SVT attack

[txguy84]

Good day. I would immensely appreciate some feedback, please?
My mom is a relatively healthy 57 year old. She is not overweight. She doesn't drink, or smoke, and she is rarely on medication. A couple days ago, she was experiencing SVT (200 bpm), I believe some pain in her jaw, nausea, and she had felt a discomfort feeling in her left arm for about 2 weeks. We went to the ER, where they did an xray and EKG, and some blood tests. Everything came out fine. They injected her with a drug that begins with the letter D, and that slowed her heart rate, and she said the discomfort in her left arm went away. We were referred to a cardiologist and we have set up an appointment with them. About a 2-3 months ago, she experienced SVT for the first time, and the only symptom that accompanied was nausea, I believe. So, she has had 2 episodes. The first time she went to a doctor after the episode, but the doctor wasn't concerned about it. Lastly, she was prescribed metoprolol. She then started experiencing the side effects of nausea and fatigue, which she didn't like, and now she doesn't want to take them. I know you guys don't know what's causing this, but I'm wondering, based on this information:

1. Does this sound familiar to something specific that may be going on with her?
2. Are there alternative remedies/preventative measures with less side effects?
4. Could she have also experienced symptoms of heart attack?

Any feedback would be awesome. Thank you so much.

[merileegal]

Ditto everything Tom said. I'm female and almost 60. I had SVT episodes for over 20 years. I went on meds a couple of times and didn't like the way they way they made me feel so I learned to control mine with vagal manuevers. You can google that to know how to do those. I finally had an ablation a few months ago. When I finally was referred to an ep he wondered why I had never been referred to him before and I also wondered. He said it was an easy fix and it was.

When your mom goes to the cardio, she'll probably have some testing done such as a nuclear stress test and ecg to check the structure of her heart. Many of us have had these tests done and the heart is usually structurally sound so the diagnosis is usually related to the electrical system of the heart. It is more common for woment to have SVT than men and the older you are the more likely you are to have it. If the heart is structurally sound that is always a good thing to find out especially at our age. If it is just an electrical problem meds can be given and there are different types, she can use vagal manuevers if they work, or she might be a good candidate for an ablation which hopefully fixes it for good. The most important thing right now is that  when she has one is to stay calm. I know that is hard to do when it feels like your heart is beating out of your chest, but that initial calmness can help convert the heart back to normal rythm. I learned to slowly take a deep breath as deep as I could until I thought my lungs would burst, and then breath out slowly. My heart usually responded and I went back to normal rythm. The sooner you try after the onset of the attack to get the heart back to normal rythm, the more successful you'll be.

Also, tell your mom about this site. There are many of us about her age and we'd love to have her join us. It has helped many of just to find people here who we can relate to.

Keep us posted.

[tom_h]

I hope she can find a resolution to her episodes.  I had it for a long time, and found that the episodes increased in frequency as I aged.  At fifty-nine years of age, they were coming 3 to 5 times a month, any place, any time.  There are many of us here that can offer advice if she needs it.

I also wanted to apologize for the atrocious typing in my last post.  We were about to head  out to church this morning, and I was in a hurry.  Unfortunately, this forum does not support editing.

[txguy84]

Thank you so much for the very useful information! It meas a lot to me!
Hope all is well for you.

[tom_h]

Fro fellow SVT sufferers, the events and symptoms your mother is experiencing are all too familiar.  Most SVTs are not life threatening, but sure don't feel that way.  It's actually good that the ER saw her during an event, becasue they now have a record of it, and doctors can clearly see the event.  AN SVT event can feel very uncomfortable, and can often feel like you're having a heart attack.  Metoprolol is often widely prescribed as it was for me, and its effectiveness varies for each individual.  For me it didn't prevent them, but helped greatly in converting them back to normal rhythm.  There is a technique that involves holdings ones breath, and bearing down that is often effective in converting the event.  Besides drug therapy, there is a procedure called "catherter ablation" where the location of the SVT is pinpointed, and destroyed by radio frequency energy.  I've had this down along with many others here on the forum.  Google the term, and you'l get lots of information on it.  SVT can last for hours. mine would run on until converted too.  THey did not stop on theor own, but required intervention.  If she's 57, with rates above 200, there is concern over whether the heart of an older person (again like myself) can tolerate extremely high heart rates.  This is why I decided to eliminate the problem after54 years.

Your mother needs to understand that her heart may be healthy, and structurely perfect, and that this is a result of an electrical problem.

[txguy84]

Something I forgot to mention, the most recent episode lasted over an hour before she was admitted to ER. The first episode lasted hours. Not sure how many.