Beth, it's a GOOD idea to have a doc and especially as one is getting closer to their end. I've been taking 2 BP meds and a thyroid med for over 20 yrs and I need refills until I check out. And since I have a horrid time trying to get anywhere the home deal is perfect as my end has never been closer. And there are plenty who do not love docs and their drugs!!!!!!!!!!!!
The 2 docs both said afib with their stethiscopes..... Are you saying tests have to be conducted for them to come up with afib dx?????
I'm not a doctor. I'd want an EKG. I'm inclined to say that if they both heard it at random times, then you're in constant AFIB. But I'm not a doctor.
Oh god I don't know what they heard but a doc I had before these 2, did a couple EKG's maybe 15 yrs ago...I'd still be with her but she's moved from where she was and I can't find her now.
I don't disagree that the home health care option is a good one, I just was curious about why you wanted a doctor in your house. I don't "love docs," but I understand when I need one, and for the most part, I trust them.
An EKG would be better than just listening. The monitor would best of all since A Fib can come and go. Most people I know who have been diagnosed have felt it. They may not know what it is, but they feel something they know isn't right. If you are smart, that should take you to a doc. Clotting and strokes are the biggest hazard I know, but I have heard that some can move into V Fib...and then you die.
As Don mentioned, get on a 24 hour heart monitor to get some objective data and to take the subjective human doctor out of the equation. Then you can make a decision with the information. I was on one for a month (actually, I was on two different types.) They can be inconvenient, but they're livable. And it's kind of a miracle of technology to have one's heart monitored 7x24 while at home or out shopping or just living normally. Plus, who wants to die of something so easily preventable?
Atrial fibrillation can be a major health issue and is far more likely to have grave implications than if you're throwing a PVC now and then. Some conditions of Afib are more dangerous than others but I'd let a cardiologist discuss that with me. That said, it doesn't mean that you're at the end of your road, but you need to get serious about things. If what looks like Afib turns out to be that, it signifies a heart problem and can place you in danger of a stroke as well as additional heart problems. As a paramedic, if my patient had atrial fibrillation but was otherwise conscious and alert, I would relax to the extent that my patient probably wasn't going to die on the way to the hospital but my patient did need to see a cardiologist. Keep in mind too, that an ECG measures electrical input and not necessarily the cardiac response to these electrical impulses. With PVCs, as seen on an ECG, what you're seeing are abnormal electrical impulses, which come from somewhere other than the normal place. If your heart is not responding to these impulses, then it's not actually a ventricular contraction. Sometimes PVCs simply indicate an irritation in the heart muscle, which can happen if you hold your breath. Likewise, with atrial fibrillation, a cardiologist would have to determine whether the heart muscle is actually fibrillating in response to the abnormal electrical impulses, but it's more than likely to be the case than with an occasional PVC. If your heart muscle is fibrillating, it's not pumping blood efficiently. With atrial fibrillation, your atrium isn't pumping blood efficiently to the ventricles. The ventricles will still have blood there to pump to the rest of the body because of gravity, body movement, and the normal pressure in the vascular system, but the ventricles may not be fully filled with blood. With ventricular fibrillation, the ventricles aren't pumping blood to the rest of the body efficiently and you're going to die without CPR and immediate attention to correct the problem.
What's surprising to me is that two doctors have mentioned AFib to Joy but neither of them has recommended wearing a monitor or further diagnosis. Strange.
My Apple Watch chirped up one time with a possible AFIB alert. I did its little electeocardiogram test, saved the result on my iPhone and showed it to my cardiologist since I was scheduled to see him the next day. He gave it a name, can’t remember now, and said that temporary events like that are not a concern, only if it should start repeating frequently or persist. Handy thing to have. It’s so easy these days to test for it. I have seriously bad family history and blood chemistry relative to heart disease but AFIB was not the issue, atherosclerosis was the common factor. No Apple Watch app for that yet.
One day they'll come up with an app that recognizes french fries, and delivers a shock to the wearer.
It's nice that several of the "tracker" style watches (Fitbit, Apple, Garmin, etc.) include the heart monitor now. I occasionally run the EKG thing but have never had any result except "normal sinus rhythm." I like keeping up with my resting heart rate with my Fitbit.
That is odd, or at least a referral to a cardiologist. Maybe Joy has told them she doesn't believe in a lot of modern medicine, so they figured it wasn't a productive thing to do.
This is truth, both docs spouting afib only have used stethiscopes....my earlier doc before these 2 did a few EKG's and I was fine. She is unable to be found NOW....heard she was working in a covid clinic but I don't know and I'd LOVE to see her again.l The freaking thing is -- my heart is doing nothing NEW and continues on as it always has....not fast, not slow, just does what it does. I do a lot less NOW due to being homebound mostly from body damage, but I get more freaked from the 2 docs afib push.....
I am kind of on the line with this topic. I was first diagnosed with a-fib about 20 years ago, but I actually had it intermittently for at least 10 years before that, and it progressively got worse over the years. Mine was noticeable right from the first, and it only happened every few months; but when it did, it was like having a wild bird inside my chest, trying to escape. There was no way of missing it ! However, it usually happened late at night, and when I finally went to see the doctor, they had me wear one of the monitors for about a week and everything looked fine, and they didn’t find a problem. Over the years, the afib episodes become more frequent, but didn’t really bother me or affect my life much. In 2002, I had a really bad flu-bug, and I think that caused my heart to weaken, and after that, it was pretty much always in Afib, although it was not as strong as before, because my heart was getting weaker. Even knowing I had afib, I didn’t have insurance or money to have it treated; so until 2010 when I turned 65 and had medicare, I still had no treatment for my heart. Since then, I have had 2 ablations, several cardioversions (where they shock your heart back into rhythm), and then a pacemaker, and now the AV node block and pacemaker in total control of my heart. If I had not had the procedures done, I am confident that i would have been dead probably 10 years ago, and I am glad that I had it done. The other thing I am thinking is that if Joy’s heart is not affecting her quality of life, is whether it is better not to start down that road of treatment right now and wait until it becomes necessary. If her heart has been this way for all these years, it might never get worse. On the other hand, if they just want her to take blood thinners, that is not a bad protection from strokes; so there are pluses and minuses for both sides.