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363281 tn?1643235611

I am concerned over some weird skipped beats and other things. I am 60 years old.

Hi~I am very concerned and I need some reassurance, I am scared. This morning, around 3:00, I was looking for something on the floor, when I got up and went back to bed, my heart was naturally beating faster, OK, so then, it starts to feel like it is getting faster and when I tried to feel my pulse in my neck ( I was scared to but did anyway)I could tell it was skipping, it was like: beat, beat, beat, nothing, beat, nothing, beat, beat, nothing. This scared the daylights out of me so I stopped feeling it. It lasted about a minute but felt like an eternity. I am not sure what the rate was, I didn't count it, but it was probably 100. When it stopped, I then had a mini anxiety attack, but quickly regained my composure.

My fear is, I am afraid it was paroxysmal A-Fib. I haven't had any since this morning, maybe just my normal "blips" that suck but nothing like what i had earlier. I made an appointment to see my PCP tomorrow at 3. I want an EKG or an echo, but over here in New Zealand, they just don't do them unless it is really important. I am on the verge of tears, I may have had this type of feeling before back home in the states, but it didn't scare me as much, but then, I knew and liked my doctors, and had things to look forward to, here, I feel alone and don't have much to look forward too. I remember my PCP asking me what would help to calm me, I told him an echo and wearing an event monitor, he said "done" and he set it all up for me, man, I sure miss him, no way will that happen here.

I am also worried about back pain, I know women can have heart issues in their back, well, for the last few months,I will get this pain in my mid-upper back, it is like a spasm, usually walking takes it away, but this past Monday, while singing Christmas carols at our hospital, I had it and it stayed a little while. I thought to myself "oh well, I am in a hospital if I keel over" It finally left and boy, when I touched my rib on the side, was it sore. I am hoping it is just my fibro or costchondritis acting up. My jaw hurts, but only in the front under the main front teeth. I will say that normally, when I get that back pain, it is after doing some heavy sweeping out front, this time, it was a day after, but, I had walked the dogs and boy, do they pull and that can hurt as well. I don't know, as you can see, I am a nervous wreck right now. My chiropractor says my upper back is very tight and that is causing the pain, I want to believe him, but I am afraid to fearing the worse.

I took my blood pressure after I had calmed down by the way, it was 114/73 with a heart rate of 73, this is normal for me. (I am 60 years young ) I am not on any medication at all. Back home, I had an echo and wore a seven day king of hearts monitor,(the ones my PCP set up for me) the echo was "normal" and the event monitor was very unremarkable, just some PAC's a few PVC's and some atrial runs, nothing over 100 however. This was all 8 years ago however, I am afraid things have changed since then.

Thank you for reading this. I hope all goes well tomorrow at my PCP visit.

3 Responses
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1423357 tn?1511085442
(Sorry) too slow for it to be a recurrence if that.  But it is paroxsysmal in nature, so I'm just keeping an eye on it, and see my cardiologist once a year.  It seems to be a badge of age.
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1423357 tn?1511085442
In right there with you, SassyLasdt.  As I near 67, I've been having brief episodes here and there of what I believe to be A-fib.  Having come from a near life long history of SVT, ablated in 2010, I know this is too slow fo rhay
Helpful - 0
20748650 tn?1521032211
COMMUNITY LEADER
Unfortunately there isnt much,that can be done to reassure you about afib.

Afib most commonly arises as the result of a progressive conduction disease process associated with aging.

Unfortunately its more common to see folks over the age of 60 with at least some intermittent afib then it is to see someone with no episodes.

The goos news is just having afib episodes per se isn't necessarily a critical thing at this point in your life.

Many factors go in to grading the severity of the disease including but not limited to; the presence of other structural or anatomic abnormalities, the function of other systems, the duration of afib, number of episodes, ventricular response, risk factors for stroke/clotting disorders, function of the remainder of the conduction system etc etc.

Whether or not this is in fact afib and how worries you should be about it unfortunately will only come about as the result of a very thorough assessment.
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