vomit either.

Please encourage him to find out exactly what happened as soon as possible.

sammy, this sound exactly like my allergic reaction to chocolate.

how does the guy and/or you know that he was in a-fib?

Yeah…I had afib for years - this guy's symptoms don't sound like afib at all.

+1

BTW, you used the past-tense - how did you get rid of your symptoms?

Afib = uneducated conclusion based on interweb research.
He who diagnoses himself has a fool for a patient.

Took a cardiologist and I a couple years, ultimately ending with me wearing a monitor for 4-weeks round the clock (my episodes never occur during office hours, natch), to diagnose atrial fibrillation. There are several other diagnoses on the table, some of them a lot worse - and immediately life threatening - than afib. He needs to get his arse to an ER.

First time it happened to me, it was sort of a surreal experience. I walked up to the ER triage desk in a nice blue suit in the middle of the afternoon and gave the lady a big smile. "How can I help you sir?" "Yes, I'm experiencing mild chest pain, dizziness, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath...my GP told me to get over here immediately."

I blinked and I was in a wheelchair. Blinked again and I was shirtless and had a bunch of electrodes on me.

Best of luck to your colleague. Let us know how it turns out.

This "guy you know" needs to be seen before he has an event that doesn't stop by itself. A-fib is one thing. SVT or VT is another. VT can be a show stopper and SVT needs fixing. Best case scenario; its not cardiac. Worst case scenario has him fix'n to assume room temp.

Hope you're not referring to yourself.

I would have been at a doc same day.

Mr B, I am with you

It sounds cardiac, but it ain't atrial fibrillation, no way.

If he is lucky it is some sort of allergic reaction. If not, well...

he should seek medical attention very soon...

Yea, I have done the monitors too, as like taking a car a shop, the problem wouldn't show at the docs, but I suffer from it was well:(

To make matters worse, my 76 year old Mother ended up in the hospital with it last week, they are trying meds on her 1st.:

That happened to me when I had the tilt test, really sucked & I sweated so much, that the electrodes started falling off & the nurse called the doctor since I pretty much just started the test.

As others have said, he needs to see a cardiologist and most likely one that specializes in electrophysiology.

Last Xmas I was at a party and started feeling the same after I had dessert. I never felt this way before and figured it was time to go to the ER. ER docs said I had tachycardia as my heart was racing! Gave me some meds and I was headed home after a couple hours. Had that feeling every so often since then and keep checking my bp until my monitor said I had arrythmia. Kept monitor it and talked to my regular doc and he said it happens from time to time as I'm getting older.

I went to the ER a few months ago for a kidney stone and the the ER doc and nurses couldn't get the monitors to read my heart rate as it was too low. They had to measure by feeling my pulse as it dropped down to 30 bpm. Got meds for my kidney stone and talked to my doc about the arrythimia. He did an EKG and he sent me to a cardiologist/electrophysiologist. The EKGs have always showed normal until now. They put me on a Holter monitor that I had to wear for a day and it showed I had PVCs (premature ventricular contractions). All I can say is that crap hurts when it kicks in and lasts for about an hour. Meds have helped it, but I still get them. The cure for my PVCs is surgery, but it isn't bad enough to require it yet.

My mind is a little more relaxed as I'm not going to die, but I still don't feel that great. Meds make me very tired, but I'm still alive. My advice, GO SEE A DOCTOR ASAP!

Been living with AF for around 5-6 years. Vomiting is not associated with AF unless he is perhaps having an anxiety attack. Either way Sammy get him to ER. My last bout was 4 hours with HR at 185bpm. They were going to use the paddles to 'whack' me back into rythm and I asked if I could pee before they did. Did'nt want to pee myself when they shocked me as I was bustin'. I stood up, started peeing into the bottle and bingo! HR back to normal. Still on beta blockers and aspirin to keep it under control.
Good luck, hope it turns out well.

+1

My wife has an AFIB event every once and so often.
The meds don't seem to work to bring her out of it. We have been told to get into ER ASAP where she is "converted" back to her normal self by getting wacked by the paddles.
Thankfully she is very fit and this happens very rarely.
She has had a full diagnostic work up here and also at a very good hospital in the Boston area and it is still a mystery as to why this happens to her.

Nothing to fool around with. Get into your doc asap and if it happens again into ER.

Short answer - reduced my stress levels by changing jobs.

Long answer - I began having afib episodes about 12 years ago (at age 37). Afib was confirmed by EKG. My episodes were almost daily and lasted anywhere from 30 minutes to sometimes 6-8 hours. Had every check known to man done (cardiac stress tests with CT scans, echos, etc) and had no underlying cause or heart issue. Was prescribed Toprol (beta blocker) at a small dose.

I then jumped in with both feet and learned everything I could possibly learn about afib. I tried everything in the world to identify and eliminate "triggers" but couldn't really find anything. I stopped taking the Toprol when I began to see that my episodes seemed to be more "vagal" than "adrenergic".

I ended up changing jobs (for another reason) and found that I was way more stressed out at my previous employer than I realized. Since changing jobs I went from almost daily episodes to maybe 5 episodes in the last 5 years. The last one I had was about a year ago.

Every once in awhile I feel that "flutter" of my rhythym starting to mess up and usually I can take a couple of breaths (hard to explain) and it goes away. It's awesome.

Sorry for the rambling post...

What's the latest word?

My mother grandmother say the both have then occasionally, and if they cough, the afib in stops. Both were nurses, but have no explanation.

vagal nerve response.

a very strong cough, valsalva maneuver, head in ice water, can convert a-fib, among other non-medicinal activities.

Bill K, sounds like she needs a Holter monitor, for a while.


Sammy, you didn't up and die of a heart attack did you?

Sammy???

Going to be hard for him to answer that if he did!

Nah...we've got this new healthcare system now....Messiahcare :D

ps: Now if that doesn't get Sammy back posting, then I'm gonna wonder....

Hope it turned out well and everythings still tickin'.

Anyone have sammy's contact info? Could you check w/ him?

I hope he's been admitted and getting a full cardiac work up. That surely didn't sound like afib. Spent two days in icu this past July with afib and it was nothing like what Sammy described.

This is not a schedule appt with gp stuff, it's go to ER now stuff.

Well, he hasn't logged in since the 21st.
Hope this is just a social experiment and that he is just on holidays without access to the internet.

Could somebody local to Sammy check on him please?

This doesn't seem to be real promising. Writing about what could well have been life-threatening arrhythmia symptoms then dropping off the board...

Where does Sammy live? Does he have a wife/kids?

He should pay attention to the brain trust here and get himself to the ER or his doc ASAP...(ask me how I know)

Sammy lives in Anaheim/Orange. I sent a member what I think is his phone #. I'm in Colorado for the holidays.

like many..
I'm pretty sure the friend he mentioned was him..
hopefully he took our advice...
as it almost took a SWAT team response to get Targa moving..

Rika

I remember that.

Hopefully he is just busy with real life.

I'm fine, in Wickenburg Az. visiting parents.
Lots o'meds, lots o'tests. everything looked fine 'cept the enzime results ???.
More stuff nxt week.