Has anyone had atrial fibrillation?

thank you. we are seeing the cardiologist for the first time on friday. her pulse goes up and down and is irregular. she has anxiety as well and sometimes will have to take xanax. i am more of a wreck than she is. she has pt now two times a week and is doing good with it. she will get out of breath when she walks too. please respond all. and thank you blannie

My mom will be 95 on Tuesday and has atrial fib for years. She's on several heart meds which have changed over the years and has been on a blood thinner (for unrelated clots) for years. She hasn't had an episode of a racing heart for a couple of years. Once her heart starts racing, I think it scares her and her anxiety probably makes it worse. So we go to the ER and usually her heart goes back into rhythm on its own. She got close to a cardioversion once (where they give the heart a shock to get it back into a good sinus rhythm), but she got better before they needed to do that.

She lives in independent living (with a LOT of help from me). So the word is, it can be well managed with a good cardiologist. Do you have specific questions?