Re: work and afib

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/15/2003 11:34:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

wilograce1@... writes:

<< one problem

I'm having that I haven't seen addressed is for people like me who

are having daily episodes of unmannaged afib.How are you or are you

able to stay in the workforce? >>

Wilograce,

I think it would be difficult to stay in the workforce with unmanaged afib

because it usually causes extreme dizziness, possible fainting, and sometimes

shortness of breath, not to mention extreme anxiety which makes it difficult to

concentrate on work. Four years ago I was having that problem: trying to work

while feeling as if I were going to faint any minute. Finally on one

particularly bad day when I was having frequent bouts of dizziness and near

blackouts, I left work and drove myself home. I barely made it home because I

had to

keep pulling off of the freeway when the dizziness would hit. I should never

have been driving under those conditions, so I called my brother when I

miraculously reached home and he drove me to my cardiologist. That's when I was

started on 150 m.g. Atenolol and Verapamil 240 m.g. along with Coumadin for the

first time. Within two hours the dizziness was gone, I was out of afib, and

ready to go back to work the next day. However, my doctor would not allow me to

go back to work the next day because he didn't want me to drive until he

could see how the Verapamil and suddenly larger dose of Atenolol would affect

me.

I was fine with the drugs, and returned to work two days later with no

problems. Since then I think I have missed maybe two or three days of work due

to

afib, and that was mostly due to fear that I would again have the dizziness.

However, I discovered that with the right medication, I was able to work

whether in afib or not because the medication controls my symptoms to the point

that

they are practically nonexistent. Of course, now I am in sinus most of the

time, so the problem has virtually ceased to exist. If the medication did not

control my afib symptoms, though, I don't think I could have continued to

work. In the beginning years of my afib 15 - 20 years ago, I went to work with

no

problem, but when the symptoms became dizziness and near fainting work was

not possible. So I guess whether or not you work with afib depends on how

debilitating your symptoms are and whether or not you can find meds to control

the

symptoms.

in sinus in Seattle