TODAY’S CAREGIVER MAGAZINE • CAREGIVER.COM 17

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Gary Barg: Watching you perform, it is hard to believe that you were dealing with AFib even while you were on stage. How did the disease manifest itself and what did you do?Barry Manilow: About 15 years ago, I was driving home and it felt to me like my heart skipped a beat, which did not seem very important. But as I kept driving, my heart skipping a beat kept getting more and more out of whack. It was not just a little skipping a beat; it started to feel like it was—the only way I can put it is out of rhythm.

Your heart goes faster when you are jogging or when you are excited. You hear a boom-boom-boompa-dum and maybe it goes faster—boompa-doompa-doomp; it’s the same tempo. But with AFib, it goes out of whack—ba-doomp-boom, badooma-dooma-dooma-badooma-badooma wumpadoomp—like that. The first time it happened, I thought, well, I am dying or something. What’s going on here? And then it kind of went away and I did not do anything about it, which was wrong.

It came back about a week later. It is kind of insidious in that it does not come from stress, or from being excited; it does not come from anything. It just starts when it wants to start. I think I was watching television. I could feel my heart start to do that same thing; it was going out of rhythm again.

That is when I called my doctor and he knew exactly what I was talking about. He said, “You have got atrial fibrillation,” and described exactly what I had and gave me medication. It could have stopped right there. That is why I tell people, “Go see your doctor.” If you feel what I am talking about, if this sounds familiar to you, go to your doctor. That is what you need to do. You need to have a dialog and a relationship with your doctor so that you know whether it is getting worse or whether it is calming down and what medication he can put you on; you can live a very normal life. Just by having the doctor treat you with simple medication, it could stop right there for you. With me, it did not stop right there and with a lot more people, it did not stop right there.

Gary Barg: You have mentioned the word “rhythm”; it leads to my next question of what is the “Get Back in Rhythm” campaign?Barry Manilow: To make people aware of this condition, this atrial fibrillation. As you go on GetBackinRhythm.com, they have put together what I am trying to say, only much more articulately, and they have a little test –“Do you have this? Does it feel like this?” If you check off enough boxes, then you know you probably have atrial fibrillation and you need to get yourself to a doctor.

Gary Barg: That is good to know. Frankly, as family caregivers, we take ourselves out of this circle of care. We ignore our own issues; and then I always tell caregivers if you do that, who is going to step in and care for you and your loved one? This sounds dangerous.Barry Manilow: You are right. It is dangerous. I have spoken to many doctors and they say, “So many people do not like to go to their doctors.” One doctor said, “You are like me; I do not like to go to doctors.” And he was a doctor! It is very common. But with this one, you really have to take it seriously because it can go to some really nasty places.

Gary Barg: Pretty quickly, too.Barry Manilow: Once the medication stops working, as it does with me, I cannot stop my heart from going crazy. Then they have to stop it because you are playing with fire if they don’t. They give you what is called cardio aversion. They give you the paddles—I call them paddles—what we have seen on TV all the time where they say, “Clear!” and then bang!—those paddles. They put you out so you do not really feel very much. It is terrifying, but when you wake up, your heart is back in rhythm. That is when the medication does not work; that is the next step. They have to do something as dramatic as that because they have got to stop it somehow. They have cardio averted me—they have given me the paddles—I cannot even remember how many times over 15 years.