FloppyHeart
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I am a 51 year old male, 5'10" in good physical condition, and have been having bouts of Atrial Fib for 3 years now. I have had an ultrasound done on my heart after the 1st episode, and my cardio doc told me it was ok. They put me on low dose aspirin, and told me I had low B12, so i have been on 1000mg b12 as well. I also foumnd out recently I have a low form of celiac disease, but nothing serious. I am on a gluten free diet, and eat a very balanced low carb meal plan. Lots of fruit, veggies, fish, and lean meat. NEVER no junk food. I do not drink or smoke. (how boring eh!) I have had the 24 hr holter monitor done, as well as the king of hearts monitor. Lately, i have been slipping in to atrial fibrillation just at the momemt of sleep. You know, the moment when you just doze off from that conscious state to the unconscious state, well at that moment, I will be completely calm and relaxed and just as I doze off, my heart starts to fribillate and wakes me right back up. I MUST stand and walk about in order to get out of A-fib. And if it won’t come out right away, within 1 to 2 minutes, then I know I am stuck in A-fib for 1 to 2 hours or so. I can usually get it to stop after about 1 minute. But if I just lay there and let it continue, I will slip into Atrial fib for about 1 to 2 hours, and must walk around calmly to get my heart back to normal sinus rhythm. This happens all night now, every night just at the point of sleep. And I cannot get to sleep because of it. It has been quite a while since I have had a good nights sleep. I do not have any palpitations during the day or any other time at all. It usually takes me until 6am before I can finally slip into sleep without any atrial fib. I have tried eating, and NOT eating, I have check my glycose, but its normal. I'm at a loss, and have scheduled another appointment with my cardio doc, but the waiting list is long. The only vitamin supplements I take are C & D, 500mg each. The first thing I will need to do is get tested for my current levels of magnesium and potasium. I'm not even sure what blood tests to ask my doctor for, but I will ask. I wouldn't want to start taking Potassium without know what to take and how much, as I know to much Potassium is very dangerous as well. I've kept a journal of notes, its long, of all my episodes over the past 3 years, and one thing I do notice is most of the episodes happen during the winter months... as a matter fact, I have no episodes from May until September each year. I figured I may be low in vitamine D, as the reason I am taking it. Maybe 500mg is not enough. In the summer months, I do spend alot of time out in the sun on my boat and such, so maybe the sun plays a big roll. I did have a sleep apnea test done a few weeks ago and it showed I was ok in that department and no signs of problems there. I also should mention that when they did the 24 heart monitor, my resting heart rate averaged between 46 to 51 bpm, and hit lows of 36 bpm. During the day it averages 60bpm, unless i'm working out or something. I have a slow resting heart rate as I was kept fairly fit when i was younger, and try to do as much as I can for cardio nowa days as well.
What is really strange, is that I can lay down after supper, and take a nap for 30min or 1 hr, and never have any problems. No palps, nothing. But during my regular sleep, It's a whole different story. Like this morning, I spent 4 hours trying to get to sleep fighting with A-fib, right at the moment of falling asleep... at 6am I was finally able to get to sleep, but was woken at 7:30am in A-fib, I sat up immediately, and was able to get back into normal sinus rhthym within a couple of minutes. Then fell back asleep right away, and was woken at 9:30am again in A-fib, and sat up again, and was able to get out again within a few minutes. Then laid back down, and as far as I know, I was able to sleep another 3 hours in NSR. Its hard to tell when your fast asleep if your having an episode or not, but it usually wakes me, because I am very sensative to it. I know of a person who has A-fib even during the day, but never knows when she is going in and out of it. I am completely different and feel it very prominent. Another thing I should mention, is when I do slip into A-fib, it is a very relaxed fribillation. My heart rate while in a-fib averages between 60-70 bpm, but very irratic. one minute it can be 90bpm, then the next 60bpm, as it is flopping around like jello. When I first got diagnosed with it 3 years ago, I was in it at the hospital with 180bpm, so they converted me with the shock. I suppose at that time, I was horrified by the condition, my nerves played a big roll and I thought I was having complete heart failure. But now that I'm a little more educated on this, It doesn't play with my nerves as much, therefore when I slip into A-fib now, its a more "relaxed a-fib" so to speak. But in anycase, the a-fib attacks are always at the trime of sleep, usually between 2am and 6am and mostly right at the "MOMENT" of dozing off. I'd really like to know what the experts can conjure up on this one! Thanks for listening and will enjoy any and all input.... Frank
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