[CPAP] Heart flutters

[Dreamon22]

I've had heart flutters for years. I've had nuclear stress test and many chest x-rays and the doctor say they can find nothing wrong. I go to the doctor regularly because I'm also diabetic. My blood work is done twice a year and chest x-rays and EKG once a year. I started using CPAP 2 months ago period yesterday when I started experiencing a heart flutter I put my CPAP mask on for about an hour. After only a few minutes of the CPAP I notice a fluttering stopped. I was just wondering if CPAP helps even during the day when it comes to heart flutters?

[mesenteria]

Flutters can be anything from bowel gas (yes, your bowel runs high up under your diaphragm) to atrial fibrillation, and even spasms in your intercostal muscles (the rib muscles we like with barbeque sauce).

I developed fluttering, but when they hooked me up at emerg it was fibrillation.  Apparently they have ruled it out in your case?  And in my case, it was this fluttering and the awful feeling of breathlessness that went with it, that eventually had them running me on a treadmill and going to the sleep lab.  The sleep lab was the last thing they checked, and there is where they determined I had severe apnea.  And at that, my cardiologist said, "Well, I guess we now know why you have AFib!"

I don't know why you have your sensation, but it is conceivable that it might have to do with exertion or anxiety, or some other trigger.  I don't know whether donning your PAP gear takes your mind off things, as in a distraction, or if it actually helps in some way.  I wouldn't say it improves your oxygenation at the time because presumably you don't have desats during the day....??  Are you on oxygen, or do you have COPD or asthma?  I ask because I can think of no other reason for PAP to appear to calm your symptoms...IF it really is what is making your fluttering go away (it may be just time limited and you haven't deduced as much yet).

[Dreamon22]

I have asthma with underlaying copd

[Big Guy]

I was diagnosed with A-Fib earlier this year. I couldn't even tell that I had it. No tell-tale signs at all. I tried the chemical (pill) version first and it didn't help. No idea as to how long I had it. 

I then had the cardioversion (Ablation) where they knock you out and then shock your heart. That did the trick on the 1st shock. 

So far, I'm doing fine. I go back in the 29th for a follow-up. I was hoping that in some way that I'd feel better after being diagnosed and successfully treated. No improvement from what I can tell.

[mesenteria]

I was diagnosed with A-Fib earlier this year. I couldn't even tell that I had it. No tell-tale signs at all. I tried the chemical (pill) version first and it didn't help. No idea as to how long I had it. 

I then had the cardioversion (Ablation) where they knock you out and then shock your heart. That did the trick on the 1st shock. 

So far, I'm doing fine. I go back in the 29th for a follow-up. I was hoping that in some way that I'd feel better after being diagnosed and successfully treated. No improvement from what I can tell.

In my case, I could feel it, and I also auto-reversed it, both big plusses according to the nice folks at the ER.  I am on medication and am not aware of a recurrence.  Even so, the literature says it is a progressive disorder...which means things just get worse over time.  The medication, if it serves well, delays the finality indefinitely.  I'm not sure if there are occasional bumps-up of the dosage as the initial prescription loses efficacy.  I guess they would try ablation eventually because the dosage can only get so high.

I hope your follow-up goes well and that you don't need to go on medication.

[Big Guy]

I was diagnosed with A-Fib earlier this year. I couldn't even tell that I had it. No tell-tale signs at all. I tried the chemical (pill) version first and it didn't help. No idea as to how long I had it. 

I then had the cardioversion (Ablation) where they knock you out and then shock your heart. That did the trick on the 1st shock. 

So far, I'm doing fine. I go back in the 29th for a follow-up. I was hoping that in some way that I'd feel better after being diagnosed and successfully treated. No improvement from what I can tell.

In my case, I could feel it, and I also auto-reversed it, both big plusses according to the nice folks at the ER.  I am on medication and am not aware of a recurrence.  Even so, the literature says it is a progressive disorder...which means things just get worse over time.  The medication, if it serves well, delays the finality indefinitely.  I'm not sure if there are occasional bumps-up of the dosage as the initial prescription loses efficacy.  I guess they would try ablation eventually because the dosage can only get so high.

I hope your follow-up goes well and that you don't need to go on medication.

After my procedure, my doctor put me on two meds. Flecainide and Cartia XT. After both scripts ran out, I chose not to have them refilled. I don't like taking meds unless it's absolutely necessary. 

When I see my doctor, I'll be telling him this. Not sure how he will react, but I suppose he won't be happy about it.

[mesenteria]

It's risky.  You will lose him as an agent in your 'recovery' if it turns out you are on borrowed time and will possibly need his advice and prescriptions again.  These folks have robust egos that don't like hearing that someone who approached them for advice chose not to heed it.  There may be two people leaving the meeting disappointed and unhappy.  (Can you grovel...if you have to?)

I was told I'm on my three meds for life, one for rate control with a secondary control of BP which was skirting high, one for clotting control (for the AFib), and while I was there he said he didn't like my HDL/LDL ratio and prescribed a statin.

[pholynyk]

I think I would have asked my doctor if the ablation had cured my afib to the point that the meds were unnecessary. They may be there to prevent a recurrence... but it's your life...

I've had one heart attack and a quad bypass - I'd rather take a few pills than go though either again.

[MyronH]

I think I have some type of flutter too, during my sleep. I will wake up with these spasms in my left side of chest. They feel like it could be my heart. But I can't truely tell if they are muscle spasm or heart related. My doctors cant figure it out either.

I was diagnosed with AFIB last year and put on med's. I get extreme night sweats a few nights a week, even though my BI-LEVEL machine shows I had AHI<1. It's very disturbing waking up at 3am drenched in sweat and also feeling like I'm super tired in my chest. Doctor's cant find out what is going on. Sleep doctor wrote me off and said my AHI was good. I had nuclear stress tests, echocardiogram, and other tests that came back normal. Still...I don't feel well when I wake up. I don't feel rested, it feels my chest worked hard for me to breathe at night. But yet the machine shows everything good. I'm on Multaq for AFIB, Bystolic beta blocker, and now Xarelto since I had two DVT/PE's.

The doctors do have big ego's. My sleep doctor says all is okay, since my AHI is well controlled. But I still don't feel rested when i wake up most mornings. Especially mornings where I had night sweats. He did multiple sleep studies on me, but all of those were good nights, where I didn't have the night sweats.

[mesenteria]

I have never considered this (because my own symptomology is decidedly stable and controlled, and I have adapted to PAP and the attendant changes in lifestyle, etc), but is there a 'few-hundred-dollars' heart monitor that a body could acquire, apply nightly, and keep a record just like Sleepyhead?  If our friend has occasional night-sweats, say 1-2 per week, maybe he can rent one, or borrow one, and use it for a two-week period, present the data to his GP who would review it, and maybe he would see that our friend's night sweats are coincident with heart rhythm irregularities.  At least everyone in the mill would then have something to go on.