Hi. I am 40 and experience similar things to you. I have recently had an EP Study to determine the cause of my different rhythm disturbances. I seemed to have three different types of arrythmia which I have had for the last 15 odd years. I chose only to have the EP study the first time around (July 03) so that I could know and understand what I was dealing with before deciding on the treatment with my EP. I also have small children and am hesitant to have an ablation just yet. I felt that just having the EP and getting a definite diagnosis and treatment options would be a good start after years of not knowing what was wrong with my heart and being scared. I had so little confidence in my heart coping with the procedure which is why I chose to do the EP only first. I get ventricular ectopy which I guess is also known as PVC's. I have also had an unpleasant very fast and weak pulse runs of something which I now know was due to my AVNRT. I have also had what feels like my heart shaking for a few seconds - this I have had three times in the last 6 months. The EP confirmed that I have AVNRT which he feels is causing all my symptoms as they could not find any other problem in my heart. It is perfectly ablatable and I am now considering when to go for the ablation. But, my symptoms have improved enormously since I have a diagnosis and I know that it is easily repairable and not life threatening. I now believe that the mind plays a huge role in worsening the symptoms. Also, I have made big changes to my diet in the last year and I think that is helping too. I don't touch caffeine (including chocolate) or alcohol and have cut my sugar intake too.
Good luck with your investigations - it looks like the cryo ablation is a good option to look for.
What causes all the different rythems? I have headaches
alot and take excedrin that contains caffine. Sometimes
I'll have to take 4 excedrin a day. Two in the morning
and two at night. But these different rythems don't seem
to be after I take the excedrin. Alot of times it's after
I wake up. Anytime of the day. Sometimes 5 hours after I
take the Excedrin. I know they say not to take any caffine
when you have a rythem problem but how much difference does
this make. It seems the older I get the worse it gets. This
started in my early 30's and I didn't have the headaches I
have now so I don't know that the caffine is causing
the rythem problems or if it's just my heart getting older and
more sensitive. I'm prone to migrains and I find that if
I take the excedrin that seems to work the best for now. There's
nothing worse than a migrain. I can live with the rythem problem
before I can take a migrain.
Hi.I just had a CRYO ablation at Sherman hospital near chicago.I also had AVNRT with other symptoms similar to yours.My ablation was a complete success.5 days later and I was jogging,baseball,hiking,stairs,golf,Whatever. all smooth as silk.Frankly I am totally amazed.
There has never been a heartblock with cryoablation in the 3 years it has been used in Europe and Canada or during trail testing in U.S. because they can map or "test" out an ablation site before ablating it.It was approved in U.S in April 2003. Check out
www.cryocath.com for details and feel free to e-mail me @ ***@**** to chat about it.
Good Luck
11111,
Thanks for the post.
Yes, the third rhythm certainly could be A-Fib, but it is more likely that you have a single arrhythmia causing your symptoms.
A-Fib feels different in different people. Some people have no symptoms, some have disabling symptoms.
A-Fib carries a risk for stroke. The risk varies from very small in patients with no other risk factors for stroke to quite high in patients with certain conditions.
Establishing a diagnosis for your symptoms is important. While one of the arrhtyhmias may not directly harm you, the consequences of passing out can be severe (e.g., if you were holding a small child, or driving). I would aggressively pursue the diagnosis.
Good luck.