Anyone ever had to wear a heart monitor?

[soocool]

Long story short, on Wednesday I got extremely lightheaded and while my bp was ok, my pulse rate fell to 37 bpm. It didn''t rise for the rest of theday. Saw the doctor,who ran an EKG (found 2 benign, non contributing problems), also did some blood work. This also happened to me about 10 days ago except it omly lasted a few minutes, but I vowed if it happened again I would call the doctor. Both times it happened I was outside when it was extremely cold.

So now I will be wearing a heart monitor for 2 weeks and if it happens again I will record the incident. I won''t start wearing it until Tuesday once the cardio educator calls me then to go over what I will need to do (1 hour phone sesson).

On one hand I hope it happens again so I get get to the bottom on what is going on. On the other hand I was so frightened by the incident (I thought I was having a heart attack and my neighbor was a cardio nurse came right over to check me out) that I don''t ever want to experience anything like that again. I was so afraid to sleep alone in bed that DH came home immediately from his business trip and he took me to the doctor the next day. Thank goodness DD was home by 2:30to take care of me.

Has anyone ever experience something similar or knows someone who has?

 

[elrohwen]

Well, I already shared my mom''s experience on your other thread - she did wear the heart monitor for a while. Her diagnosis ended up being very benign. It''s good you''re wearing one and can find out what''s going on!

Good luck. Just remember that there are a lot of very mild things it could probably be - keep your hopes up and try not to worry too much (I know that''s hard).

 

[princesss]

I only wore one for a day (a Holter monitor? Halter monitor? something like that), and it wasn''t bad. I called it my little alien baby, and went about my business.

I think the hardest part is coming to grips with the fact that something was going on that could require it. That sucked way more than wearing the monitor.

 

[soocool]

Date: 2/19/2010 3:49:20 PM
Author: elrohwen
Well, I already shared my mom''s experience on your other thread - she did wear the heart monitor for a while. Her diagnosis ended up being very benign. It''s good you''re wearing one and can find out what''s going on!

Good luck. Just remember that there are a lot of very mild things it could probably be - keep your hopes up and try not to worry too much (I know that''s hard).

If you don''t mind me asking what was your mom''s diagnosis?

I have been reading stuff on the internet about runners needing to wear face masks when running in extreme cold conditions, because the cold can stimulate the vagus nerve (cranial nerve) which in turn can result in bradycardia (slowing of the pulse rate). I am hoping this is what it is and nothing more.

 

[gemgirl]

I''ve worn a Holter for 24, 48 and 72 hours. My next one will be a 30 day event monitor, but I have the opposite problem. My heart beats too fast, even at rest, and I have a couple of different arrythmias.

 

[AGBF]

I wore one years ago, I think for 24 hours. My father is being fitted for a far more modern one that he will wear for 21 days even as I type. I turned out to have mitral valve prolapse, which was actually seen on an echocardiogram. One out of ten women has it and it is usually an extremely benign condition. My daughter (who is adopted) has it, too. They found hers with an echocardiogram, too. By accident. She was being worked up to rule out Marfan's Syndrome, which can be very serious indeed. Luckily she did not have Marfan's Syndrome! (That's the disease that the really tall basketball players suddenly keel over and die from. I believe it is congenital.)

AGBF

 

[Morgie44]

I had an event monitor for a month I believe, It wasn''t too bad as far as wearing goes. There were two electrodes... I think that''s what they were called that you stick on to your chest, and they have to be replaced daily (or maybe after every shower) something along those lines. The metal part kind of suctions to your skin and leaves welts that bruised for me. I had to vary the placement slightly each time as a result so I had random spots on my upper right and lower left quadrants. For me, though I captured multiple ''events,'' they weren''t able to make a diagnosis from the monitor and I had further testing. It turned out to be Vasovagal Syncope, a very minor condition that I outgrew in a few years. I hope that you are able to capture one of your *minor* episodes so that you can get some answers.

 

[elrohwen]

Date: 2/19/2010 3:56:05 PM
Author: soocool

Date: 2/19/2010 3:49:20 PM
Author: elrohwen
Well, I already shared my mom''s experience on your other thread - she did wear the heart monitor for a while. Her diagnosis ended up being very benign. It''s good you''re wearing one and can find out what''s going on!

Good luck. Just remember that there are a lot of very mild things it could probably be - keep your hopes up and try not to worry too much (I know that''s hard).

If you don''t mind me asking what was your mom''s diagnosis?

I have been reading stuff on the internet about runners needing to wear face masks when running in extreme cold conditions, because the cold can stimulate the vagus nerve (cranial nerve) which in turn can result in bradycardia (slowing of the pulse rate). I am hoping this is what it is and nothing more.

I don''t remember what is was called (she doesn''t remember the name either) but it basically meant that her heart would have an irregular rhythm at times. It caused her to feel faint (and to actually faint once in the shower). I don''t believe she''s even on any meds for it - but it''s nice to know what it is if her symptoms come back.

 

[ksinger]

Date: 2/19/2010 3:42:04 PM
Author:soocool
Long story short, on Wednesday I got extremely lightheaded and while my bp was ok, my pulse rate fell to 37 bpm. It didn''t rise for the rest of theday. Saw the doctor,who ran an EKG (found 2 benign, non contributing problems), also did some blood work. This also happened to me about 10 days ago except it omly lasted a few minutes, but I vowed if it happened again I would call the doctor. Both times it happened I was outside when it was extremely cold.

So now I will be wearing a heart monitor for 2 weeks and if it happens again I will record the incident. I won''t start wearing it until Tuesday once the cardio educator calls me then to go over what I will need to do (1 hour phone sesson).

On one hand I hope it happens again so I get get to the bottom on what is going on. On the other hand I was so frightened by the incident (I thought I was having a heart attack and my neighbor was a cardio nurse came right over to check me out) that I don''t ever want to experience anything like that again. I was so afraid to sleep alone in bed that DH came home immediately from his business trip and he took me to the doctor the next day. Thank goodness DD was home by 2:30to take care of me.

Has anyone ever experience something similar or knows someone who has?

Mine is just the opposite: tachycardia. And it''s every bit as scary. Lucky for me, I was just diagnosed with mild supraventricular tachycardia - the doc gave me the choice of being on beta blockers or not. If you get up into the 300s (I''m only in the 180''s or so) then they don''t give you the choice. I DID have an attack just a couple of nights ago (they aren''t long or frequent, but this was a bit longer than usual) and lord, but I''d forgotten how really awful it feels. It hurts! And it just makes you feel ...well....awful. I''m sorry you''re feeling like crap in the OTHER direction. I''m sure it''s equally unpleasant!

As for the monitor, I suspect they''ll put you on a loop monitor like they did me. The halter monitor is for shorter time periods - like you I did several weeks, and the loop is what they use when the events are not predictable or often. It hooks up 2 places - under the left breast on the ribcage, and under the right collarbone. It has wires that go under your shirt to a little device like a large-ish pedometer than hooks on a belt or pocket. Mine was only activated to record BY me. It monitored and always had the previous 30 seconds buffered in memory so you could miss the start of an event and still capture it even if you were to startled to react very quickly. It would record 5 events of a minute duration, at which time you had to call a phone number, talk to a rep, and then hold the device up to the receiver and send. It sounded like a kind of really long fast fax or like the way data used to be passed over the phone lines back in the old days - long pulsing tones. Those were sent immediately to the doctor.

Wearing one is kind of a pain, but it isn''t really much more than inconvenient.

Hope it all goes well with you.

 

[jewelz617]

My daughter wore a heart monitor 24/7 when she was an infant, but I''m sure her equipment was very different from yours...

Still, it worked well and gave us a lot of peace of mind. I hope your doctors are able to clear up what''s been going on asap!

 

[soocool]

Date: 2/19/2010 4:04:21 PM
Author: AGBF


I wore one years ago, I think for 24 hours. My father is being fitted for a far more modern one that he will wear for 21 days even as I type. I turned out to have mitral valve prolapse, which was actually seen on an echocardiogram. One out of ten women has it and it is usually an extremely benign condition. My daughter (who is adopted) has it, too. They found hers with an echocardiogram, too. By accident. She was being worked up to rule out Marfan''s Syndrome, which can be very serious indeed. Luckily she did not have Marfan''s Syndrome! (That''s the disease that the really tall basketball players suddenly keel over and die from. I believe it is congenital.)

AGBF

My DD was evaluated for MASS Phenotype which is similar to Marfan''s because she has many of the attributes linked with this disorder. She had an echo 2 years in a row and will have another one in 2 years and probably an MRI to see how much space is in her chest to accommodate her heart. She has a slight pectus excavatum and on the echo, the chest pushes, I believe, the right ventricle out of the way. DD is an athlete (soccer) and it has never given her a problem. It was only until last year when she developed some anxiety issues that the doctor picked up on the pectus. We thought it wasn''t a big issue.

 

[soocool]

Date: 2/19/2010 6:43:19 PM
Author: ksinger

Date: 2/19/2010 3:42:04 PM
Author:soocool
Long story short, on Wednesday I got extremely lightheaded and while my bp was ok, my pulse rate fell to 37 bpm. It didn''t rise for the rest of theday. Saw the doctor,who ran an EKG (found 2 benign, non contributing problems), also did some blood work. This also happened to me about 10 days ago except it omly lasted a few minutes, but I vowed if it happened again I would call the doctor. Both times it happened I was outside when it was extremely cold.

So now I will be wearing a heart monitor for 2 weeks and if it happens again I will record the incident. I won''t start wearing it until Tuesday once the cardio educator calls me then to go over what I will need to do (1 hour phone sesson).

On one hand I hope it happens again so I get get to the bottom on what is going on. On the other hand I was so frightened by the incident (I thought I was having a heart attack and my neighbor was a cardio nurse came right over to check me out) that I don''t ever want to experience anything like that again. I was so afraid to sleep alone in bed that DH came home immediately from his business trip and he took me to the doctor the next day. Thank goodness DD was home by 2:30to take care of me.

Has anyone ever experience something similar or knows someone who has?

Mine is just the opposite: tachycardia. And it''s every bit as scary. Lucky for me, I was just diagnosed with mild supraventricular tachycardia - the doc gave me the choice of being on beta blockers or not. If you get up into the 300s (I''m only in the 180''s or so) then they don''t give you the choice. I DID have an attack just a couple of nights ago (they aren''t long or frequent, but this was a bit longer than usual) and lord, but I''d forgotten how really awful it feels. It hurts! And it just makes you feel ...well....awful. I''m sorry you''re feeling like crap in the OTHER direction. I''m sure it''s equally unpleasant!

As for the monitor, I suspect they''ll put you on a loop monitor like they did me. The halter monitor is for shorter time periods - like you I did several weeks, and the loop is what they use when the events are not predictable or often. It hooks up 2 places - under the left breast on the ribcage, and under the right collarbone. It has wires that go under your shirt to a little device like a large-ish pedometer than hooks on a belt or pocket. Mine was only activated to record BY me. It monitored and always had the previous 30 seconds buffered in memory so you could miss the start of an event and still capture it even if you were to startled to react very quickly. It would record 5 events of a minute duration, at which time you had to call a phone number, talk to a rep, and then hold the device up to the receiver and send. It sounded like a kind of really long fast fax or like the way data used to be passed over the phone lines back in the old days - long pulsing tones. Those were sent immediately to the doctor.

Wearing one is kind of a pain, but it isn''t really much more than inconvenient.

Hope it all goes well with you.

It sounds like I will have this one. I know that I will only record something when I have an episode. CardioNet said that I would have to transmit any info by phone. The unit came today. Was supposed to come on Monday since they asked if anyone would be home to accept the package. UPS left it up against the garage. Unfortunately, I have to wait until Tuesday to use it. That is when the educator is scheduled to call me and give me instructions over the phone.

 

[ksinger]

Date: 2/19/2010 7:30:00 PM
Author: soocool
It sounds like I will have this one. I know that I will only record something when I have an episode. CardioNet said that I would have to transmit any info by phone. The unit came today. Was supposed to come on Monday since they asked if anyone would be home to accept the package. UPS left it up against the garage. Unfortunately, I have to wait until Tuesday to use it. That is when the educator is scheduled to call me and give me instructions over the phone.

Yes, it was CardioNet doing the monitoring for me too. It is not at all hard to use. I will give you one tip though - there is probably a button in the center of the monitor - it is the button you push when you feel an event. The unit sounds when you do so, and it can be louder than you might want if you''re in a crowd or in a quiet place like an office. If you just put your finger or thumb over the button, it mutes the sound immensely. The tech at the hospital gave me that little tip.

Oh and take the electrode pads off IN the shower. If you pull them off before they''re wet they can irritate. In fact, they will probably be annoying you and making the area kind of sore before the time period is up. Try to shift them over, or up a centimeter or 2 so they don''t sit in the exact same place every day. It helps.

 

[soocool]

Date: 2/19/2010 8:23:15 PM
Author: ksinger

Date: 2/19/2010 7:30:00 PM
Author: soocool
It sounds like I will have this one. I know that I will only record something when I have an episode. CardioNet said that I would have to transmit any info by phone. The unit came today. Was supposed to come on Monday since they asked if anyone would be home to accept the package. UPS left it up against the garage. Unfortunately, I have to wait until Tuesday to use it. That is when the educator is scheduled to call me and give me instructions over the phone.

Yes, it was CardioNet doing the monitoring for me too. It is not at all hard to use. I will give you one tip though - there is probably a button in the center of the monitor - it is the button you push when you feel an event. The unit sounds when you do so, and it can be louder than you might want if you''re in a crowd or in a quiet place like an office. If you just put your finger or thumb over the button, it mutes the sound immensely. The tech at the hospital gave me that little tip.

Oh and take the electrode pads off IN the shower. If you pull them off before they''re wet they can irritate. In fact, they will probably be annoying you and making the area kind of sore before the time period is up. Try to shift them over, or up a centimeter or 2 so they don''t sit in the exact same place every day. It helps.

Thanks for the tips! I wish I could have used it today. I just had another episode about 1 hour ago. It is really scary. At least I was sitting down this time.

 

[drk]

My Dad nearly passed out a couple times from something like this and went to the ER to be checked out. He ended up having a couple different heart blocks and needed a pacemaker as a backup to take over when his heart got too slow. He got that around age 45, and has had a couple battery changes over the years. Feels great with it though, and is off hiking in the mountains, running, skiing. He got the most advanced model way back when that would sense when he was exerting himself physically and bump up the backup heartrate accordingly.

Hope you get some answers and it''s nothing too serious.

 

[Lynnie]

Hi soocool! I am a nurse on a telemetry unit, so I have lots of experiences with heart monitors...

I was gonna mention heart block, but drk beat me to it! There are different types, some more serious than others... what happens is there is a delay in the electro-conductivity in the heart, and can sometimes cause bradycardia. It can be serious enough to require a pacemaker. Did they do an EKG? I'm assuming it didn't show anything...
The episodes you are describing sound scary - symptomatic bradiacardia is no joke. In fact, it's considered an emergency when it happens on our unit.

The thing is, if it is some type of heart block that causes symptomatic bradycardia, there isn't really any medicine you can take... treatment is a pacemaker. The Halter monitor will hopefully catch an episode, and record your heart, so that they can see what exactly your rate and rhythm are. Hopefully it's just a vasovagal thing, like others have mentioned.

I hope it's nothing serious, and I'll be sending good vibes your way!!

ETA: I saw they did an EKG, do you remember what the two 'benign problems' were?

 

[soocool]

Date: 2/20/2010 11:27:09 AM
Author: Lynnie
Hi soocool! I am a nurse on a telemetry unit, so I have lots of experiences with heart monitors...

I was gonna mention heart block, but drk beat me to it! There are different types, some more serious than others... what happens is there is a delay in the electro-conductivity in the heart, and can sometimes cause bradycardia. It can be serious enough to require a pacemaker. Did they do an EKG? I''m assuming it didn''t show anything...
The episodes you are describing sound scary - symptomatic bradiacardia is no joke. In fact, it''s considered an emergency when it happens on our unit.

The thing is, if it is some type of heart block that causes symptomatic bradycardia, there isn''t really any medicine you can take... treatment is a pacemaker. The Halter monitor will hopefully catch an episode, and record your heart, so that they can see what exactly your rate and rhythm are. Hopefully it''s just a vasovagal thing, like others have mentioned.

I hope it''s nothing serious, and I''ll be sending good vibes your way!!

ETA: I saw they did an EKG, do you remember what the two ''benign problems'' were?

wasn''t feeling well so went to the hospital Friday night. Decided on 3rd degee heart block. However, I am pretty much asymptomatic. Don''t know more than that. Am seeing an infectuous disease doctor, cardiologist, and cardiologist who specializes in heart conductivity. Given dopamine to bring up heart rate, but not working. Also getting iv antibiotic. might be a correlation to illness a few weeks back. DH brought laptop, but hard wo write.

 

[ksinger]

Date: 2/21/2010 12:31:00 PM
Author: soocool

Date: 2/20/2010 11:27:09 AM
Author: Lynnie
Hi soocool! I am a nurse on a telemetry unit, so I have lots of experiences with heart monitors...

I was gonna mention heart block, but drk beat me to it! There are different types, some more serious than others... what happens is there is a delay in the electro-conductivity in the heart, and can sometimes cause bradycardia. It can be serious enough to require a pacemaker. Did they do an EKG? I''m assuming it didn''t show anything...
The episodes you are describing sound scary - symptomatic bradiacardia is no joke. In fact, it''s considered an emergency when it happens on our unit.

The thing is, if it is some type of heart block that causes symptomatic bradycardia, there isn''t really any medicine you can take... treatment is a pacemaker. The Halter monitor will hopefully catch an episode, and record your heart, so that they can see what exactly your rate and rhythm are. Hopefully it''s just a vasovagal thing, like others have mentioned.

I hope it''s nothing serious, and I''ll be sending good vibes your way!!

ETA: I saw they did an EKG, do you remember what the two ''benign problems'' were?

wasn''t feeling well so went to the hospital Friday night. Decided on 3rd degee heart block. However, I am pretty much asymptomatic. Don''t know more than that. Am seeing an infectuous disease doctor, cardiologist, and cardiologist who specializes in heart conductivity. Given dopamine to bring up heart rate, but not working. Also getting iv antibiotic. might be a correlation to illness a few weeks back. DH brought laptop, but hard wo write.

Wow. I''m thinking of you SoCool and sending healthy wishes your way. I hope the docs get you stabilized and fixed up. Keep us posted when you can...

 

[drk]

As far as I''ve learned, 3rd degree heart block buys you a pacemaker pretty darn quick! And you often need a temporary one before they put in the permanent pacemaker too.
Hope you get this sorted out soon, and that you feel better quickly. Please keep us posted.