A comment and 2 questions....
Xarelto is pretty scary. It apparently does a good job of preventing the most common strokes (ischemic), but the incidence of the less common but more catastrophic stroke (hemorrhagic) goes up, and the probability of a stroke goes up if you stop it. But it seems like a good choice if you've got a-fib.
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I did some - not much - research and believe that moderate- not intense - exercise is very probably good for a-fib. I'm 77; overweight, high BP. My doc has placed no limit on my HR, but he's prescribed metaprolol, which slows down most people's hearts.
I took a 30 mile ride today and my HR was generally between 100 and 125. I saw no evidence of excessive or volatile HR. I probably could have talked with a companion during the ride, but 1) I was solo, and 2) my hearing is lousy, and I probably wouldn't have tried to talk, especially through wind noise.
Anyway, I thought I exerted myself to a moderate level. I rode strongly (for me) for the first half of the ride and the last, say, 4 miles, not so strong on miles 15-26.Sunny, mid-70s, 50% relative humidity.
For the 4 hours since I got home, I feel pretty wiped out, and I've been getting dizzy when I stand up. Has anyone here with a-fib any similar experience?
I'm not asking for a medical diagnosis below; rather, I'm asking for feedback on my logic. If anyone offers advice that I follow, I won't came back with a complaint if it doesn't work out.
As far as I can see, the dizziness could be due to:
1) dehydration - I lost 2 lbs over the ride, and I drank about 48 oz water, ate a sandwich (almond butter), had a brownie and a lime pop when I got home ... so I lost a lot of water, and I'm on a diuretic.
2) Longest ride this year for me. Last bunch of rides were about 20 miles. I could just be tired.
3) A-fib. I had an appt with pacemaker tech who rides; she argues that a-fib is likely to be the prime culprit in tiredness and light-headedness.
4) the diuretic, which I started taking last Thursday. I'm an old IT tech, and I learned long ago that the last change probably caused a new problem, no matter how tenuous the connection between the change and problem. Also, I had a very bad experience with the diuretic a few months ago, before I dropped a BP med, and I had a bad experience with it on July 3. In fact, I dropped the diuretic and went back to amlodipine twice a day starting on July 4. In talking with the pacemaker tech, I realized July 3 was the first really hot and humid day in weeks, and my bad experience (5 minutes of a-fib while on the ride and debilitation after getting home from a 20 mile ride) could easily have been due to that.
Any other likely causes that you can think of? Any thoughts on my reasoning? Any thoughts on experiments to identify the cause?
One thing I plan to do is to ride 20-25 miles Tuesday and 30 miles on Thursday. If my tiredness is due to lack of conditioning for that distance, I probably won't experience a problem.
Thanks.