very scary. I was put in a similar position 3 years ago and experienced similar emotions. Still do at times.

My mother has been in AFIB for years, and even a pacemaker didn't help. When she came here for rehab for 9 months, I got her a cardiologist and a PCP who were both great. They worked with us trying to get her out of AFIB by changing her meds that had not been changed, just added to for years and years. She was on 5 blood pressure medications, and her blood pressure was still bouncing around. The first thing that they suggested was that she be on a DASH diet because she also had stage 4 kidney failure and a low-sugar diet. The cardiologist said that sugar and caffeine often caused palpitations in his experience. We did that. She was already on PT, and the doctors added a recumbent bike and an arm bike that we had to her exercises. PT had her doing 5-minute sessions a few times a day at first and working up. The only palpitations she had after the first two months were when I got her sodium too low. I added salted butter instead of unsalted because she likes butter on things, and it took care of it, and she never had palpitations again. Her fluid stopped going up and down, too. She lost 30 pounds. She got to feeling so good that she insisted on going home. When the doctors released her, they told her that they would advise her to stay her,e but they couldn't stop her.

When she got home, her doctors put her back on all the meds she was on before and she started eating whatever she wants. In two months, she was back into constant AFIB.

I know that everyone is not the same, but my mother's doctors seem to think it doesn't matter because she is 90 and won't do it for herself and they haven't been able to get her out of palpatations in years, but when just following DASH and getting her off sweets and caffeine and a little, not streuous cardio exercise she got past her palpitations of years. It is certainly worth talking to the cardiologist about and tweaking your diet and exercise. It will definitely be different in ways from losing weight so you will have to reprogram your thinking a bit, but you are capable.