Atrial fibrillation

I'm a 35 year old male in reasonably good health. Last week I woke up from sleep with pounding, irregular heartbeat.

I went to ER and was admitted with atrial fibrillation and was kept in overnight so my heart could be restored to sinus rhythm.

I'm now taking Slozem and waiting to see a cardiologist in a few week's time.

I'm terrified it will return and very anxious to find out what might have caused it.

If anyone can post advice or suggestions it would be massively appreciated.

Will

[Jerry_NJ]

I don't know what Slozem is but assume it is a beta blocker, to help control you HR.  Assuming you are not also on an aspirin I suggest you check with your primary care doctor about taking an aspirin a day until you are able to see the cardiologist.  At your age, and given you description of your general health, my experience suggest you clot (stroke) risk due to AFib is not particularly high, an aspirin may be sufficient "protection".  Now, that scary stuff said, I believe AFib is not life threatening if you can control your HR (the ventricle rate, the rate that produces the pulse you can feel) .  The other risk, as noted, is clot formation, still a small risk but worth taking preventive measures I think.

I am an older person with Permanent AFib and as my symptoms are manageable I take medication to keep my HR below 100 at rest (usually in the 80s) and warfarin to lower my blood's ability to coagulate.  I also take a low dose aspirin. Because of my age and the full-time AFib, I can not get by with just an aspirin, I have to also take an anti-coagulant.

[itdood]

There are many possibilities that will have to be evaluated.  Your diagnoses will be a process of elimination. You will be taken through some non-invasive testing in a progressive process to rule out the possibilities.  If all possibilities are ruled out it will be diagnosed as idiopathic, which means of unknown origin (we don't know).  Another possibility is lone afib.

I think there are so many different possibilities that it wouldn't be productive for us to speculate.

Some of the tests you may receive at a minimum will be complete blood work, EKG, stress test, and an echo cardiogram.

The medication you've been given is a calcium channel blocker (CCB).  You may want to research that too.

[footylad]

Thank you both for your detailed replies and for taking the time to respond so fully and comprehensively. I very much appreciate your input.

[CFS56]

Sometimes Afib  happens in perfectly healthy hearts for no apparent reason.  I know how scary it is when it happens, it has happened to me twice.  Once you see the cardiologist I would imagine he will do some non-invasive, painless tests to rule out any problems.  I had to do an echocardiogram, which is basically an ultrasound of your heart and a stress test...just walking on the treadmill.   Good luck to you.

[footylad]

Thank you CFS56, that's very reassuring. Can you tell me more about your experience, if you prefer you could private message me? Thank you all once again.