A Fib
by Scott Hardie on November 16, 2014
I wish the title was "a fib" as in a lie. But no, it's "A Fib" as in atrial fibrillation. That's a heart condition in which the upper part of your heart doesn't keep a rhythm. Sometimes it pounds really hard like it wants to burst out of your chest, sometimes it wobbles along shakily like a child trying to play a drum set, and sometimes it doesn't beat at all for seconds at a time. It's awesome.
I'm sharing this because I've been diagnosed with it. A Fib is normally a condition that develops in your seventies or older. I live in Sarasota, Florida, so I guess I'm an honorary 70-year-old. Right now I have the recurring kind where I get spells of A Fib lasting a few hours at a time, but it's been happening more and more, so I'm worried that it's going to turn into the permanent 24/7 kind that never goes away.
Having a spell of A Fib sucks. It usually happens to me at night: I'll jolt awake and begin shaking uncontrollably in bed. I'll try to tell myself to calm down, but I can't because I'm alternating between realizing that I have no pulse and that my heart is trying to explode. I lie there wide awake and quivering, convinced that I'm having a heart attack. Eventually I trick myself into calming down and starting to nod off, but just as I'm about to lose consciousness, BOOM I'm jolted awake again with the same terror. This goes on for hours.
The one good thing about this diagnosis is that it explains some of my medical history. Over the years, I've been to the ER a lot, and been diagnosed with everything from arrythmia to anxiety attacks to a "caffeine overdose." Looking back at those incidents and remembering my symptoms vividly, I realize now that they were all spells of A Fib, going all the way back to college. The downside of this realization is charting the dates and seeing that the frequency is accelerating. What used to happen every few years (so rarely that I didn't recognize a pattern back then) is now happening several times a month.
I'm seeing a cardiologist. So far he's put me through a battery of exams, everything from a stress test to an ultrasound (no baby photos, sorry). I look forward to talking with him this week about a course of treatment. I'm hopeful that my youth makes me a candidate for the surgical solution that fixes A Fib permanently, because the main alternative is blood thinners that will cramp what little style I have. Mostly I just want no more nights of lying awake for hours terrified that I'm on the verge of death, and then becoming the walking undead the next day because I'm exhausted. Here's hoping for relief soon.
Three Replies to A Fib
Lori Lancaster | November 17, 2014
[hidden by author request]
Scott Hardie | November 20, 2014
Thank you both! Yes, the risk of blood clots and strokes (five times the national average) is the real danger with this condition. The rest of it is a nuisance, albeit a considerable one.
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Pigeon Panic
Since Adrianne doesn't permit replies to her posts, I'll link it here: Poisoned pigeons fall from sky in Texarkana. The chain of events is too bizarre not to reiterate: A pigeon flew into a bank and defecated on a customer, so the bank put poisoned grain on the roof hoping to drive away the pigeons. Instead, dozens of birds flopped dead on the ground downtown – right during the city's annual festival. Go »Devilin'
Bill O'Reilly on Shawn Hornbeck: "The situation here, for this kid, looks to me to be a lot more fun than what he had under his 'old' parents. He didn't have to go to school, he could run around and do whatever he wanted." Yeah, it was great. Go »Windbag
I don't know what Polaroids he has of whom, but somehow Tom Skilling has elevated himself to some kind of all-important weather-broadcasting god. When I grew up in Chicago, I watched him gradually get a bigger and bigger budget for his animated graphics, and gradually get a larger and larger timeframe to deliver his dull reports. By the time I left town, he had a whole 20 minutes of the hour-long midday newscast for the fucking weather, and boy did he find trivia to fill it: Average dew points across Cook County on this day in 1854, theta-e temperature predictions for every Cubs home game next season, you name it. Go »5 Horror Board Game Recommendations
Someone asked me recently to suggest a few good horror-themed board games. With Halloween coming up, I decided to write out a list in case it gives anyone else ideas for something fun to get and play. These are in order from most kid-friendly to least. Go »Like That Smash Mouth Song
Dramatic photo of a shuttle docking with the International Space Station, set against the sun: (link) Thanks, Aaron W. Go »
Steve West | November 17, 2014
Damn. This sounds potentially serious. Scary, scary. I don't want to sound like an alarmist as you've dealt with this for some time and I never have but this is one of the few organs that we cannot live without. Arrhythmia in and of itself is troubling but the blood clot aspects are a tad more serious. Best of luck with the treatment plan, the quicker the better my friend.