Thanks for help on Panic. Introduction.

[Guest guest]

Thank you to everyone who wrote in response to my " Newbie Panic " post

last week. Your words were reassuring and went a long way to calm my

mind. I'm still very nervous, but seem to have a " bigger picture " of

this disorder.

As an introduction, I am 37 years old, married, mom of 2, living in

California. In early May, I woke up at 8am with a funny feeling in my

chest and immediately noticed it was beating really really really

fast. I'm unsure to this day if it was beating fast in a *regular* or

*irregular* mode. It's possible it was a bit of both... at one point

it was hard for me to self count because it was a tad jumbled, other

times just really fast. BUT, I was fairly panicked and my memory of

it is really fuzzy. I called my husband at work and talked to him for

a few minutes, then called the nurse practioner line, then called the

nurse line again, and then I started to feel like I was going to

faint. She said call the paramedics.

By the time the paramedics arrived, I was not as light headed and

*calmly* walked out the front door to be treated. The paramedic

confessed later to my husband (who was driving home during all of

this) that he thought I was just a faking it. Oops on him! My heart

rate was 200+ ... they did two pushes of adenosine and I dropped down

to 160, and felt rather good, frankly, compared to before. I was

downright cheery at that point.

By the time I was in the ER, my rate slipped down to about 120 and

slowly fell from there. I got no treatment at ER other than being

monitored and fluids. I was diagnosed as it probably being AFLUTTER

and told to see a cardiologist and given Diltiazem at 90mg 2X a day

and sent home.

When I saw the cardiologist, the meeting was brief, he said cut out

caffiene, probably didn't need the Diltiazem and stop taking it,

loose some weight and sent me on my way without any tests (other than

one more reading to make sure I was in nsr).

Well... I did as he said... and 2 weeks later, I woke up at 8am with

DEFINITELY a JUMBLED beat averaging around 150. This time hubby was

home and we drove to the ER.

About an hour into having a Cardiazem push/drip, I converted to nsr.

This time an EP saw me (who probably will be my local doctor this

point on) and I'm now on 240 Cartizem daily. That episode was

definitely AFIB. The EP is unsure if I had AFLUTTER the first time,

but definitely knows I'm capable of really rapid rates. I go in

for an Echo and Holter tomorrow and we'll see what's next... ... ...

My real hope is that mild drugs (rate control rather than the harder

rhythm control) will keep me in nsr for the next few years until

perhaps advances in ablation/cryo become extremely attractive

potential cure (vs the fairly attractive potential cure it is today -

the more the risks drop, the more attractive). Of course, I hope I

*am* a candidate for a cure when that times comes.

I've been reading the archives back a few years. It's amazing how

different the options have changed since 1999 to this year 2004. If I

can hold out another 4 - 5 years, I imagine my (our!) choices will be

even better. Seems this year might be the first for a better choice

in blood thinner (Exanta). I'm going to be okay with asprin for now

(doc said I didn't probably need it, but it wouldn't hurt, either)...

but happy other future drugs/techniques are probably going to be

available.

In the meantime, I'm trying to forge ahead on projects that I enjoy

and not plan my funeral. That's so hard. But, seeing that there are

lots of folks here who have personally shared how the past 20 and 40+

years have been with afib, it just seems just silly to give up just

yet. It seems clear that one *can* live with afib. I wish it wasn't

such a daily struggle to calm myself (and I PRAY that my test results

aren't grave), and having this forum really helps. Thank you to

everyone.

Joscelyn in CA, 37 years old, 240 Cartizem and one asprin (my choice)

[Guest guest]

> Thank you to everyone who wrote in response to my " Newbie Panic "

post last week. Your words were reassuring and went a long way to

calm my mind.

Hello Joscelyn: I sent you an email but it bounced from

Yahoo.com. If you send me your email address privately, I will

be able to forward it to you. Isabelle

[Guest guest]

> Thank you to everyone who wrote in response to my " Newbie Panic "

post last week. Your words were reassuring and went a long way to

calm my mind.

Hello Joscelyn: I sent you an email but it bounced from

Yahoo.com. If you send me your email address privately, I will

be able to forward it to you. Isabelle

[Guest guest]

> Thank you to everyone who wrote in response to my " Newbie Panic "

post last week. Your words were reassuring and went a long way to

calm my mind.

Hello Joscelyn: I sent you an email but it bounced from

Yahoo.com. If you send me your email address privately, I will

be able to forward it to you. Isabelle