Heart aflutter again.

@Brenda5
Doesn't sound very encouraging. As per @Afraser, it would be nice if new dude was right. But then it's unlikely he'd admit it if he wasn't and only time will tell for sure, but hanging around hoping for the best would do my head in.

A bit off topic, but a number of years ago my mother suffered a life threatening incident. We thought she was a goner after weeks of what was meant to be palliative care. She survived, after a fashion,  but once she could speak she refused all but two of her meds. Which cut about ten out of the program. Said she was sick of taking drugs to manage drugs. Was told that attitude would kill her. Evidently not.

It seems she picked the right two, but I was bloody horrified and wonder if her quality of life may be better if she did what she was told.

I am curious about the lack of appetite for comprehensive, and independent, medication review for all patients with complex health issues. Most good chemists can give you some idea if there are contraindications, but how does the average Joe comunicate that to a whole phalanx of specialists? Had problems myself.

I'd love to push a reset button and figure out what I need and what I don't, and Im not in your difficult position.

Hang in there. Mxx

You are in the wars, @Brenda5 ...  OMG .... I would have thought 'the mind' would be the first choice for sending heart rhythms awry!  

I hope you can change that heart ultrasound date to just BEFORE you 60th birthday - and get it as a 'freebie' .. every $$ adds up - & when living rural as well & having to travel distances to get to specialist appts .... the stress adds to it as well as the financial!

Check if there is Can Assist (or Qld equivalent) up your way?  I would think most States may have a group like that (different name).    They are a philanthropic group who help out those with cancer by way of petrol & food 'cards' ..... and may take care of big bills too ..... Definitely worth a check - not sure if it is a Social Worker who may need to refer you .... 

take care.

@Brenda5

Possibly the only more annoying thing will be if he is right! My guy didn’t want to increase the sotalol, but metoprolol keeps working for me and that was the necessary part about going off sotalol altogether. So try the new regime and see how it goes. Best of luck! 

I saw the long awaited cardiologist yesterday. He also poo’d the $2.50 aspirin I was on as a blood thinner so I am stuck on the $41.50 a month Eliquis/apixaban.

He decided he didn’t like the Solalol (which was the only one which was stopping the Afib), confiscated the tabs I had left, and put me on a half a tab of Metoprolol twice a day. When I told him at one and a half twice a day it didn’t work, he said he would also prescribe a new pill as well.

He said all that psycho mumbo jumbo was just smoke and mirrors and he doesn’t believe any of it. My own subconscious mind couldn’t possibly send the heart into Afib.  I should have asked; then why did the beta blockers suddenly stop working after a few years on them?

The new magic pill is Flecainide/Tambocor which is supposed to regulate the heart rate and is twice a day like the other two tablet sorts I take. Imagine my surprise when I got the renewal scripts for those two plus the new script filled in yesterday and the total was $96! That is enough dose rates for only one month so I am not a cheap chickee to keep now according to my husband.

 He has ordered a heart ultrasound for July 5th on my heart. Fair on my 60th birthday I might add and it’s no longer a free service. It will cost nearly $500!

I see him again in 3 months.

Oh shitsticks @Brenda5 !

If you didn't have a heart and anxiety problem before, that performance would bring them on.

I've always enjoyed your candour and humour, and I hope those two personality traits will help you drag yourself through this.

 You are nobody's fool and it is just wrong to that you have to second guess everything then get the default answer, when they can't figure it out, its all in your head'

Yep, it can be all in our heads. But rarely. It would be nice to see all other avenues investigated before that decision is made.

Good luck. You are, as me granny used to say, a good egg. Mxx

You poor soul, @Brenda5 - I'd be a sobbing mess on the floor if this was me - so well done YOU for doing so well over such a long period of time xx 

Long may the ER visits be 'far apart' and I hope all stays in sync .... and all the best for the psych next week xx

Good grief! That’s a scary tale for anyone, most of all you! It’s hard to avoid a feeling of staff just trying one thing after another, which is not confidence inducing. I frequently am grateful I have a very good cardiologist. Best wishes for next week, at least the psychologist sounds like a step forward. You could possibly accommodate a bit of boredom after all that. 

Wow so much has happened since the last post. I did end up in the ER again with Afib. This time the Metroprolol wouldn't do diddly even with an increased dose rate. They were loathe to electronically cardiovert me back into a rhythm for a 3rd time and I had to stay overnight to see a cardio specialist the next day.
Que, fire alarms! They went on for ages with nurses shouting over them what patients to evacuate. My BP and heat rate went up thru the roof and they gave me Valium to settle me down a bit. Of course it was a false alarm but none of us knew that.
The next day the cardiologist saw me at 10am and suggested Sotalol which I had been on years ago and poo'd the aspirin blood thinner of only $2.50 and put me on Eliquis which is $40 a month. At 3pm they finally coughed up one Sotalol pill to try and get me into a rhythm and after an hour and a half it had done absolutely nothing. My BP was still up and my heart rate and it went higher every time someone came in to my cubicle. 
Then they finally suggested after two days, maybe we could electronically cardiovert you back in to a rhythm again? But hang on, now its been so long out of rhythm, there is a 1 in 300 chance you could stroke out. They are telling me this while there is a stroke patient in the bed next door to me and she did not sound good. Please sign this waver for the procedure. Oh, and you had lunch, oh sorry they said as they took away my water bottle, you have to fast now for 6 more hours. 
I lost it then and a kindly nurse came in to see what was wrong. I blubbered about having to fast for another 6 hours because I ate something after a day and a half of not eating. She said oh bull! So now I had conflicting advice on what to do.
In the end I disconnected myself from the machine, got dressed and demanded to be discharged.
Suddenly there were my long awaited scripts for my meds and a waver to sign to discharge. My son picked me up and we just made the chemists to get the scripts filled before closing. 
I took another Sotalol on the spot and went home to a herbal cup of tea and you know what? The heart went right back in to rhythm lol.

Since those awful couple of days in hospital I have seen a psychiatrist who said my subconcious is in a constant state of fight or flight flux and it is setting off the heart rate. He prescribed an antidepressant which of course with my luck gave me diarrhea for a week and the GP gave me a capsule to combat that. Well the antidepressant also had my lymph nodes getting sorer and sorer and when I took it at the same time as my Sotalol pill, it negated the Sotalol and increased the heart rate. I took another Sotalol later on and got back in to rhythm but I cannot take the antidepressant Sertraline again. The anti-diarrhea capsule did the same thing, increased the heart rate and again I had to take a Sotalol so that treatment is out too.
My GP has now increased the dose rate of Sotalol and the blood thinner which the hospital had put the incorrect dosage on and so far although my heart does go off occasionally, the Sotalol puts it back into rhythm.

I am also seeing a new psychologist who kept saying oh no wonder, when I listed all my worries and traumas so I have a really nice understanding woman helping to put things in to perspective now.

I am also doing a Panic course online recommended and payed for by my psychiatrist from This Way UP which is developed by St Vincents NSW. 

It has been two weeks ER free and only one more week to go until I see my new Cardiology specialist and get all this nonsense sorted. Until then my GP has banned me from any stress, physical or mental. Life is pretty boring this week.

My AF could be hereditary. Both my mother and my aunty have the same. Mine just got sped up after chemo. I reckoned it ages you 10 years.

My oncologist initially thought A/C may have caused my AF, but changed his mind. My cardiologist thought a combination of surgery and chemo caused it, but also changed his mind, mainly for the same reason, no improvement when chemo
ended. But it has improved, ever so slowly, over the years, so who
knows. I also acknowledge that AF is the most common form of arrhythmia in those over 65, so there may have also been a compounding age issue. But Metoprolol has been an effective and simple way of controlling my heart rate which also has improved my heart rhythm. With no side effects that I know of!