When Your Heart Skips And Jumps

in Silver Bloggers2 years ago (edited)

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No, I don't mean when you fall in love or are excited. That is fun, but there's nothing fun about these types of heart skips and jumps.

I don't mind growing old, there are losses but there are also gains. When I think of gains I'm thinking of the wisdom (hopefully) and experience that comes with age. And then there things like watching your children becoming parents and watching your grandchildren growing up. Then, as work comes to an end, more free time to do things you want to do, to learn new things and find new experiences. All of these things, I find, bring joy to my life.

But there is a downside to getting old. Our bodies have a best before date on them. Some people are fortunate and due to good genetics, and possibly through living a healthy lifestyle, their bodies stay pretty good well into old age. But for many of us this isn't the case. My own body has been playing me up for years. I hit my mid-thirties and things started to go wrong. I won't bore you with a complete list of ailments, but let's just say it looks like I've spent the last 25 years collecting them! Nothing that's going to kill me straight away, but bad enough to have ended my working life at 46 years old. I thank God that I live in a country with free health care, plus loving wife and family. At least i haven't lost my home or become bankrupt due to medical bills.

In 2020, right before the pandemic I received 2 new diagnosis. The first is a lung problem called bronchiectasis. Bronchiectasis is a condition where the airways widened in the lungs, so the cilia, tiny hair like structures that keep airways clear cannot do their job properly. This means mucus builds up in the airways and easily become infected, infection can then cause more damage to the lungs. It becomes a vicious circle if you are not careful. I have to have 2 weeks of antibiotics and 7 days of steroids whenever I get an infection. I have had two lung infections so far this year, the last one about a month ago. So I now have to perform the rather disgusting process of clearing my lungs twice a day, in the hope of reducing the amount of infections I get.

The other thing I was diagnosed with in 2020 is atrial fibrillation. This is where the skipping, jumping heart comes in. Atrial fibrillation is when, for some unknown reason, irregular signals are sent to the atrium, the top part of the heart, which makes it beat irregularly and faster than normal. Because the bottom chambers of the heart don't beat in time with the atrium, blood isn't pumped out properly, leading to the possibility of clots and strokes. I'm on anticoagulants for the rest of my life, another drug to add to the many I already take. I was also put on a beta blocker when first diagnosed.

Having an Afib (short for atrial fibrillation) episode isn't a particularly pleasant experience. Having your heart beat at 150 bpm, in an irregular manner while at rest, isn't particularly comfortable. At first the episodes were short, lasting half an hour or so. But they got worse over the course of the year, even with the beta blocker, and I started to get episodes that lasted 12 hours plus. I had a few trips to A&E (ER for my American friends) but my heart always eventually went back to normal rhythm without any intervention.

I had 2 visits to A&E at the beginning of this year. After the last one I was contacted by a researcher who is involved in a clinical trial testing a procedure called ablation against a placebo procedure. There are some doubts as to whether ablation for Afib actually works or if any improvement is due to placebo. He said I would get the procedure done much quicker if I went in the study ( covid has led to a back log), the downside was that I wouldn't know if I had had the real ablation or the placebo procedure. But even if it turns out I had had the placebo procedure, I would get the real one done immediately once the the trial period had finished. Well, I thought that not only would I get it done quicker, I would also help to advance scientific knowledge. So on the 28th March 2022 I had the procedure.

The procedure involved having a catheter passed up through a vein in my groin and into my heart, then the cells that were misfiring were identified and frozen to kill them, this should stop my heart from doing its irregular skips and jumps. That is if I have had the real ablation and not the placebo. The procedure was quite straightforward. I was conscious throughout, although I was sedated and a local aesthetic was used where the incision was made. I had to wear headphones with music playing through them so that I couldn't hear what was going on, and there was a screen put up so that I couldn't see the monitors or what they were doing. I had to stay laying down on a bed for a few hours afterwards to allow the bleeding to stop. The scar left by this is extremely small, and there was very little bruising.

It's been 3 months since I had the procedure. I had a long Afib episode a few days after the procedure, but then things started settling down. There is what they call a blanking period, where the heart is settling down after being messed about with. Usually people are kept on a betablocker during the blanking period, but my consultant wanted me to stop taking the betablocker I was on straightaway. Generally things were fine, except sometimes I would get small Afib episodes when I went to do things, and my heart would skip a few beats, which was uncomfortable. As part of the study, I had been fitted with a heart monitor which was inserted under the skin in my chest. This monitors my heart 24/7, and I have to upload the data via a unit they gave me. After about 2 months the consultant told me to go back on the betablocker, because he could see my heart wasn't settling down and these small episodes were getting more frequent. Once I started taking the betablocker again I was fine. My heart was beating slowly which is what betablockers do and rarely went above 60 bpm, but I had no Afib episodes, not even small ones.

Then last Thursday I had my first long Afib episode for nearly 3 months. It lasted for 9 hours. Fortunately, although my heart rhythm was irregular my resting heart rate only went as high as 120 bpm, and mainly stayed between 90 and 100 bpm. Doctors don't tend to worry too much unless the heart goes above about 140 bpm for more than an hour.

I had contacted my consultant on that day for another prescription for the betablocker, and he said he wanted me to stop taking it. Since stopping I have been going in and out of Afib everyday. It's stopping me from being able to do things I would normally do. Even making a cup of tea can set it off. I'm hoping this is just because my body is having to get used to not having the betablocker. My heart is still being monitored 24/7 and I should have a consultation with my consultant in the next few days. But at the moment things are a little bit difficult. Neither I nor the consultant will know if I have had the real ablation for another 3 months.

Image Credit Pixabay

Image Credit Pixabay

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As much as people complain about our health service, the NHS is really amazing. I hope your consultant and you sort out the best course of action for you.

 2 years ago  

I agree, the NHS has its problems but I am grateful we have it. I would hate to think how much debt I would be in now if we didn't have it. Or I would have had to have gone without treatment and may well either still not be here or would be more disabled than I am now.

I'm sure my consultant will be able to help. It may be that my heart settles down on its own once my body gets used to me not taking the beta blockers. It's not dangerous just a bit uncomfortable.

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 2 years ago  

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