Newbie SVT/IST

[tachyiscool]

Hi everyone! I am a 32yr old female with a relatively healthy history. I am 135lbs, probably don't eat the best but have never had high blood pressure or cholesterol.
Let me give you a little background as to what happened this past week.
One night, I was sitting in the living room and I got severe pain around my gallbladder area but it radiated up through my entire chest. It finally subsided about 30min later. During the days that followed, I had constant pressure\tightness in my chest that just would not go away. I thought maybe it was heartburn so I took Zantac everyday but it didn't relieve the pressure at all. A few times I got so dizzy that I thought I was going to pass out. I was getting shortness of breath just walking up or down my stairs which is weird for me. Finally my husband made me make a doctors appointment. When I got there, they took my BP and pulse. The nurse thought that maybe the machine wasn't working properly so took my pulse again with another machine and said that my pulse was 127bpm and going up. I didn't really know what this meant other than normally my resting hr is around 65bpm. Immediately they did an ekg and the doc said she didn't like what she saw but didn't offer an explaination other than it shouldn't be that high. She did say that it didn't indicate heart attack, phew. Anyway, I went home and went to have an ultrasound of my gallbladder the following morning. When I walked down the stairs and fed my cat, I checked my hr after a minute or so and it was 138bpm. After the ultrasound I went back in to see the doc and my resting hr would go down to 90 just to shoot right back up to 120 and back down and then up again. It was so eratic but all my bw came back normal along with my chest xray and my ultrasound. She said I had svt and put me on a beta blocker (which has worked well so far). I have an echocardiogram next week along with a 24hr holter but if I am on a bb, won't that totally defeat the purpose of figuring out what's wrong by masking it? Also, from what I have read, it seems as though this is supposed to stop after about a half hour or so but mine was constant. Has anyone else experienced this as well or was I having them so close together that it seemed as though it was constant? I had constant pain in my chest as well along with a feeling like my lungs were being squeezed. Second day of the bb has seemed to take care of the pain. I am a little concerned about the fact that it seems as though this has to be medicated for life. I feel like I shouldn't be on heart meds at the age of 32, ya know? From my reading it also seems as though from my numbers, that I might have IST instead of just SVT. I have always exercised but any sort of running, even just jogging would make me feel like I was having a heart attack and my lungs felt like I would cough up blood at any minute. My sister could never figure out why I couldn't run when she is large and much more out of shape but could out run me any day. Would a cardiologist be able to tell me? I guess I am wondering if they will be able to tell anything now that I am on meds that brought my hr back to normal. This is all so surprising although looking back through the years, it makes sense. I also have Raynauds and geographic tongue but I don't know if these two things are related. The doc says my autoimmune system is fine. I guess I am having a difficult time figuring this all out.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for listening. Any experiences would be greatly appreciated :)

[tachyiscool]

I find the viral thing very interesting because I have been fine (other than the jogging) until I got that flu. My husband and son got the same flu but they are both fine. I wonder if it just affected us differently, hmmm. I am second day on the BB and am feeling much better although when I do my housework and then sit down, my chest starts hurting again. Not as bad but a very dull version of when I run. Will this go away too in time or am I stuck with the angina? I imagine that I will just get used to it but it's uncomfortable and I still get shortness of breath but not as often and like I said, it's only second day for meds.

[teacheruk]

Hi!
I'm 23 and I have some similar problems to you. I've had a very high heart rate for a few months now and I've been on beta-blockers (of varying dosages) during this time. When it started I had dizzyness, shortness of breath, fainting etc. I've had exercise intolerance for years too, although being relatively fit, any running would floor me!! My cardiologist said that my problems were post-viral- so like you they were triggered by a virus. My echo was completely fine and they think that I may have IST. I'm not sure I can be much help to you- just letting you know I've been through a similar thing! Let us know how you get on.

[tachyiscool]

LOL, she actually made that comment to me yesterday. I wouldn't normally talk about her like that ;) Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I thought that SVT or IST had nothing to do with the hearts structure so diagnosis was basically process of elimination. But that's ok because I'm glad I'll be having the echo. It will make me feel better knowing for sure that my heart is structurally sound. I have gained a lot of info from this site and I am amazed at how many people actually have this. I forgot to mention that this all seemed to start a couple weeks after having the flu. Not sure if it's related but I noticed that a couple people mentioned the same thing.

[bbxx]

First of all, sorry for what you are going though. I have had svt and some other stuff. The echo will look at the structure of your heart (valves etc..). BB will not change that. I doubt geographhic tongue is related, but I have no idea about raynauds (but of course I am not a doctor). You better make sure your sister doesnt post on here since you said she was large. (ha ha--I am just thinking of how dead I would be had I said that lol)
In all seriousness I am glad you will have the echo and hopefully the cardiologist will get to the bottom of this. I am sure others will respond to you soon. Hang in there. :)