| Name | anon |
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| Location | Houston, TX, USA |
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| Age | 60 |
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| Diagnosed condition | Atrial fibrulation |
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| Years with condition | ~5 |
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| Frequency of episodes | varies from near-daily to 2-3 months |
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| Duration of episodes | few minutes to several hours & (very) occaisionally half-a-day |
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| Event preceding first AF | none known |
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| General health | excellent |
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| Current state | ongoing; no particular trend evident |
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| Triggers | ANYTHING that constricts the left carotid artery; certain accupunture points when otherwise tension-predisposed to an episide; leaning back against a chair back (or other object) that puts pressure for a prolonged period just below the left scapula; being overly tired or overly stressed out; shallow breathing; sometimes an excess of coffee, especially when combined with elevated mental (not really physical) stress factors); MOST episodes have NO known / identifiable / apparent 'cause' (of which I am aware) -- they just seem to 'happen' -- sometimes with 'symptoms' for ~1-hr preceeding -- sometimes 'out-of-the-blue' -- with no particular (known) concentration within this range |
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| Preventions | not much, in general; however, some things seem to help: good sleep / rest; breathe deep & long (meditative / yogic calming & deep breathing); maintain moderate stress levels; avoid (especially) prolonged stressful situations |
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| Current medications/side effects | * tambacor / flecainide 50mg 2x per day (no apparent side-effects);
* warfarin 10mg 1x per day (side-effects: some swelling in lower extremities, particularly if remain sitting without leg motion for long periods; some excess water retention over all);
* norvasc 5mg 1x/day (no side-effects apparent) |
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| Past medications/side effects | diltiazem (cardizem) -- which seemed to work okay re AF -- but acted like 'governor' on a car when doing exercise; felt as if my heart rate had a cap on it & just couldn't go faster (during exercise -- I exercise regularly); can't recall the dosage
also used digoxin (lanoxin) for a while prior to the diltiazem; can't remember why this was discontinued or the degree of its effectiveness (or lack thereof); can't recall the dosage; used aspirin along with this
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| History of surgery | no major surgeries; only: tonsils when young; arthroscopy on one knee 15+ years ago |
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| Future plans | eat well / moderately / healthily; sleep when / as feel the need; exercise; practice yoga / mediation & do other (mostly gradual, but often demanding & intense) exercise, such as trekking, cycling, inline skating, etc.; minimize stress levels (insofar as is possible) |
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| Personal comments | so far, AF is an occaisonal 'pain-in-the-rear' & 'inconvenience' -- but overall it is not 'debilitating'; during light AF episodes, I often can pretty much 'carry on' with whatever activity I'm engaged in, including meetings & exercise (but need to carefully watch / monitor / avoid sudden, large increases in stress or physical demands); for many episodes, I can just concentrate on deep-breathing / (meditative) calm & 'weather' the episode at the 'minor inconvenience' level; perhaps 2-3x/year I have (more) 'major' episodes which cause me to need to 'retreat' / 'retire' from whatever I'm doing -- &, generally, to sleep / rest for up to half-a-day before the (more severe) symptoms go away.
Often, the symptoms will start with a feeling of tension in the area of my left carotid artery (like a tense knot) -- or I will feel a 'conflicting beat' (or beats) in the atrium of my heart (which I call an 'instantaeous knot') -- after which the AF episode will begin.
The episode typically will end in a (somewhat) similar way to how it began -- i.e., I will feel (instead of an ongoing irregular heartbeat) a 'tension' around the heart -- & (after a sort of 'soft knot' feeling) the atrium simply will start to synchronize again -- after which all will be 'just fine' (most often this occurs virtually 'instanteously' -- meaning, I can't remember any case where I went in & out of AF, or where there were ANY 'false (re)starts' re coming out of the AF -- when I was 'ready'; also, sometimes, say 5-10 minutes before I come out of AF, I feel that I am about to come out of AF 'soon' -- & almost always do come out when that feeling occurs |
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| 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 | |
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