this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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Can someone translate this into English for the ones who aren't doctors or biologists?
This sounds like someone was having a heart attack and they started playing with his butthole. I'd appreciate if someone could tell me that's not the case.
You're pretty much correct. AF is a heart rhythm abnormality, and if it persists, like it seems to here, it renders the heart unable to pump blood. It appears he might have been undergoing a prostate exam when this happened, since that's the usual reason for a digital rectal exam. You'd have to assume the doctor knew they had this condition to begin with.
Why is heart rhythm abbreviated to AF and not HR or something?
HR is "Heart Rate" and AF is "Atrial Fibrillation". "Heart Rate" is just how many times the heart beats in a minute. "Atrial Fibrillation" is an abnormal rhythm of the heart beat and the rate at which the heart beats in AFib can be normal or fast.
Digital here means "using fingers" rather than "not analog", right?
Yes indeed.
Would the reverse be to use the anal-log?
Most people can't handle that without a digital warmup first
And "sinus rhythm" in this case would be... normal sinusoidal heart function, right?
Incredible. Thanks for the translation.
i choose to believe it means rhythmic sneezes
I thought hearts went 'lub dub' instead of 'wee woo' - I would've said it's more tangent or some transformed Gaussian at best?
~~Nope. If I recall correctly all other interventions failed, so this was a hail Mary that happened to work~~
See other commenter below
You recall incorrectly. It was a check for GI bleed prior to anticoagulant administration prior to cardioversion. They were literally running through pre-procedure tests in order to do the standard treatment for AF.
Source: The paper itself
Interesting. That area of the body is pretty sensitive, I can see how it might generate enough sensation to affect other areas of the body.
Specifically it's very possible to stimulate the vagus nerve, which helps regulate heart rhythm, with an exam like this. This is a known effect, but typically in the context of a possible adverse effect of some procedures (e.g. enema).
Oh man, I thought "AF" meant "as fuck" like it usually does on the internet.
The heart was going “kethumpathumpadump,” the doctor put a finger up the guy’s butt, and then his heart reset to a normal “lub dub, lub dub.”
Not familiar with the paper this is from, but Atrial Fibrilation isn't a heart attack (it can cause one, or a stroke). The human heart has 4 chambers, the left and right atria are on top and the left and right ventricles are on the bottom. In super layman's terms, blood enters the heart from the lungs into the left atria and from the body into the right atria, passes through valves into the ventricles, and then is passed into the body (from the left ventricle) or the lungs (right ventricle). Normally the atria squeeze, there's a slight pause to allow blood to enter the ventricles, then the ventricles squeeze. In A-fib, the atria just quiver, they don't squeeze. It can be fairly benign and people can walk around for months without knowing they're in A-fib because the blood will just drop into the ventricles and the ventricles do the work of pumping blood out into the lungs and the body. But the problem is that in A-fib some blood tends to hang out in the atria and it doesn't completely empty, so eventually it can clot and now you have a huge clot hanging out inside your heart. If that clot decides to move it can go out into your body and end up in one of the coronary arteries (the arteries on the outside of your heart that supply your heart muscle itself with blood) and cause a heart attack, it can go to your brain and cause a stroke, or it can go into the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism (PE). So usually people with A-fib are put on blood thinners to keep the clotting from occurring, or if the A-fib is too high of a rate (rapid A-fib) they're sometimes given medication or cardioverted (shocked) out of it.
Like another commenter stated, in guessing they stimulated the vagus nerve which converted his heart rhythm into sinus rhythm, which is the normal heart rhythm.
Your left or my left?
Also does this mean everyone should be diddling their buttholes from time to time - either that or stick a fork in an outlet on occasion?
Your left it's your heart, my left if it's mine.
Stimulating the vagus nerve can drop your heart rate quite a bit, sometimes enough to cause them to pass out. If someone's heart is weak or diseased and their vagus nerve is stimulated enough that their heart rate drops too low too fast, their heart might not be able to recover and they can just die. It's why a lot of old people die on the toilet, the act of pooping stimulates the nerve and boom they're gone (see Elvis).
Sticking a fork in an outlet is a great way to give yourself Ventricular Fibrilation which is just like Atrial Fibrilation except that the Ventricles, not the Atria, are quivering. And when the Ventricles are quivering they aren't pumping so no blood is moving out into your body and you have no pulse and you are dead.
Fun fact, AEDs and defibrillators don't shock asystole (flatline). They shock 2 rhythms, in hope of stopping the heart so that it might restart in a better rhythm (have you tried turning it off and back on again?) V-fib is one of the 2 rhythms. Ventricular tachycardia (V-tach) is the other. In V-tach your ventricles are beating very very fast. You can still be alive and still have a pulse in V-tach (or not), which is why they say never to apply an AED to someone who is still alive, because it could recognize the V-tach, shock them and kill them.
I have learned much today. Some of which maybe i shouldn't have.
With my newfound half-assed knowledge from a stranger, I shall apply it to the furthest extent of my will.
The patients left. Im not touching the other questions.
Can confirm taking a shit fixed rapid af
thanks, i didn't want to sleep anymore anyway
I've been told in the past that if you feel yourself going into a fib, you should push like your trying to shit to bring you out of it.
I was in a fib for about 30 hours. They were gonna defib shock me in the next hour via my oesophagus to correct it. I needed to take a shit, and did so while my portable ECG started alarming
A minute later I was in a rapid but normal sinus rhythm
Works
Also don't recommend a heart rate of 260, exhausting