More Medical Issues

Wednesday night in the middle of the night around 1:30 in the morning ... I guess it was really Thursday morning ... I had to go to the ER with an episode of atrial fibrillation that lasted about 10 hours.  I had to be admitted and it seemed that no matter what they did, what kind of medicine they gave me, it just wouldn't bring my bp or heart rate down or make my heart go back into normal rhythm.  It really bummed me out and made me really distressed and nervous, which I'm sure wasn't helping the situation.  Thursday morning a cardiologist from my dr's office came in the talked to me about what was going on.  He said that if my heart did not go back into rhythm by this morning, that the would need to do a cardioversion, which means they would reset my heart rate, or shock my heart back into rhythm.  That really scared me.  The thoughts of that just freak me out.  I was very worried and was thinking that my heart wasn't going to go back into rhythm by itself.  Thank God, it did go back around 11 a.m. Thursday morning.  But, it took much longer than the last time I had to go to the ER in 2008 when I was first diagnosed with this.  So, now I have 2 additional medications to take, one of which I take for the heart rhythm and one which is added to help control my blood pressure.  These are in addition to the bp medication I already take and my Lipitor and my 325 mg aspirin a day.  I came home today and I'm so happy to be at home and hoping that my heart stays in it's normal (or sinus) rhythm.  I hope I don't have to go through all that again any time soon.  I guess this afib thing is something that I'm going to have from now on and about the only thing that can be done is to just control it and help keep it from happening.

One thing I've learned about this afib thing is that sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for what causes it to happen.  Sometimes it just comes out of blue and oftentimes when I am at rest.  I don't even have to be exerting myself for it to occur.  It makes me very scared and depressed because I never know when it's going to happen.  I've always been very active and independent and it makes me afraid to exercise for fear it's going to happen.  I guess it's just something I'm going to have to live with.  It is what it is.