AFibbers Database: Howard

Name	Howard
Location	Wales
Age	52
Diagnosed condition	PAF
Years with condition	7 years
Frequency of episodes	twice weekly up until about two months ago, now about once every ten days
Duration of episodes	5mins to 10 hours, average 5hours,
Event preceding first AF	divorce and everything that comes with it.
General health	good, never smoked, light drinker, average weight, regular light exercise.
Current state	ok when in sinus, lousy when in AF.
Triggers	Nothing positive but, stress, too much alcohol, too large a meal at anytime, but worse late in the evening, lying on left side in bed, vigorous exercise, e.g. squash, running, etc, - all can cause a bout to occur. Flecainide plus red wine became like flicking a light switch from sinus to AF - I now don`t take either.
Preventions	Meds keep it under reasonable control but doesn`t actually prevent bouts of AF occurring. A bag of frozen peas on the back of the neck, or getting into a hot bath can shock me out of AF and back into sinus quite effectively but not everytime.
Current medications/side effects	5 years on Arythmol as prescribed daily, - two tablets in the morning and two around 6pm. aspirin. No major noticable side effects from the Arythmol, it, at first left a bad taste in my mouth, but I don`t notice it now. An update on taking Arrythmol is that I changed to taking two tablets just before going to bed as most of my bouts of AF come in the early hours and there has been a marked improvement in my condition. I still get bouts of AF but now only about one every 14 days.
Past medications/side effects	Flecainide worked well for about two years but then stopped being effective. Sotalol did nothing good or bad. Beta blockers had no effect except to slow me down but didn`t prevent AF.
History of surgery	nothing related to AF
Future plans	To live a life of moderation, i.e. less food, alcohol and stress whenever possible. I don`t fancy any of the surgical options as yet, as the results gained don`t seem to outweigh the risks. Eagerly awaiting a cure.
Personal comments	A recent diet to loose half a stone, unexpectedly reduced the bouts of AF down to about once every 10 days from about twice weekly, presumably as I ate less in the evenings and drank less alcohol overall. Most bouts start in the early hours of the morning and the constant visits to the toilet to relieve the accompanying urination are particularly annoying as my sleep pattern is disturbed. Thanks for an excellent site - we`re not alone.
Check list	acebutolol amiodarone (cordarone,pacerone) anisindione (miradon) atenolol (tenormin) aspirin azimilide bepridil betaxolol bisoprolol (monocor,emconcor) bretylium bucindolol carvedilol cibenzoline dicumarol digitoxin digoxin (lanoxin) diltiazem (cardizem) diphenylhydantoin disopyramide (norpace) dofetilide (tikosyn) dronedarone encainide esmolol (brevibloc) ersentilide flecainide (tambocor) gallopamil ibutilide (corvert) lidocaine mibefradil metoprolol (lopressor,toprol xl) mexiletine moricizine nadolol phenytoin procainamide propafanone (rythmol) propranolol (inderal) quinapril (accupril) quinidine (quinaglute) sotalol (betapace) tedisamil timolol tocainide trandolapril (mavik) valsartan (diovan) verapamil (calan,isoptin) warfarin (coumadin) asthma diabetes GERD/acid reflux hypertension hypotension hyperthyroidism hypothyroidism adrenergic vagal familial idiopathic/lone paroxysmal permanent/chronic atrial flutter cardiomyopathy CHF PAC PVC SVT syncope bradycardia tachycardia heart block myocardial infarction rheumatic heart diease sick sinus syndrome stroke WPW electrical cardioversion defibrillator pacemaker ablation bypass maze Male Female

Statistics for the first 161 entries.

Please contact the site editor at james@dialsolutions.com
to comment or to suggest amendments or corrections.

First Form™ software © Dial Solutions Ltd 1999