About 6 months ago I noticed a shortness of breath when I was walking uphill or up steps. If I kept pushing it, I would also become lightheaded and need to stop and sometimes put my head down. I was a smoker until age 45 so I assumed it was a lung problem. My primary care physician ordered a chest CT scan. It showed nothing that would lead to those symptoms. My first assumption was that I was just too old to walk up hills, especially if I tried to walk rapidly like I had always done.
I started to see promotional service ads with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar where he spoke about having to stop several times while walking through airports and learning that he had AFib. I had experienced the same symptoms recently in airports but didn’t even think about AFib as the cause.
One hot summer afternoon in August I became so short of breath that I could not even walk from my car to a very nearby restaurant. I may still have ignored it but a call from my cardiologist’s office moving my regular appointment that week to the next week finally made me act on it. Instead of the next week, I asked if he could see me that afternoon. When I got there, they did an EKG and he listened to my heart. He immediately said you are in AFib. I think he was as surprised as I was.
I have seen my cardiologist regularly at least every 6 months since a heart attack in 2007. He happened to be the cardiologist at the hospital when they diagnosed my heart attack or myocardial infarction and did the angioplasty. My heart attack occurred during a very heated discussion with my boss in my office; he was explaining how much less expensive it would be to move only the jobs of my entire department of 30+ people to Texas and out of California. I was told that the extreme stress, in addition to my family’s cardiac history, had been the probable causes of the attack.
I attended a cardiac rehab course for 3 months and learned to avoid stressful situations whenever possible. I had regular electrocardiograms, stress echocardiograms, and nuclear stress tests. I have a healthy diet and regularly exercise. I had not even thought my breathing issues could be heart related until I saw the Kareem promotional ad on tv several times a day.
I left the cardiologist’s office in August with my new prescription for the blood thinner Eliquis, a referral to an electrophysiologist to discuss cardiac ablation, and a lot of questions about AFib and how could it affect my life. The American Heart Association had been my best source of information after the heart attack, so I again turned to them to learn more about this new heart issue.
Atrial fibrillation can feel weird and unsettling but an “attack of AFib” usually doesn’t have harmful consequences by itself. AFib symptoms can come and go and vary. Some common AFib symptoms are irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, and light headedness. Even when AFib symptoms are not noticeable, it can increase your risk for strokes and other heart problems.
The causes of atrial fibrillation are not always known but it can result from damage to the heart’s electrical system from long-term uncontrolled high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and complications after heart surgeries. Other risk factors that may increase the chance of AFib are diabetes, being age 65 or over, sleep apnea, heavy alcohol use, prior heart attack, and obesity.
AFib is the most common type of heart arrhythmia, affecting nearly 1 percent of the population under 60 and more than 6 percent of people over 80. The most common type of AFib is nonvalvular AFib (NVAF) which is AFib not caused by a heart valve problem. NVAF includes 95 percent of all AFib cases.
The results of AFib include stroke, heart failure, chronic fatigue, additional cardiac rhythm problems and inconsistent blood supply. I know two people who have had strokes related to their atrial fibrillation. According to No Time to Wait, the risk of stroke is about 5 times greater with AFib. My biggest goal in dealing with AFib was not having a stroke.
How could AFib lead to a stroke? During a normal heartbeat, the upper chambers (atria) and lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart work together to pump blood to the rest of the body. AFib occurs when the heart’s upper chambers beat irregularly and do not pump all of the blood to the lower chambers, leaving some blood to pool and potentially form clots. Clots can break loose and travel through the bloodstream to the brain and lead to a stroke. Strokes related to AFib are generally more severe than strokes with other underlying causes.
Now that I have been diagnosed with AFib and know that it increases my stroke risk, what should I do? The No Time to Wait promotional messages are sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer, both producers of blood thinning medications. They obviously have a commercial purpose behind the Kareem ads but their No Time to Wait message is a very important one, especially to seniors.
If you have the symptoms of AFib, contact a doctor. These symptoms can also be associated with other potentially serious conditions. Only a healthcare professional can determine whether they indicate AFib or another condition and discuss a treatment plan with you.
After I do some testing, I will write a post to address the different treatment options for AFib and outline the ones I have chosen and the results I have obtained.
https://www.heart.org>health-topics>why-atrial-fibrillation-af-or-afib-matters
https://www.notimetowait.com
Well written and described. EP ablation can be very effective. The only comment I have is that I was a bit surprised that your primary doc didn’t rule out a fib before ordering a CT. Assuming an initial exam did not suggest a fib, given your symptoms I would have had you do some exercise in the examining room. If you became easily dyspneic it should have then been easy to detect the a fib on PE or ECG, along with O2 desaturation & tachycardia on pulse oximetry. I know, I’m a Monday morning quarterback
Common things are common, and you find what you look for…
Thanks, Maryann. I have seen several friends dealing with lasting effects from strokes and know how life changing they can be. I have learned that AFib can be a cause of strokes and want to do whatever is needed to hopefully avoid having one.
Thanks, Nancy, for this up-to-date info so important especially to seniors. You have raised the level of awareness for us now. Please keep us posted on your latest treatment plans.