AFIB and sleeping positions post cardiodiversion
Earlier this month I had my first AFIB episode after having a late semi fat dinner (piece of steak and chips ). I woke up at night on irregular heart pulses and my heart rate was elevating up to 175 bpm . I tried to do some breathing exercise which didn’t help , so I went for a short walk around the block and after 10 minutes I started to have lower heart beats around 90s then I decided to go back home and went back to sleep. I got up at 5 am feeling discomfort and my Fitbit showed me notifications that I have had few AFIB episodes during the night, I went to ER driving myself after a 111 call , after 15 minutes I was already in the emergency room and luckily they managed to put me back to normal rhythm after cardiodiversion procedure which I was very glad for. I had to stay over night at the hospital at the cardiac ward because this has happened on Sunday and they had to wait for a cardiologist to check me before discharging me. Next day I have met my cardiologist who reviewed with me my blood tests and ordered me to quit smoking and gave me bag of medications (beta blockers , statins, blood thinners and Omeprazole) .
Since that day I’m afraid to eat full portion meals and can’t go to bed without having anxiety because every time I lay down on my left or right side I feel my heart beats are amplifying and racing up despite that my smart watch doesn’t show any notifications of AFIB or high heartbeats , but the feeling that something is triggering my episode again doesn’t leave me alone to sleep in peace . I have tried different positions to sleep in peace but nothing seems to be working . I have checked online for the reason behind that and got different results , one of them was very interesting that the heart membrane or walls are more sensitive after cardio version procedures or that it becomes more sensitive when laying down as my internal organs are pushing towards my heart hence I get this feeling. Unfortunately I can’t get an earlier appointment with my Cardiologist as I’m in UK and the NHS system is very busy at the moment specially in London so my earliest date is in 2nd November which is leaving me frustrated till then with no resolution. I have been to A&E this week after taking my evening medication as I started to have hypertension suddenly and my blood pressure was going up but they weren’t interested to talk about my problems because my blood pressure was settling by the time I arrived there (150/95) which they said it’s pretty normal and that I’m wasting their precious time by visiting them with such a normal blood pressure and they asked me to just go home .
I’m 47 male, never had any issues before and was always trying to avoid visiting doctors except once every couple of years to make the routine blood checks which was pretty normal except one time I had a mild higher cholesterol (5.7 while the normal range is up to 5) . I have quit smoking and changed my diet since then but I’m really stressed about the sleeping issues and that I can’t find comfortable position for sleeping and i started to eat very less because I’m worried that any heavy or late meals would trigger a new episode. Sorry for the long post but I needed to vent a little bit and seek advice specially on the sleeping posture issue and to know if anyone else had similar issues after the cardio version or started to have their first AFIB? Thanks and good luck everyone in their healing journey .