Prednisone plus grieving equals afib

If you have read my previous prednisone posts, you are aware that I’ve had many problems with prednisone, including extreme weakness and vertigo when on high doses, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and an “irritable” heart resulting in an increase in breakthrough atrial fibrillation episodes.  Most were dealt with and/or resolved with lower dosages of prednisone.  However, add grieving for my dead grandson and a “broken” emotional heart, and the afib became a real problem.

After we got back from our emergency trip to the city to be with my son and daughter-in-law for the stillbirth of their son Liam, I starting having afib episodes almost daily.  They would last anywhere from 1 to 9 hours, at which point I would (thankfully) spontaneously convert to normal sinus rhythm.  I had already been having problems with an irritable heart and increased afib, just from the prednisone.  We had increased my flecainide dose and changed the timing from every 12 to every 8 hours, which seemed to be working fairly well for the month that I was on it.  I was also slowly tapering my prednisone dose, aiming for 10mg a day (although I’m still not there and probably won’t be for a while). 

But the higher amount and closer doses couldn’t compete with the broken heart.  My doctor even said that, stating “we can’t fix your broken heart until your broken heart starts to heal…”  But, we increased the dosage yet again, to a bit more than the standard recommended level, and put that increase in the middle of the day – since most of my afib episodes were happening at the “trough” (lowest) level at the end of the day (10pm) where the cumulative stress of the day must have been hardest on my broken heart.  We’re hoping that the trough level at 10pm will be a bit higher and will be able to keep the afib at bay. 

The first 3 days of the new dosage were a bust.  I panicked and tried to get into see my doc to talk about a different anti-afib medication.  Luckily I couldn’t see him for a week, which gave me a chance to calm down, and for the medication to start to work (it can take 3-5 days to adjust itself).  I cancelled that appointment today.  I’ve had two episodes since last Monday, one lasted about a minute, the other only a few seconds.  Very fast conversion to normal sinus rhythm usually indicates that the medication is working pretty well, although not perfectly.  Perfection isn’t even an option right now – “pretty well” seems awfully good to me. 

This week I travel to the city to visit with my grieving kids for a few days.  That will undoubtedly put additional stressors on my broken heart, but I will get through it.