Part 1 – Atrial Fibrillation and Endurance Athletes
Part 2 – the Good Years
Part 3 – Now the drugs don’t work, they just make you worse
Part 4 – Exercising with a beta blocker
Part 5 – Mini Maze procedure and recovery

Since my ablation in 2019 I stopped competing and training for triathlon and knocked everything back loads. Please note that what I say in this article is not medical advice on reducing or stopping any drugs you have been prescribed. I am simply recounting what happened with me.

I’ve then been having Afib episodes on and off since then, the service here in Leeds has some arrythmia nurses who are contactable via phone and they’ve been very helpful. We’ve tried 100mg flec twice daily along with 2.5mg bisoprolol twice daily.

Around Oct 21 I noticed arrhythmias, looking back on my notes it mostly seemed to start with atrial tachycardia that led into atrial fibrillation.

Since then I’ve been on 50mg Flecainide twice daily and 1.25mg Bisoprolol since.

Since May 2023 I started feeling more & more dizzy, out of breath and with lots of ectopics/PVCs/PACS/SVTs etc. I even got dizzy bending down to put on shoes/tie shoe laces.

My resting HR had increased considerably, was 51 bpm on a 21-week avg, and went up to 64 avg during May and June a 25% increase

My walking heart rate avg increased from 82bpm 18 week average to 103 8 week average – a26% increase

Respiratory rate increased from 11.1 breaths/min to 14.1

My heart went to 120/130 when running/cycling even jogging super slowly to the end of the road and just stayed there, it didn’t go up when out of breath or down when coasting down hill or stopping etc

I was getting more and more regular arrhythmias 24×7 – A combination of a Wellue ECG with it’s AI analysis showed me having sinus with supra ventricular ectopy; atrial bigeminy, Atrial fibrillation, atrial tachycardia, sinus with single pacs

I stopped the Flecainide on the 4th July completely and quickly went back to feeling normal, no more ectopics, no more out of breath, no more dizzy spells, no atrial tachy when doing easy exercise!

My stats have dropped back to where I’d expect. I’ve just come off a telephone review with my cardiologist who agreed I made the right decision and wants to follow up in 6-8 weeks to keep an eye on things.

He’s suggested staying on the Bisoprolol and using 100mg Flecainide as a PIP if I go into AFib and it doesn’t stop quickly.

I’m still off the flecainide and just taking 1.25mg bisoprolol daily. I had a small episode of Afib early Nov, I took a 2nd 1.25mg biso and it was back in sinus 20 mins later.

My only major issue now is really feeling the cold in my feet and toes which is a known side affect of bisoprolol!