Unexplained fast heart rate since I was 13

[beckswastedlife]

Hi. I'm a 24 year old female. I have been having unexplained fast and fluttering heart rate since I was about 13, it seems to come in episodes. For this whole week so far, I have having my heart rate speed up for no reason, and I have been waking up off and on from my sleep with my heart fluttering. I have had, I don't know how many EKG's. Doctors have agreed that my heart rate tends to be faster then it should, but can't ever seem to come up with an explanation. My fast heart rate is very troubling to me, it scares me, it makes me feel fatigued and I can't really exercise because it makes it worse. Most of the time when it starts beating fast, it's hard to get it to slow down. It really freaks me out. Doctors have said that when I breathe in normally my heart speeds up, and they told me that, that was a little unusual, but could.t explain why. My dad had heat disease, and heart attacks,etc. And my mom have something wrong with hers as well, but I forget the name of it, but her heart sped up alot and would flutter as well, and what the doctors did was burn off an extra unneeded "wire". Could I have the same problem? What could this be? Please help.

[beckswastedlife]

I think it was SVT, it wasn't life threatening, just bothersome.

[kbug1013]

Did your mother have SVT or Afib? They can do Cardiac Ablation for both.

[beckswastedlife]

Thank you so much for your reply. I do plan to look into this more with any doctor I can.

[rilesnic]

You should see a cardiologist or EP if you haven't already. Your family doctor can refer you. I have tachycardia as well, and it is, as you say, troubling. Your doctors may be able to run more tests or give you a cardiac monitor to help determine what is going on. There are some medications that will help to slow the heart rate if the doctors and you determine that would benefit you. My maternal birth grandmother had a heart "flutter" her whole life I was told. I was adopted at birth and just found this information out about 2 years ago. I also have a birth half brother that complains of heart arrythmia problems, but has not been diagnosed. As far as I can gather, we are the only three that have this in the family. The grandmother died 2 years ago at the age of 84 from open heart surgery (never woke up, but knew there was a big chance that would happen...and the surgery was actually for congestive heart failure, not the electrical problem). They told me she complained of her fluttering until she died and drank Pearl beer everyday.