Sad tonight....Atrial Fib, again!

sleepyDB wrote:I discovered I had SA after two scary episodes of Atrial Fibrillation. My cardiologist asked me to have a sleep study after he ruled out lots of other possible causes. Once we learned of my severe SA, we thought it was the reason for the A-fib attacks. Well, it happened in the night again last night. My blood pressure and heart rate were so high!

Luckily, I was able to regulate myself this time (other two epidodes were regulated with medication and cardioversion), but I'm just so sad tonight! I truly thought my CPAP would keep me from having these attacks! I have been doing a good job getting used to the machine. I've had it 2 months now, I've been 100% compliant, and I was really beginning to feel great. Now I'm afraid to go to bed!!

Anyone else with A-fib??? Will my CPAP help it??

You may have been compliant but where is the data saying your AHI is actually under control?. Do you have a data capable machine to show what is actually happening? Also you realize that it may take months to repair the damage of decades of bad O2 levels?

by Laurie1041 on Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:36 am

On the other hand, atrial fibrillation is a slow or rapid, irregular rhythm that is caused by ectopic foci (electrical discharges) that are located in many areas of the upper chambers of the heart (atrium).

Oh gosh, now I am confused..

so a slow irregular heartbeat can be bradycardia or atrial fibrillation?

I tried to explain this to a cardilogist, and she just said, "thats normal" and cut me off..

So, Im not sure what its called then.. I will give you my best description:

I would wake up from what I now know is a nasty night of severe osa,
and it felt like a "backwash" was going on inside my chest.. and I couldnt get up, and my husband would have a terrible time
finding my pulse, and when he did, it was very slow and very irregular... with lots of missing beats
It would always go back to normal by the time we drove to the doctor, so nobody ever saw it..

heart doc said everyone has it..

so I just wondered what is it?

Bradycardia/tachycardia merely mean pulse rate less than 50 (bradycardia) or more than 100 (tachycardia).

At any heart rate, the pulse can be regular or irregular.

A good description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhythmia

aha! Cardiac dysrhythmia


oh thanks for the link!

Elena88, you sound like a good candidate for a pulse oximeter. If you could master keeping it on throughout the night, you would have a recording you could show your cardiologist, and review yourself.

Elena,

If you are feeling that you are having an arrhythmia and it occurs frequently, go see a cardiologist, explain your symptoms and ask for a Holter Monitor. This device records every beat for a full 24 hours.

Terms: Sinus Bradycardia is a heartrate of less < 60 bpm. Many people may become symptomatic (dizzy, hypotensive) if their heartrate drops into the 40's or less. Having said that many athletes have resting heartrates in their 40's. Some cardiac meds such as beta blockers can cause bradycardia and usually the dose is reduced. Pacemakers are implanted in patients who have an extremely low heartrate and/or long pauses and are very symtomatic, dizziness, passing out. Sinus bradycardia is a regular rhythm whereas patients who have a second degree or are in complete heart block (the ventricles then take over as backup, but the max rate of the ventricles is 40 bpm) are in crisis.

Sinus Tachycardia is a heartrate >100 bpm but less than 160 bpm. This is due to exercise, fright, anxiety, etc. This is a normal rhythm.

"Sinus rhythm" means that the electirical conduction system is working appropriately - The electrical impulse originate in the sino-atrial node and is conducted down to the atrio-ventricular node which then passes the impulses down to the Bundle of His and then to the Purkinje Fibers which cause the ventricles to contract

So a normal heart cycle goes like this: Electrical impulse fires from Sino-Atrial node (located in the Atrium), the atrium then contract, impulse travel to the Atrio-Ventricular Node down to the Bundle of His to the Purkinje Fibers and the ventricles then contract. This hopefully gets repeated day in and day out until our time is up.

Anytime someone feels bothered or upset by a racing heart, skipped beats, irregular heartrate, faints for no good reason, has a low heartrate and feels tired, lethargic dizzy or faint please see a cardiologist and if your EKG turns out normal at the cardiologist's office ask for a Holter Monitor.

Women especially pay attention to the fact that the signs and symptoms for a heart attack in females can be very different than those in men. Women may experience more jaw and upper back pain then men. If anyone even thinks for a second that they may be having a heart attack, NEVER drive yourself or have your spouse drive you to the hopsital - many people have died while en route to the hospital because what they really NEEDED was early defibrillation. If you are in the car alone (going home from work) pull over, call 911 and give them your location. DO NOT drive yourself. The best chance of survival is EARLY DEFIBRILLATION.

My last plug will be that every forum member take a CPR class that is certified by the American Heart Association. Many good samaritans (you are protected from any lawsuits under the Good Samaritan law) save countless lives because they knew exactly what to do in an emergency.

Know what to do and what not to do in an emergency. It will amaze you at how calm you will be when faced with an emergency. Laurie

thanks hosecrusher, I got my oxi!

gosh Laurie, that is some very interesting and valuable information, thank you for taking the time to explain all that.. facinating!

I have not had any episodes when I stay off my back, so this is good news..

My cardiologist would check me in the office, and say I was fine, she never suggested a halter monitor, and she said I had a normal
heart rate in my sleep study, but I only slept an hour. Nothing ever weird showed up when I was sitting in her office.
Guess I was a boring case..

thanks for the tips! Im never going back to her, I dumped her this summer.

and I have taken my cpr class!
things have changed a bit, they are suggesting the chest compressions are most important, and possibly skip the mouth to mouth..
the chest compressions are supposed to go to the beat of the bee gees "staying alive" easy to remember!

Yes, women can be completely different when they have heart attack symptoms than men. When I had a heart attack the only thing that I noticed was a sharp pain in my chest, left side below the collarbone for about 5 minutes. It was a pretty debilitating pain but then it went away to be replaced by a pain in my left wrist. That was it. Thankfully, my doctor was called to the ER immediately and no damage was done to the heart muscle. Stents were placed and that was it. Hope things work out for you. The monitor would be a good choice too.

THanks so much to you all for lots of good information! I really appreciate it.

I'm doing much better now, and back to normal. I'm hoping that a little over 2 months of therapy is just not enough time to be completely "healed". I will continue on my CPAP journey and hope for the best. My AHI is always below 2.0, and mask leaks are very minimal.

I have read that Atrial Fibrillation that was due to Sleep Apnea improves with good treatment. My cardiologist still believes I will see results. I know that some people continue to get better even after months of treatment.

Staying positive and hopeful!
Thanks, again!

Julie wrote:Tachycardia ("tackicardia") is the name for a-fib.

No. Tachy = fast and cardia = heart. So tachycardia simply means chamber contractions in excess of 100/minute.

elena88 wrote: things have changed a bit, they are suggesting the chest compressions are most important, and possibly skip the mouth to mouth..
the chest compressions are supposed to go to the beat of the bee gees "staying alive" easy to remember!

You can also use Queen's "Another One Bite the Dust" but not if the victims relatives are close or if the victim is conscious.