I''m a heart patient and I''ve been a heart patient since my middle teens, and as scarey as some of my bouts have been, none of them has been life threatening. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance in early October with what they said was sinus tachycardia. My heart (because of stress and an emotional shock) was beating at around 140 bpm during the attack and got down to around 115 bpm for the rest of the day. I was hooked up to monitors all day, given a small dose of Xanax and nothing changed my condition, so they sent me home. I saw my cardiologist the next day, had the usual round of tests (holter monitor and echo) and the results were in fact supraventricular tachycardia. Something a little more serious. My doctor chose to do nothing since I''ve had bouts like this before, mostly in my teens and 20''s. In November, I woke up at 4:30 one morning with my heart popping and skipping uncontrollably. I didn''t want to go to the ER again because they didn''t do much to help, so I drove myself to my cardiologist''s office long before any of the doctors came in for the day. I was seen as the first patient, had three EKGs in order to capture the flukey erratic beats and was diagnosed with running PACs, a different type of upper chamber electrical disturbance. At that point, because I asked for something to break the erratic cycle of beats, my doctor gave me a small dose of a beta-blocker (Lopressor)and a baby dose of Xanax. I had nothing but irregular beats during every minute of every day for the following four days. Frankly, I thought I was going to die, but it seems I have an electrical disturbance in my atrium that kicks in every once in a while, sometimes for a reason and sometimes for no reason at all. Even after all that? My Cardio doesn''t want to do anything except order a 30 day heart monitor the next time it happens. My normal resting heart rate has always been high and is 95 to 100 even now.
This is not something to ignore. It''s good your condition has been diagnosed while your are young and healthy. DH has a combo pacemaker defibrillator. It was a very easy procedure. His heart has actually improved by not being under the stress of tachycardia.
It''s funny that that was what I was trying to explain to my doctor too, that after four straight days of having SVTs and PACs 24 hours a day, I was exhausted! He also told me that the fact that they stopped after four days on Lopressor might have been just a coincidence since the medication didn''t make them stop immediately (like it does for some people). More often than not, my belief is that beta-blockers are relatively useless. They also make me feel like I have no energy at all and like I''m dragging bricks when I walk.Date: 1/13/2010 10:40:09 PM
Author: stepcutgirl
Ksinger...I sure hope you get a diagnosis soon and are able to keep it at bay. I think the reason i was so out of breath was because mine was not a short lived ''attack'' but 10 straight days of it not getting below 140 before i was put on meds and then two weeks of it not getting below 130 before i was put on the pumped up dose. I had two docs tell me that when your heart is beating that fast you are winded because it is beating so fast that it can''t get enough oxygen in each beat so you are gasping for breath.
Princess, i''m really glad you found out how to keep yours at bay. Your boyfriend sounds really sweet. I''m not really used to the ''new'' body yet so I just get really quiet and don''t say anything and my bf thinks i''m pouting
until he realizes I just can''t breathe very well! The cardiologist i am seeing now is very highly regarded where i am from but I will be getting one more opinion before anybody sticks anything in my chest or up my femoral artery!
Date: 1/13/2010 8:03:02 PM
Author: princesss
Yeah, it''s definitely a scary thing! I have mild episodes where I feel like it starts bubbling and I have a little mini freak out. And then I remember that freaking out doesn''t affect it, but staying calm can and I try to pretend it isn''t happening. My poor boyfriend has been with me while I''ve been getting to know my ''new'' body (that has all of these problems), and treats me like a Faberge egg when he notices my signals. It''s hard when you can feel it getting better but your SO can''t.
The best thing I can tell you is get a cardiologist you feel comfortable with, but get a second opinion. I''ve gotten conflicting advice from multiple doctors and I have to wade through and try their advice for a while and see what works. Don''t let fear make your decision - listen to your body. Doctors have a lot of knowledge, and they''ve seen a lot of different problems, but you know your body better than anybody.
I''m lucky - all that''s required for my condition is 5mg of a beta blocker (Bisoprolol) a day with good diet and exercise and to maintain my body''s natural healthy weight - around 140 to 145 (aka about 15lbs less than I am now), but it took 5 years to find that out. I hope the process is quicker and smoother for you.
Whitby, thanks for your thoughts and support.
I have a long history of adrenal disease and naturally producing too my adrenaline, and when my adrenaline goes even higher because of a stressful situation, I often kid that if adrenaline were electricity, I could light a small town. All kidding aside, a lot of us with tachycardia are very sensitive to rising adrenaline levels and our bodies overreact somewhat. The problem is - once your adrenaline goes up, it takes a while (from a day to a few days or even longer) for it to go down. It''s not like filling up a sink and draining a sink. It''s more like filling a sink and draining a sink with a terrible clog. Adrenaline goes down slowly. That''s why your heart continues to beat too fast for a while.
That was so well put Novel! I really do believe that understanding what's wrong and accepting that this is part of who I am, does help people to deal with it better. Asking questions, understanding our condition and sharing information is very important in helping people to cope better.
Well, this IS a thread isn''t it? Lots of great info, and everyone has been so kind. Thanks guys. It is kinda nice to know I''m not alone in all this.
On the hypermobility, I never knew a name for it even existed, until the last year or so. I just knew I had freaky fingers, really flat feet and could bend over and touch my palms to the floor and fold my ankles in (while knees are locked straight) at a 90, and clap my feet. Clapping feet like a seal: great icebreaker at parties with alcohol. (I''ve since consciously noticed that my knees and elbows hyperextend too. Talk about being unaware, huh?) Not so fun when that ankle folds in between one step and the next and you hit the ground the next instant. After 5 or six times, those injuries accumulate and they never quite heal. The real kicker was the quite severe ankle sprain I had in ''99. Never quiiiiite the same after that one. Of course Miss Stoic here didn''t go to the dr with THAT one either.
I''ve run myself through the Beighton and Brighton tests for hypermobility (which the docs did not, just listened to me, saw my hands and feet and said, "HMS". But I score a 5/9 on the Beighton, and have one major and 2 minor criteria on the Brighton. Pretty clear-cut. I know the cardiologist latched on to me telling him I was hypermobile, like a dog on point. Looking for Ehlers-Danlos (seems unlikely) or Marfan''s (clearly no) I suspect, although from what you guys are telling, it looks like garden-variety benign (anything but, right ladies?) HMS has some link to heart issues. And I''ve been vaguely dizzy for a while now too. I even asked my husband if I had complained recently of dizziness and he said, yes. I''d blown that under my conscious radar under the heading of "sucking it up" too, apparently. Dizziness doesn''t appear to be POTS, might be OH, could be psychsomatic. Beyond the obvious confirmation I''ve done on my own with the seemingly insignificant diagnosis of HMS, I really don''t feel qualified to do my own diagnosis here. Heart stuff is too complicated. But I do read a bit. Probably shouldn''t. Again, the heart issues seem to be mild compared to some. But unless I can get the symptoms associated with HMS under some form of control, I''m going downhill fast. I have one friend who honestly thought I didn''t really want to see her anymore, and I finally said, "Look, it''s not YOU, I can''t DO what we used to do, and I just feel like crap so often." I think she finally understood. But isn''t that just awful? To feel so rotten that you aren''t up to visiting with friends?
I do have decent days - I don''t mean to make it sound like I don''t, but I just tire out quickly and unpredictably. An hour walking the mall can have me hurting by the end of the trip, laid OUT the next day. Very frustrating.
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