| Name | Rosemary |
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| Location | Eugene, Oregon |
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| Age | 46 |
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| Diagnosed condition | rheumatic heart valve stenosis - chronic afib. |
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| Years with condition | 6 known |
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| Frequency of episodes | persistent |
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| Duration of episodes | continual |
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| Event preceding first AF | mowing the lawn |
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| General health | good |
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| Current state | moderately impaired for exertion |
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| Triggers | the reason I'm in afib. is because I had undiagnosed rheumatic fever at age 8-9. The strep virus settled in around my mitral valve and laid down tissue which eventually resulted in a narrowing of my mitral valve - the valve between L atrium and L ventrical. At the point is was discovered I had a blood clot in my L atrium due to blood backing up in the atrium because it couldn't fit through the mitral valve quickly enough. I had slowly become more and more tired, and sought treatment when I realized how irregular my heart rate was. |
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| Preventions | I guess rheumatic heart disease is fairly rare in the US - best prevention would have been to diagnose and treat it years ago.
Now I try to avoid caffeine because it seems to worsen my afib., and don't drink too much alcohol either. |
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| Current medications/side effects | Tiazac/diltiazem, warfarin
tiazac constipates me - I take psillium husks twice a day and add prunes at times. It may slow me down a bit, but not like the beta blocker I first tried.
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| Past medications/side effects | Digoxin initially - I felt soo much better.
Flecainide - I was in normal rhythm for about 4 years - no known side effects for me.
Aspirin - while I was in rhythm. |
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| History of surgery | After I was diagnosed with the valve disease it was a year before it got really bad. Initially I was cardioverted and stayed in normal sinus r. Then in 1998 I had a procedure called mitral valve valvuloplasty in which a cardiologist inserted a balloon into my mitral valve and blew it open. This was amazingly helpful and I felt better immediately. I was in normal rhythm for about 4 years. This year, 5 years later, my valve is beginning to close down again. If anyone knows any tricks for stopping this growing-together process, I'd love to hear about it. |
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| Future plans | Monitor annually for the size of my mitral valve opening and possibly have another balloon procedure down the road. I'm looking at the potential for a valve replacement at some point. I DO plan to continue with blood thinners - stroke risk is too high. |
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| Personal comments | I think afib. makes me feel more anxious than I would otherwise feel, especially if I'm tired. I have been working out for about 3 months, and feel pretty good. My cardiologist tells me not to worry about my heart rate numbers - just to self-monitor as to what feels okay. I know I'm over the top if I start wheezing while exerting - I slow right down - all I need is lung involvement.... I notice a diminishing capacity to exert as my valve opening is getting smaller. As an aside,I had the option to buy long term care insurance with no physical or medical records and I signed up - it's cheap for now, and it's my way of taking care of some of my anxiety. |
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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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