Interesting episode - Kardia said "possible afib"

[MTRJ75]

Things had actually been going a bit better since the calendar turned. I've been trying to do more things on my feet, not always successfully and my Cardiac MRI came back okay. 

Which all makes tonight's episode even more frustrating. 

I had done some stuff earlier in the day, but had become a bit shaky and nauseous with some vision focusing issues. This all happens sometimes. I tried to rest it off for a bit, but then needed something to eat. I grabbed a couple of gluten free ginger cookies thinking they might help with the nausea, which really seemed to be severe dryness (I have Sjogren's or at least all the symptoms). 

All of a sudden, while eating I felt some really hard skips, almost to the point where I felt like I had trouble breathing. Of course the panic also sets in and shot my heart rate up, which made the skips worse, but I grabbed my Kardia and took an EKG. Even when I have the skips, even to the level that they greatly concern me, I've never really had any abnormal Kardia readings....until tonight. 

Came up "possible afib". 

Okay, great. Took a beta blocker. Things got worse, but now have since calmed down. Still not sure what to do. I'm not looking forward to spending any more time in the ER. 

I'm wondering if there was some mix up between the cardiac and digestive nerves caused by the extreme dryness that caused that and if so whether something like that is a concern or not. Of course, now I'm anxious about eating anything as well. 

Anyone with any experience with anything like this? 

[Alex D.]

I have a lot of ectopic beats, but not afib.  Don’t have a Kardia, but my wife has an Apple watch 4.  We both have had inclusive readings, possible afib, got no abnormal issues with our cardiologist.

take several readings and see what happens.  Keep a symptom log, 

[MTRJ75]

Thanks @AlexD 

It's a bit comforting to know that you've had a similar reading without issues. 

Also just found a study that seems to confirm esophageal or food swallowing involvement. I'm guessing this is a good answer, but I'm not sure and it doesn't tell me what to do about it either though. 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/joa3.12125

Quote

2.1 Autonomic influence

The episodes of atrial arrhythmia are sometimes induced by swallowing and food passage through esophagus.20-22 Paroxysmal AF is also triggered by gastrointestinal movements such as defecation, abdominal bloating, swallowing, and eating. Neurocardiac responses to esophageal stimulation have been reported since 1990s. Tougas et al23 investigated the effects of distal esophageal stimulation on the human heart rate variability using power spectrum of frequency domain analyses. They found that esophageal stimuli, whether electrical or mechanical, increased high frequency component (HF) and decreased low frequency component (LF) and basic heart rate. These autonomic nervous conditions are prerequisite of vagally mediated AF development.

 

[Sushi]

57 minutes ago, MTRJ75 said:

Came up "possible afib". 

I also use a Kardia and they will label anything that seems "arrhythmic" as possible Afib. I have had that reading many times. If I get that, I email it to my electrophysiologist. Often it is PACs (premature atrial contractions--no real problem) but sometimes it actually is Afib. My EP emails back within an hour giving me recommendations--what it is, what to do. You can also send it to the Kardia people and they will give it a professional read for a small fee. 

1 hour ago, MTRJ75 said:

I'm wondering if there was some mix up between the cardiac and digestive nerves caused by the extreme dryness that caused that and if so whether something like that is a concern or not. Of course, now I'm anxious about eating anything as well. 

There is definitely a cardiac/gut connection. And gut disturbances can trigger arrhythmias. I don't know if you ever do get Afib, but if you do, it is important that your cardiologist/EP lets you know what to do if you go into Afib. 

[MTRJ75]

1 minute ago, Sushi said:

I also use a Kardia and they will label anything that seems "arrhythmic" as possible Afib. I have had that reading many times. If I get that, I email it to my electrophysiologist. Often it is PACs (premature atrial contractions--no real problem) but sometimes it actually is Afib. My EP emails back within an hour giving me recommendations--what it is, what to do. You can also send it to the Kardia people and they will give it a professional read for a small fee. 

There is definitely a cardiac/gut connection. And gut disturbances can trigger arrhythmias. I don't know if you ever do get Afib, but if you do, it is important that your cardiologist/EP lets you know what to do if you go into Afib. 

Thank you. Sent it to my cardio, but not expecting to hear back from her till tomorrow. I've never sent her a report before and I've never had a possible afib reading despite frequently taking readings with skipped beats (resulting in normal readings). I thought once or twice before I felt like I may have been in afib shortly, but never confirmed. Never caught on any kind of monitor before. Of course, any kind of disturbance will exacerbate my concern which will make the condition worse. 

[Sushi]

The FDA has only approved several reading for the Kardia--Normal, Bradycardia, Tachycardia, and Possible Afib. So anything that doesn't quite fit the others, will be labeled Possible Afib. They usually are not Afib but something like PACs or PVCs or bigeminy. You can usually tell if it is Afib by taking your pulse on your wrist with your fingers. Afib is "irregularly, irregular." In other words, it is chaotic!

[MTRJ75]

There was definitely a lot of skipping going, especially when I was swallowing food, so I wonder if that's what it was. All of my readings since have been normal. Still glad I caught the reading while I was symptomatic though. 

My wrist pulse will sometimes feel chaotic, but not for more than a few seconds at a time (like 15-20 beats or 15 seconds or so), so I never can tell. It never lasts, which is obviously a good thing. 

And to think, I was planning to post this week about the slight improvements I'd felt I'd been making. 

 

[Pistol]

@MTRJ75 - I have atrial flutter and I can feel it when I have it. I can definitely tell the difference between that and the usual PVC's.  When they caught it first while hooked to a monitor in the hospital my cardiologist put me on a holter monitor to see how often I have it.  I would schedule an appointment with your cardiologist and discuss it with him. 

[MTRJ75]

Cardiologist responded to my e-mail and said: 

1 - Don’t think it is afib , looks like sinus (ie normal rhythm) with premature beats

2 - Please don't use this e-mail

The solution seems simple. Either find a better way to hydrate myself (water, salt & electrolytes don't appear to be working) or stop eating. 

It's been almost two months since my ER visit for my first bigimeny episode. The 24 hour IV finally stopped the PVCs. In fact, it d*** near stopped all of them for about two weeks. They've been slowly creeping back. But I guess last night was the first episode similar to what sent me to the ER. Every swallow caused several skips. 

Ironically, I went for something called PEMF therapy with an Ampcoil last week. They put it on a specific setting to help with hydration. This was Wednesday. I was about to e-mail them and let them know that my PVCs had calmed down again for the few days afterward until the events of last night. 

And I did have a period of feeling extremely dried out to the point of extreme nausea and dry eye pain about an hour before the arrhythmia issues began. I don't know. Sometimes feel like I need to drop dead to prove a point. A few steps forward often seem to be followed by at least double that many backward. 

[Sushi]

23 minutes ago, MTRJ75 said:

The solution seems simple. Either find a better way to hydrate myself (water, salt & electrolytes don't appear to be working) or stop eating.

Low sodium V8 helps many as they use potassium instead of salt and a can of this gives you a big dose of electrolytes in a food form. I also add salt to it. I try to keep potassium as about 4.5 and that seems to help prevent rhythm disturbances.
 

What is the story with “Don’t use this email”— does he not want you to email him Kardia readings?

[MTRJ75]

5 minutes ago, Sushi said:

What is the story with “Don’t use this email”— does he not want you to email him Kardia readings?

No, apparently she does not do that. 

[Sushi]

2 minutes ago, MTRJ75 said:

No, apparently she does not do that. 

That is disappointing! Mine likes to get them.