Dear kraftster,
There are several interesting things in your story. First, the fact that the heart rate started suddenly and second, the fact that you had a drop in blood pressure with standing. Did the rapid heart rate aslo stop suddenly or did it gradually slow down. If it stopped suddenly then I would suspect an SVT may be causing the rapid heart rate. The drop in blood pressure may however point to a different syndrome called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome or POTs. You can find many other postings concerning these two conditions on this site. Anxiety can cause tachycardia but I would rule out the other possible conditions first. A Holter monitor is a good start but you probably need an event monitor to "catch" the arrhythmia. The second test you should talk to your doctor about is a tilt-table test. This will help in the diagnosis of POTS. If you would like to be seen in Cleveland for a second opinion I would suggest Dr. Jaeger or Dr. Fouad in the syncope clinic.
Hi,
I don't know what's causing your symptoms but , clearly, you need to have a good work up by a doctor you trust and can talk to. My educated guess -- and it is only that -- is that you might have dysautonomia and a tilt table test might me in order.
good luck and I hope you feel better soon.
I suffer from these same symptoms. When I wake up in the morining I am fine, but as the day progresses I become light headed, but it comes and goes. It is most domminant in the summer.
I'm Jill I'm 16 and I had wolf parkinsons white syndrome and had a cardiac ablation for it when I was 13 and it removed the extra pathway and we thought took care of everything. Now everytime I take my pulse, my pulse rate is 130 or higher. I will be sitting in class and I will feel my chest flutter and skip a beat and I get pains in my chest a lot. I haven't told my doctor yet because I'm afraid it will be another heart issue or nothing at all so I needed some other opions first before I went to the doctor.
Hi, Jill. I was diagnosed with a severe case of svt after an episode where my hr got up to 265bpm and was that elevated for over 30 minutes. The doctor at the hospital I was rushed to told my parents and I that that was the highest hear rate he had ever seen for that amount of time. Due to that episode I was scheduled for a cardiac ablation the next month. The surgery went well and I no longer had heart palpitations until about over a year later. I am 18 now and am about to start college soon. I have noticed my hr has increased over the past few months and that it just seems to be getting worse. at first I didn't want to admit that my heart was messing up again after going through that surgery, but I truly believe it is. I actually just called my cardiologists office today and explained what it going on. I now have an appt to be seen again on Monday. The point of this is that I didn't want to accept that my cardiac condition was not fully treated or that there is something completely else wrong with my heart so I ignored it for months. Now with the added stress in my life it is getting worse it seems everyday. I just hope that you tell someone your heart has been acting up again before you get to the point I am now. Sometimes at night I'm afraid to fall asleep because I have chest pain and a very rapid heart beat. I have realized that this has become very serious and that just ignoring it has done no good.