I’m always moved by stories from other people who are experiencing atrial fibrillation for the first time or are in the beginning of their “afib journey.” It’s never a fun road to travel on. As someone that has occasional lone atrial fibrillation, I can tell you it sucks. There is no other nice way of saying it. I don’t wish this on anyone. I just ran across an interesting blog post by Leslie Lafayette. She has apparently been writing about […]
READ MORE31 Year-Old Woman Stricken with Atrial Fibrillation
The following afib story was originally a comment left on my site in January 2014. When I read Alice’s comments my heart broke. I have lone atrial fibrillation myself but luckily so far I have only had about one episode per year for the past few years. I couldn’t imagine having constant episodes and being on meds so I totally feel for Alice. I just hope she finds a doctor that can help her. Ironically, I was just in the […]
READ MORE34-Year-Old Successfully Treated His Afib with an Ablation
And now for something uplifting: here is an atrial fibrillation success story. Benjamin Martin is only 34 years old. He decided against using drugs and went for a catheter ablation instead. Now he is no longer suffering with severe symptoms. The success rate of cathetar ablation for younger patients is about 80%. If you’re a younger patient this is a procedure that you might want to look into. There are still some doubts about the procedure’s risks vs. its rewards, […]
READ MOREA Personal Story about My Atrial Fibrillation Diagnosis
You think you’re healthy, eat well, take good care of yourself (well, maybe you could get more exercise). Life is good. You don’t feel like you’re under stress. But every now and then your heart does flip-flops. You can feel it pounding, you can feel it throbbing in your neck. Then, in the middle of the night, it’s racing. You feel anxious. You check your pulse—140 beats per minute, maybe more. You go to the emergency room. It’s 190 beats per minute now. They tell you, “You have atrial fibrillation.” Atrial fibwhat? They hook you up to an IV, give you some drugs and soon, gradually, you begin to feel almost normal again. But now your mind starts racing: What is atrial fibrillation? What causes atrial fibrillation? Is there a cure for atrial fibrillation? What drugs were in that drip (and what are the side effects)? Just how serious is atrial fibrillation?
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