12th January 2008
Hello
I'm 31 and was just diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in the ER. I woke up and thought I was about to die with a 130 irregular pulse and they converted me to normal heartbeat with diltiazem. I have a semi-stressful job and up to that point was drinking quite a bit of caffeine (up to 100 oz. diet soda, couple excedrin a day). I quit caffeine cold turkey and was worried to death for a week till I saw a cardiologist. I was having pounding headaches and intense stomach pain.
The cardiologist told me I'm fine and diagnosed it as lone afib, which I think means they have no idea what caused it (also worrying me). Echo, stress-echo, blood tests at the ER, urine test at the PHP all came back normal. All the doctors (I went to the ER twice after that week with what I thought was more attacks but they told me it was just anxiety) say I'm fine and I'm having anxiety. The headaches and gi pain went away; they told me that was caffeine withdrawl and lack of eating much of anything.
So here I am now and I'm having problems sleeping. My ribs hurt (I can pysically poke them where it hurts sometimes) in different sleeping positions. If I lie on my back I can "feel" my pulse and it makes me think about it more. They gave me some xanax but I'm scared to become addicted to painkillers.
I should say that I actually get anxious thinking about going to bed because that's where my afib incident happened and I'm a bit scared I'll wake up with that again. I realize it probably will happen again but it's not helping me relax and get a good night's sleep. What are some steps most people take when starting to cope with anxiety like this?
I'm 31 and was just diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in the ER. I woke up and thought I was about to die with a 130 irregular pulse and they converted me to normal heartbeat with diltiazem. I have a semi-stressful job and up to that point was drinking quite a bit of caffeine (up to 100 oz. diet soda, couple excedrin a day). I quit caffeine cold turkey and was worried to death for a week till I saw a cardiologist. I was having pounding headaches and intense stomach pain.
The cardiologist told me I'm fine and diagnosed it as lone afib, which I think means they have no idea what caused it (also worrying me). Echo, stress-echo, blood tests at the ER, urine test at the PHP all came back normal. All the doctors (I went to the ER twice after that week with what I thought was more attacks but they told me it was just anxiety) say I'm fine and I'm having anxiety. The headaches and gi pain went away; they told me that was caffeine withdrawl and lack of eating much of anything.
So here I am now and I'm having problems sleeping. My ribs hurt (I can pysically poke them where it hurts sometimes) in different sleeping positions. If I lie on my back I can "feel" my pulse and it makes me think about it more. They gave me some xanax but I'm scared to become addicted to painkillers.
I should say that I actually get anxious thinking about going to bed because that's where my afib incident happened and I'm a bit scared I'll wake up with that again. I realize it probably will happen again but it's not helping me relax and get a good night's sleep. What are some steps most people take when starting to cope with anxiety like this?