| Name | 30 yr old female |
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| Location | London |
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| Age | 30 |
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| Diagnosed condition | paroxysmal A fib |
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| Years with condition | 11 |
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| Frequency of episodes | weekly, sometimes nightly. |
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| Duration of episodes | 1-15 minutes |
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| Event preceding first AF | chronic amphetamine use, heavy smoking and drinking |
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| General health | moderate drinker, drug free, quit smoking 5 or 6 yrs ago. Active. |
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| Current state | undecided. |
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| Triggers | bending over too quickly; drinking coffee, though it's not always a problem. Sex. Smoking marijuana and taking ecstasy both cause a marked increase in flutters, for days afterwards (which is why I do neither thing now) Resting after stress, excercise, excitement (usually when I'm resting at night) |
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| Preventions | I wish I knew of one! Avoiding caffeine helps vastly (same with avoiding drugs). Taking flecainide for 6 yrs helped to the point of almost eliminating symptoms but thick headed canadian cardiologist refuses to re-prescribe it. |
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| Current medications/side effects | None. I was mis-prescribed Atenolol by a cardiologist who didn't seem to realize that it increases frequency of palpitations in people with my kind of A-fib (vagal). It also induced a new symptom, PVC, which I never had before trying atenolol. As a result I was hospitalized for a day and have had frequent recurrence of PVC and afib. I'm very annoyed I was taken off of flecainide to go through this charade. I'd sue if I had the money! |
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| Past medications/side effects | Flecainide. It had bad side effects - numbness, dizziness, some extra palpitations - for the first 4 to 6 weeks but these were balanced out by the regulating effect on my heart rhythm, which I noticed straight away. I recommend giving it a chance it you are healthy enough to hack it, as it definitely suppressed my a-fib in the long-term. |
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| History of surgery | n/a |
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| Future plans | Seeking a second opinion! The Canadian cardiologist I saw was incompetent and should probably have his licence revoked. |
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| Personal comments | Don't listen to doctors who tell you it's "just stress" (especially if you're a female! They ALWAYS say that to women!!) Insist on a holter monitor test, because it's worth knowing what's going on. You'll avoid all the visits to emergency at 2 or 3 a.m. because you don't know what's wrong with you. (I've had at least 20 and half of them were before a doctor finally took me seriously enough to send me to a cardiologist) |
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| Check list |  acebutolol | amiodarone (cordarone,pacerone) | anisindione (miradon) |  atenolol (tenormin) | aspirin | azimilide | | bepridil | betaxolol | bisoprolol (monocor,emconcor) | | bretylium | bucindolol | carvedilol | | cibenzoline | dicumarol | digitoxin | | digoxin (lanoxin) | diltiazem (cardizem) | diphenylhydantoin | | disopyramide (norpace) | dofetilide (tikosyn) | dronedarone | | encainide | esmolol (brevibloc) | ersentilide | | flecainide (tambocor) | gallopamil | ibutilide (corvert) | | lidocaine | mibefradil | metoprolol (lopressor,toprol xl) | | mexiletine | moricizine | nadolol | | phenytoin | procainamide | propafanone (rythmol) | | propranolol (inderal) | quinapril (accupril) | quinidine (quinaglute) | | sotalol (betapace) | tedisamil | timolol | | tocainide | trandolapril (mavik) | valsartan (diovan) | | verapamil (calan,isoptin) | warfarin (coumadin) | asthma | | diabetes | GERD/acid reflux | hypertension | | hypotension | hyperthyroidism | hypothyroidism | | adrenergic | vagal | familial | | idiopathic/lone | paroxysmal | permanent/chronic | | atrial flutter | cardiomyopathy | CHF | | PAC | PVC | SVT | | syncope | bradycardia | tachycardia | | heart block | myocardial infarction | rheumatic heart diease | | sick sinus syndrome | stroke | WPW | | electrical cardioversion | defibrillator | pacemaker | | ablation | bypass | maze | | Male | Female | |
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