Do you hunt with Afib?
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I knew I had a problem for years, always stopping to catch my breath and everyone else is doing fine. I finally went to a cardiologist and he put me through the tests and the results were that I had Afib (atrial fibrillation). Now I am 69 years old and still hunting but all the medication I am on is draining my energy.
Just wondering if anyone else is going through this.
the picture is 2 years ago.
Bruce
I am going through this right now. I am 74 years old and bowhunted like a fiend until I turned 70.
I actually had irregular heart beat over 34 years ago. But I just through away the medicine because it made me so tired and went without it for all these years. Lived an estremely active life for all those years but it is finally catching up to me.
This past two weeks have been going through all the tests and stuff they do. Thursday will be checked for blockage and then next week for possible heart surgery.
Hope to get another 10 years of active life as my wife and I are having more fun in life with our kids and grandkids then ever before.
Thanks, Jim. I hope your test results do not show any blockages. I am on 6 medications and just trying to do anything is a struggle. I can't even draw my bow back. I put a trail camera in last week and the mile hike used to take me an hour now it takes 2 hours.
I hope it's not too late to take up knitting.
Okay bib, I have some trail cams out too. Fortunately I live in the middle of some of the finest deer area in Ohio so I can just set the cams out in my back yard and get all the photos of deer I want. I can also harvest deer in my back yard or a few more yards away. No longer trophy hunt but my wife and I do butcher our own deer and keep plenty of venison in the freezer.
There's been a few hunts, where afterwards, I told afib.
Look into AV node ablation
Found out I have it about two years ago. I'M 77 AND WONDERED WHY I WAS GOING DOWN HILL SO FAST. nOW I KNOW. Damn caps lock)! I take warfin for it. You?
I take Eliquis, Lipitor, and 4 others to slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, and keep the doctor rich.
A year and a half ago I was not on any pills and I felt better.
I packed out the cow in the picture and many other deer and elk before.
I will go elk hunting this year regardless and pack it out.
no problem with a little hunting fib here or there, but outrights lies should not be tolerated.
Bou'bound okay with some joking but this is serious to those of us that have it.
Hey, Jim, I lived in Ohio for 51 years mostly hunting in Harrison county for deer and turkey. My kids were raised on venison. Now I am in CO at 7800ft and my hunting is close to home but up higher. The hike up is hard but I can still make it by resting a lot. I'll turn 70 in December.
Good luck to you....
Thanks, may need a heart operation but doc says I'm in better shape then I thought I was.
Thanks, may need a heart operation but doc says I'm in better shape then I thought I was.
When I turned 40 I had A-fib. It hit me one night before bed, during the night I got up to pee and passed out falling into the tub. Wife wanted to know what happened and I told her I tripped. I couldn't sleep and went to work the next day and worked all day, then called my doctor and told him I thought my meds for Mitral valve prolapsed needed to be tweeked. He said come in right away. One EKG and he wanted to call an ambulance, but I told him I could drive to the hospital as I had already driven there. 3 days later they had me back to normal rhythm and I went home. Been on Propananol and Digitoxin since and things are great. I do anything I want with no problems. Few extra beats every now and then is all. I'm 66 now and going elk hunting again this year. Doctor says every visit I keep sounding better. The lord looks after me big time.
By the way I didn't say my energy level is great and there is little or no side effects for me from my meds.
Some people with A. Fib are candidates for a procedure called an ablation where they zap the spots on your heart that cause the A. Fib. I've seen lots of folks be cured of their A. Fib, but not everyone is a candidate. It's a relatively new procedure and there's not lots of docs that do it.
Some guys just haven't had it done because it's not what is done in their neck of the woods because there's not a doc in the area that does it. So make sure you talk to your cardiologist and hear from his mouth that you're not a candidate and don't just need to take a road trip to the city. Even a chat with a doc that does it is worth the trip.
It's one thing to get off the meds, it's another thing to feel better because your heart is working properly.
I think it's a balancing act, and dependent on your electro-cardio doctor's evaluation as to the best treatment route. It's not an exact science. If you are unhappy with your results I'd strongly recommend looking closely at your doctors. You do have both a cardio & an electro-cardio specialist working together, right?
I am 56 and always had a slow heart rate below 60 at rest. My first episode came in 2001 when heart was racing after gym workouts. I also fainted a few times. Back then despite every test in the book, including angiogram, the heart doctor could not identify it and sent me home without treatment. Next episode came 13 years later in 2014. Heart went into full 230 bpm while biking. Was diagnosed as atrial flutter and took a cardioversion to shock it back into rhythm, then an ablation procedure 2 months later. During the following 12 months my energy dropped and heart rate slowed down to below 40, so the two doctors discussed situation and installed a pacemaker. I felt much better immediately, even while in the recover room. It's been 4 months and I've resumed my rigorous workouts as in prior years, just don't push myself quite as much.
Now I have another hunting friend same age as me who has serious Afib yet his doctor has not gotten an electro-cardio MD involved and he's done no procedures of any kind. Neither of us have any blockage problems, strictly electrical. I am very happy with my result and he is not with his. But I think all these electrical conditions are overlapping and difficult to pinpoint exactly. I think it's especially important to have progressive doctors who communicate well with each other to evaluate your options.
Don't have it, hope I never do, however I do know that some people will tolerate it just fine while others won't, problem is you will loose some of your cardiac output as your atrium is not contracting
Idlewild kinda beat me to it, but...couple years ago during my pre-op physical for knee replacement surgury my doc discovered I had atrial flutter...a little different from a-fib but some of the same symptoms.
With this, my heart beat was irregular with one chamber "fluttering", not a solid beat. Due to this, blood would kinda pool in the chamber so I was susceptible to developing a clot elevating stroke risk.
A cardiologist said to go ahead with the TKR surgury, and scheduled me for a cardiac ablasion procedure a few weeks after the knee surgery.
They go in through the groin and locate the defective area and "burn" to reset nerve impulses and reestablish normal heart rythms. OK...kind of a layman's description...
I was on blood thinners for a few weeks which were then weaned off following follow up visits to assure the procedure was successful.
I'm turning 64 now, and all is well. Before, I was always tired and real run down after work or any long physical activities, and I'll get an EKG annually for the rest of my stay on this rock to moniter it.
The procedure's no fun, and the next week after is REAL restrictive, but the end results are worth it.
This gettin' old $#! ¥'s hard on a guy!!!
It is a pain in the ass I'll be 70 in Nov.have dealt with a fib for around 10 yrs. had the ablation surgery at Vandy last yr.but it really slowed my heart beat down they recommended a pacemaker I call it a turbo charger.Imdoing pretty good that was until I had a detached retina last month.Had surgery on that .Getting old is not for sissies.Good luck.Lewis
Bruce, I had the same condition for several years. I hated the effects of medication. Luckily, I met someone that had the Ablation done at the center in Palo Alto by the doc that started doing this 20 years ago out of Stanford University's Medical Center. 20+ years later, Dr. Roger Winkle has his own group that specializes in the treatment of A-Fib. When I was there people from all over the country were coming in for the procedure. The Ablation procedure is available at more centers now though.
Dr. Winkle said that he started doing this because he wanted to do something better that putting his patients on all the meds, that need to be increased to the point of making them walking pharmacies. He said that his team had a 90% cure rate with the Ablation. 4 years later, I'm still cured, and couldn't be happier. I have attached a link to his website. Good Luck.
I see a lot of A-fib on a daily basis...Beta blockers can sometimes help control A-fib...however, they basically sort of "turn down" your metabolism.
And, the more you exercise (to try to get in shape for the mountains)...the more your pulse and blood pressure naturally drop.
So, it can get to the point where your BP meds can become "overkill" sometimes. So you really have to try to monitor yourself...I know an outfitter who used to cut his doses down incrementally the more he would walk the mountains, and by the time elk Season was over, he'd be off the meds altogether. By Christmas, he'd be back up to a full dose again.
It's a fine line sometimes between your heart rate getting out of control, and your blood pressure bottoming out. Ideally of course, you don't want either to happen when you're on the side of a mountain at 10,000 feet. It can be a very frustrating situation.
As others have mentioned, ablation may be an option down the road...I've seen many successes with it, but also a few failures with multiple attempts.
Wouldn't hurt to try to get an appointment with an Electrophysiologist to at least get evaluated.
Yes. As a matter of fact, I do. Had it for several years, had a pacemaker for 7/8 years now and on all kinds of meds. Tomorrow I go to my cardiologist for a sonogram, a stress test, and something else that I can't remember. He wants to put me on a blood thinner, but I have reactions to them so he's gonna be disappointed. I already take a low dose aspirin every day and bleed like hell with every scratch, so I don't think blood thinners are gonna be in my future.
On the bright side, my cholesterol is good, tryglicerides are good, and as of the installation of the pacemaker, no blockage. Tomorrow will see if this is still so.
Maybe it's my meds that make me tired too, maybe it's being nearly 70 years old, I don't know. I just keep going until I can't go anymore, and then rest. There are no elk hunts on my horizon unless they come to the flatlands though.
I was taking Lipitor then changed to Crestor. Reason, it was making me sore and tired to the point, that all I wanted to do was sleep. So, being the dumb ass that people said that I am. I tried something different. I started to take my meds at night. Did that for one month. Just to make so, things where given a solid chance to work. Within the first few days I did not hurt, was not tired and felt so much better. I was telling a Neuro. surgeon friend of mine about it. he told me that he is having the same problem. I told him what I was doing, he just looked at me. He then told me that the main part of the dose hits you within a few hours after you take it. By taking it in the evening, you go to bed an sleep through the worst of it. Something to try.
I have it. Diagnosed last Sept 7th. Spent three days in the hospital, released, and in a tree stand for the WI. bow opener on the 15th. Things are going very well, but I agree, the meds do seem to affect one's energy level. Good luck to you.
I have been in permanent Afib since Dec. 13, 2004. Yes, it slows me down and anything over 7,500 feet is tough. Other than that, no, it hasn't bothered me.
After a while, I got use to it and do not even notice it now. It was far worse when I would go into Afib, then come out of it. That happened to me with bull elk down in the bottom of the Brazos Hole in NM. That was really bad. Since I assume you are also on blood thinner, that requires more care about getting cuts.
As for hunnting deer or turkey at reasonable elevation, don't let it stop you. Just take it easy and don't try to do too much. And by all means, listen to your doctor.
Forgot to mention, I am now 72 and still hunt whenever I want. I started having problems about 25-years ago and as mentioned, went into permanent Afib in 2004. You will get use to the meds to some degree and your body will tell you what you can and can't do. Just listen to it.
