Friday afternoon appointment with endo, thought things would be looking good, BP was down, weight the same, we were going to discuss Cholesterol, yada yada… Then as soon as he hits me with stethoscope, he looks alarmed and asks how I have been feeling cause Heart beat seems irregular. Thought I was fine so he calls his nurse in to do ECG then and there. She is kind of surprised as she had just done my BP, weight and blood… She sets up the contacts and is moving them around like it’s not working and swearing under her breath. Telling me not to move and finally saying “sh_t, there is something wrong”. Came up as A-fib.
They were trying to get me into cardio’s office at 4:30 on Friday but no go so they put me on Blood thinners. Nurse couldn’t believe I was not feeling anything Then I remembered a couple dizzy spells only lasted for a second or two earlier this year, had completely forgotten about them. She said those would be classic heart skipping a beat type of thing. So off to Cardiologist today @ 2:30, just another thing to worry about and more than likely affect everything else, not too pleased all weekend. Wish me luck…
I hope everything goes ok. I’m sure it can be nerve racking simply waiting.
Thoughts are with you! Hope all works out well!
Please follow up and let us know how your doing.
I’m gonna worry now 
Going through something similar myself recently–echo stress tests, the works. Just want to clarify that A-fib and palpitations (heart skips a beat) are different things. The latter aren’t usually serious unless they’re a more sustained rather than intermittent thing. If they dx’d A-fib that’s a whole different matter–hope it’s ok @JC14, don’t forget to keep us posted!
Great, readout said a-fib… We’ll see what heart doc says today…
So sorry to hear this! Hope that if you do a cardioversion it quickly returns you to a normal heart rhythm and that it is treatable with blood thinners.
Sorry to hear this. Hope with medication you will be stabilized and feel well. Nancy
Good luck with the cardio! Sorry this is happening, hopefully it’ll turn out a minor concern. Better careful and safe, than sorry! Hope to hear good things soon.
soooo…husband went into AFIB due to a pulmonary embolus - it’s an electrical issue that many folks just live with on blood thinners without other intervention - depends on why you are in AFIB now…we did go thru many cardioversions (that’s right it’s the paddles!) but conversion did not hold for very long. then had a maze procedure (slightly invasive) that held for a while then had the mini maze procedure done at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston - a laser kind of surgery - and that has held for almost 3 years now with only the daily baby asprin required. meds we tried prior to cardioversion, then the maze, mini maze were quite expensive and had crappy side effects - wish we had moved to the surgery sooner. wishing you the best outcome…
ECG today did not show the Afib of Friday, only elevated heart rate. Doing an echo on Thursday and full blood work for thyroid. New Doc, don’t know him well but he seemed surprised and said he wants to get to bottom of this. I feel a little bit relieved and thanks for the cheer posts and info, it has helped.
Maybe it was just a scare and things will turn out for the best. At least you are getting checked out. Good luck.
Humm I think putting you on the overnight harness monitor would be part of the diagnostics - you just get hooked up at the docs then go about your day, returning the following day. Thyroid could be the culprit but why not overreact an push for cardio testing in the meantime - our D population is so vulnerable to cardio complications.
That might be his next step after echo and blood work tomorrow. He was asking a lot of questions related to sleep apnea but although I have a hard time getting down sometimes I sleep pretty well.
Sleep apnea was fingered as the cause of the blood clots that started our AFIB adventure. Suggested the harness for the same reason lots of us do CGM for hypo unawareness - you may not be aware of going in and out of AFIB and a 24 hour test would show if that’s the case. That would help to eliminate or confirm any issue with the structure of the heart valves, etc…you are quite lucky to have saved yourself that drive or ride to the emergency room! Maybe a good time to buy a lottery ticket. Best of luck with the echo 
If you wear a monitor ask for a 30 day monitor because if you’re having intermittent abnormal rhythm due to whatever it probably won’t show up in a 1-2 day period. I had some abnormal ecg which my doc thought were ok but suggested a 30 monitor to figure out symptoms and dizzy spells.
I have sleep apnea and sleep apnea is know to cause heart problems of various kinds. Sometimes you can have sleep apnea and think you are sleep fine, but you aren’t. You are just waking up enough to start breathing again, but not enough to rouse you to consciousness.
My brother-in-law has sleep apnea and he wears a face mask with oxygen supply being fed to him at nights. He used to stop breathing often and had some pretty serious issues as a result. Since he’s been wearing the mask at nights, he’s had no issues.
So here is the scoop, follow up this morning with cardio… BP down, 132/70, heart rate down but not as much as he wants. Blood work normal, Echo from a couple weeks ago shows nothing new, moderate Mitral valve prolapse, had it since I was DX’s with diabetes, no damage seen besides that. Doc thinks that it is possible that it is the cause of the infrequent Afib. Said more than likely I will need that valve replaced in my lifetime but not any time soon. He upped the dosage of diltiazem to lower heart rate, keeping me on blood thinner twice a day but other than that wants to see me in 2 months and soon after a stress test. I stopped worrying, I feel fine. He told me to stress less, like that is possible, for Pete’s sake, I’m Sicilian!
Good news! Glad to hear this is turning out not to be too big a deal. Sorry to hear about that valve, though.
Sicilian? Have a slice. That’ll help with the stress. Just remember to bolus big. 