Electric shocks

Save of course that this is a matter of electricity!.


Well, I have experienced it too and it didn't half put the wind up me - why would a 50-something's heart go out of rhythm in the middle of the night.


Skip this bit if you feel faint!


So I got up for a pee in the night (as older men do) and I wondered whether I could stand for long enough to finish. ? I got back into bed and felt my pulse, which was diddly-diddly-diddly instead of a steady 60 - 70 bpm. So off we went to the hospital in the middle of the night. After all the tests, it was concluded that I might benefit from being shocked back into rhythm. Fortunately, before anybody did anything, my heart beat returned to normal. It has gone haywire again, but always temporarily, and probably due to stressful events. (I don't drink coffee, but I do like tea during the day.)


If you want to know more, read on, but it is a bit technical.


So normally the heart beats in a steady rhythm under the influence of its natural "pacemaker" - the sinus node. If you start exercising, it makes the heart beat faster. However it can go wrong and you can end up in atrial fibrillation when the muscles of the first chambers in the heart (the atria) don't contract together. Fortunately, that doesn't kill you because the ventricles, the main chambers of the heart have their own rhythm. There are, however, two problems. The lesser is that the heart doesn't respond so well to exercise - it doesn't speed up as it should, so you feel knackered, or short of breath, or a combination of the two. Trust me, I have experienced it when out for a run (normally 4 miles.) If you are less fit, AF could impair your ability to do normal daily activities, in which case it needs to be sorted.


The other problem is that if the left atrium is not contracting properly, the blood can get stuck in the corners. Moving blood is great, but static blood can clot. What you don't want is clotted blood there, which decides to detach itself and shoot off upward 'cos you may end up with a stroke. So the second reason for treating AF is to reduce the increased risk of a stroke.


I have mentioned this in the old forum. So you get a shock and go into ventricular fibrillation, which is rapidly fatal 'cos your blood isn't pumped anywhere. If somebody can get to you with a defibrillator, happy days! Isn't it odd: one shock can kill, another type can revive. ?


Back to the OP. Kelly, you could wait and see (as I have done) or drug treatment might help, which is obviously a matter for you to discuss with your doctors. As JP has suggested, lifestyle changes my help. I suppose that at the end of the day, it's a risk analysis, but I have long believed that treatment should be given only where the expectation of benefit exceeds the risk of any complications.


HTH.

Save of course that this is a matter of electricity!.


Well, I have experienced it too and it didn't half put the wind up me - why would a 50-something's heart go out of rhythm in the middle of the night.


Skip this bit if you feel faint!


So I got up for a pee in the night (as older men do) and I wondered whether I could stand for long enough to finish. ? I got back into bed and felt my pulse, which was diddly-diddly-diddly instead of a steady 60 - 70 bpm. So off we went to the hospital in the middle of the night. After all the tests, it was concluded that I might benefit from being shocked back into rhythm. Fortunately, before anybody did anything, my heart beat returned to normal. It has gone haywire again, but always temporarily, and probably due to stressful events. (I don't drink coffee, but I do like tea during the day.)


If you want to know more, read on, but it is a bit technical.


So normally the heart beats in a steady rhythm under the influence of its natural "pacemaker" - the sinus node. If you start exercising, it makes the heart beat faster. However it can go wrong and you can end up in atrial fibrillation when the muscles of the first chambers in the heart (the atria) don't contract together. Fortunately, that doesn't kill you because the ventricles, the main chambers of the heart have their own rhythm. There are, however, two problems. The lesser is that the heart doesn't respond so well to exercise - it doesn't speed up as it should, so you feel knackered, or short of breath, or a combination of the two. Trust me, I have experienced it when out for a run (normally 4 miles.) If you are less fit, AF could impair your ability to do normal daily activities, in which case it needs to be sorted.


The other problem is that if the left atrium is not contracting properly, the blood can get stuck in the corners. Moving blood is great, but static blood can clot. What you don't want is clotted blood there, which decides to detach itself and shoot off upward 'cos you may end up with a stroke. So the second reason for treating AF is to reduce the increased risk of a stroke.


I have mentioned this in the old forum. So you get a shock and go into ventricular fibrillation, which is rapidly fatal 'cos your blood isn't pumped anywhere. If somebody can get to you with a defibrillator, happy days! Isn't it odd: one shock can kill, another type can revive. ?


Back to the OP. Kelly, you could wait and see (as I have done) or drug treatment might help, which is obviously a matter for you to discuss with your doctors. As JP has suggested, lifestyle changes my help. I suppose that at the end of the day, it's a risk analysis, but I have long believed that treatment should be given only where the expectation of benefit exceeds the risk of any complications.


HTH.