Re: curious

[Guest guest]

I discovered that I was in a-fib the first time when I went to donate blood

and my heart rate was off the scale. (Scared the hell out of the little old

lady who did routine screening!) I felt the way I always felt. I figured

I'd humour her though, so I followed up with my GP. He got me into a

cardiologist in record time.

Yes, one can be a fibrillator and symptom free. I just wish now that when I

kicked into fib that were still true.

Bill Manson NSR in Guelph ON with amiodarone, beta blocker and mega doses

of magnesium, waiting for a PVA.

" When [] put on a uniform, something happened to him. He turned

into Manson's cousin, Manson. " -- Ken Kaiser

curious

>

> Hi Everyone:

>

> I am curious to know something. With all the reading

> I have done so far and I know there is lots more. I

> am curious to know if a person can be in AFib and not

> really have the obvious symptoms.

[Guest guest]

Dear Kat,

<<I am curious to know if a person can be in AFib and not

really have the obvious symptoms.>>

The answer is YES. It is sometimes called silent A-Fib. It can cause a

stroke just as easily as the symptomatic version. Therefore I take my

pulse, at random, about 10 times a day. Seems compulsive, but really it

is not. I have never " discovered " myself in A-Fib in what is now many

thousands of checks. It is a way of finding out whether or not I am

having silent episodes without going to the trouble and expense of

Holter monitoring.

About Xanax: Some will disagree with me but I use it too and do not

consider it addictive. When I start getting premature beats I become

" anxious " because I damn well know they can and do lead to A-Fib.

Anxiety increases the frequency of prematures so the Xanax breaks that

cycle, decreasing (but not necessarily eliminating) the prematures. I do

not consider this anxiety to be a psychological problem, but rather a

natural reaction to something that is known to lead to a significant

problem. Fewer prematures basically equates to fewer episodes of A-Fib.

Xanax is fast acting and has a short half life. It is a very useful drug

as far as I am concerned. I can go for weeks without taking it, then use

it quite a bit if the prematures start acting up, then go without it. I

think the short half life would require an " addict " to consume quite a

few pills every day to keep up the " habit " , assuming there is a habit.

Telling yourself to relax when something bad is happening to you is kind

of unnatural. Though it IS a good idea to tell yourself not to panic, as

panic usually interferes with one's ability to cope. And panic certainly

can increase prematures and other forms of palpitations. So Xanax can

help address all that stuff.

As far as I know, Xanax does not raise blood pressure. If anything, it

would lower it, especially if it addresses " panic attack " where you are

pumping adrenaline.

- OU alum in MI

[Guest guest]

> About Xanax: Some will disagree with me but I use it too and do not

> consider it addictive. ...> Xanax is fast acting and has a short

half life. .. I can go for weeks without taking it, ...> it quite a

bit if the prematures start acting up, then go without it. I

> think the short half life would require an " addict " to consume

quite a

> few pills every day to keep up the " habit " , assuming there is a

habit.

My experience has been the opposite of 's. A former internist

prescribed Ativan (in the same family as Xanax) for me at 1 mg a day,

and said it was such a low dose that addiction was " impossible. "

When I later tried to discontinue it, I had tremoring, mini-seizures

(picture laying in bed shaking for half an hour), bouts of

tachycardia, afib, giant startle responses, etc.

It took three months of gradually decreasing the dose by tiny

amounts, and having to deal with an uptick in the withdrawal symptoms

every time I decreased the dose before I could safely stop it.

(Benzodiazepine(sp?) withdrawal can kill you if it is too rapid.)

It was months more after that before the withdrawal symptoms

completely disappeared. For some people, they -never- disappear

completely.

My understanding is that physical addition is more likely the higher

the dose and the more regularly one takes it. However, some people

can get addicted in as few as two weeks on a low dose (I learned more

about this than I ever wanted to know, and if you find yourself in

htis situation, head over to the yahoo benzo group, they are very

helpful. However, make a beeline for your doc also.

[Guest guest]

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: " Kathy Burkett " <hppy1kat@y...>

> > I am curious to know something. With all the reading

> > I have done so far and I know there is lots more. I

> > am curious to know if a person can be in AFib and not

> > really have the obvious symptoms.

Hi, Kathy,

When I am " stable, " that is when I only feel an ectopic once or twice

an hour,or less, and I just " know " I am okay, I am supposed to take

my pulse just twice a day to be sure I am not " silently " fibbing. I

often forget to do that, because I have never found myself silently

in afib in those circumstances.

However, when I am unstable, that is having frequent ectopics,

sliding in and out of multiple ectopics a minute, having afib, mixed

in with sinus, I have on a number of occasions thought I was okay,

only to take my pulse and find I was not.

I think there is another factor at work also. When I was first

diagnosed with afib and was very unaware of my heart, I declared in

the doc's office that I was now fine (I had just come out of a major

thing that practically had me on the floor), but I was it turned out

in afib. So I think people also get tuned in more to what their

heart is doing once they know they can have afib. Probably there are

a lot of people out there walking around feeling ectopics or afib in

their chest and throat and not even really being aware of them on a

conscious level and who would say they were fine if asked.