SVT @ night...

[SCDC]

Am 44... have had SVT since I was a little kid... had no idea it wasn't normal until my mid 20's when a doctor caught on a allergy drug study I was doing for extra money and sent me to a cardiologist.  Generally I feel a flutter and then the SVT starts.  If I can catch early at flutter or just after the SVT starts I can usually stop pretty quickly by bearing down or coughing.  Have noticed over the past couple of years that occasionally I will wake up in the middle of the night in a full blown tachycardia.  When that happens it can take about an to stop - I try laying down with legs up and arms above my head, laying on left side with arm under my head, crazy breathing techniques, bearing down, etc... I am afraid of ablasion and do not take any medication... wondering if anyone out there has any really good techniques to get the tachycardia to stop when in a full blown SVT.  

Thanks!  

[cindy707]

Boy i wish there was an easy answer to that one SCDC....i had an ablation four years ago for this and it was taken care of....you need to see a heart doc so that they can give you a little something to keep the SVT at bay here and its usually a low dose of beta blocker....i hated that worse then the atrial fib that came with it but there is really no way to get rid of it other than what you have tried which is the vagal manuever and that isn't even a sure thing..the thing is that SVT is electrically based and a doc needs to find out what is setting it off...you may just be misfiring with your electrical patterning of the heart and its pretty much a no brainer for a doc to take care of it...you just don't want to risk this and have your body decide to throw a clot on you during the episode...i hated more than anything the feeling of helplessness in the middle of the nite waking up like that and making promises, and praying, and begging, doing anything i could when i finally was forced to realize that i was not the navigator...the doc was so i let him do his thing and after four years i have never had another SVT episode w. the low dose beta blocker coupled with the ablation...call the doc...be smart self treating will not help you on this....it is more than we can handle and as we get older my heart doc explained the incidents may get more and more progressive...good luck and i wish i had an easy answer for you....

[SCDC]

...When that happens it can take about an *** hour *** to stop (give or take).

(Just re-read my post and noticed I inadvertantly left out how long my full blown tachycardia lasts.)