Severe ventricular fibrilation

[Maneash]

I am a 53 year old active woman who has had fibrilations often over the years, I am currently on Arythmol for it but recently my heart has been fluttering really badly all day, I have had many ecgs and all is fine with my heart but these missed beats are really bad now, I have seen my cardiologist and told him it is worse just after I eat anything, it feels like it is in the left hand side just under my ribs, he now is sending me for tests for Coeliac disease, any advise or people who have similar symptoms I would love to hear from as it is starting to affect my life.

[Mom2four85]

"my cardiologist said it was ventricular fibrilation which was not as bad as Atrial"

this is from the american heart association:

Ventricular fibrillation is very serious. Collapse and sudden cardiac death will follow in minutes unless medical help is provided immediately. If treated in time, V fib and ventricular tachycardia (extremely rapid heartbeat) can be converted into normal rhythm. This requires shocking the heart with a device called a defibrillator.


You definintely need to ask your cardiologist if he suspects this - if so, you should look into treatment just in case :)

[Mom2four85]

Sorry to hear you're going through this, have you gotten test results etc from your doctor to know exactly what's going on with you?  I think that's such an important thing; there's so much medical jargon it's confusing sometimes, and some doctors dont explain things in simple terms (at least mine never have)

believe me Vfib is like Jeff says - I had it happened during an ablation 3 weeks ago, which caused me to go into Vfib;  flatlined  once completely - they defib'd me with 360j  from the paddles; went into vfib a 2nd & 3rd time, luckily my heart straightened out on it's own at the last second.

I was dx wtih VTach and had to had a pacemaker & icd put implanted so I don't go into vfib again or if I do then the icd shocks me (41j) and corrects it.

I had to have the ablation for pvc's (54,181 daily) and I had quite few tests before surgery which found a few things wrong along with the pvc's.

If you haven't get your test results and look them over; that may answer alot of your questions.  When I was in the hospital, I was quite shocked they told me I was having PAC's; no testing had shown that before and I wasn't feeling any symptoms, but I felt all of  the pvc's.

[Wisconsin2007]

If you are managing your condition just with beta blockers, you likely are having PVCs, NSVT or possibly v-tach.  Not v-fib.  Without a shock from an ICD or paddles, you would be dead within minutes if you had v-fib.  V-fib is the deadliest arrhythmia you can have short of total asystole (which at that point, can it really be called arrhythmia?  Is music without sound still music?), and is just about 100% fatal without quick medical intervention.

And Jerry's right, a-fib in and of itself is not life threatening.  V-fib is life ending.  Google ventricular fibrillation for yourself.

I know the terminology can get hairy - about a year ago I didn't know a PSVT from an NSVT, and so knowing which arrhythmia are bad or not-so-bad can be difficult if you haven't been spending a ton of time reading up on all of it.  

As for your symptoms - having palpitations and skipped beats after eating is relatively common.  Moreso if it was a large meal and/or you are overweight.  Your doctor must be noticing other symptoms to consider testing you for Celiac disease, as I'm not sure there's a direct tie between that and arrhythmia.  

But if you feel confident that your doctor is aware of all your symptoms and is taking appropriate measures to diagnose and treat you - then you should trust your doctor.

[Maneash]

No it is not atrial, I passed out about 8 years ago and when I woke up my heart was out of rhythm , they thought they would have to shock it to get it back but it went back on beta blockers, I was on those for about 6 years when they stopped working so I was put on Arythmol, all my heart tests are fine so is my blood pressure my heart beat is quite low, its just these really bad jumps I get all the time and more when I eat, my cardiologist said it was ventricular fibrilation which was not as bad as Atrial.

[Jerry_NJ]

It is good you are working with a Cardiologist, but I must say I don't think you have Ventricle Fibrillation, this is a deadly affliction as far as I know.

I have irregular ventricle beats due to my Atrial Fibrillation.  We can live with AFib, and the extra Ventricle beats are not fibrillation, just a few extra beats.  I take a beta blocker to reduce the number of these extra beats.  Without BB, I was running 130 bpm at rest, with the BB I run in the 80s.  They are still irregular, but not in the tachycardia range.