A Day Not Planned

(Avon Park, FL)  Hi 81 Low 55 -- Well, today certainly turned out different than we planned. Five years ago Jim was treated for atrial fibrillation (AT). He underwent a treatment to shock the heart back into rhythm (called a cardiovert), and everything has been fine... until last night. While snuggling in bed I listened to his heart, like I sometimes do, and noticed it was beating erratically. So early this morning Jim called his primary care physician at the Tampa Veterans Hospital. He was told to come in right away, so we quickly dressed and made the 80-mile trip to Tampa.

To make a long story short, it was a long day of mostly waiting around, along with many EKGs and blood tests. Jim's condition is "non-symptomatic." In other words, he doesn't have any dizziness, shortness of breath, or feel any heart palpitations, like most sufferers of AT do. So the team of cardiologists (yes, it was a team of three of them; impressive treatment!) decided not to do another cardiovert, and to treat it as an ongoing condition. We were told that about 10 million Americans are being treated for AT, and probably many more have it and don't know it. One of the dangers of AT is an increased risk of stroke or heart attack, due to blood pooling in the heart's upper chamber caused by the arrhythmia. So Jim was given a prescription for Warfarin, a blood thinner. We're not real pleased that he'll be on a blood thinner for the rest of his life, but it's better than getting a stroke or heart attack!

So Jim is fine. He has no limitations on activities or exercising, and his life should continue as normal. We got home around 8pm, so it was a long day. But we're glad the minor scare is over. Hopefully we'll be back to our normal lazy lifestyle tomorrow. :)