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Tachycardia and irregular beats for years now
by KG581, Sep 17, 2009 11:36AM
Hello All-
I've been reading posts on this forum for a few weeks now and first off, I'd like to thank everyone for their postings and replies. It's comforting to find that I'm not alone in this irregular heart rhythm world.
I'm a 28yo female, non smoker, drink on occasion (1-4drinks/month). I've experienced tachycardia since I was a kid. A rapid heart rate would come out of nowhere and would last a few hours. My parents wrote it off as anxiety and I never saw a doctor for it. These episodes of tachycardia were very infrequent (only 5-10 a year). When I was in high school I once experienced my whole right side of my body go numb, vomiting, severe headache, and the inability to put sentences together for about 4 hours. I woke up fine the next day and have never experienced something like that since. I didn't start to experience the tachycardia again until my mid 20s. Around the age of 25, I would notice my heart rate go way up and stay there for about 45min-1hr. I would experience this about once every 6 months. Only recently have the tachycardia and irregular beats increased in frequency. This past January I was struck with my most severe tachycardia episode. It came on all of a sudden and lasted for about 3 hours. My symptoms included: sweaty hands and feet, cold skin, lightheaded, feeling of disorientation, and frequent urination. I finally visited a doctor for the first time regarding this issue. I was given an ECG and had blood tests. The doctor thought it was atrial fibrillation and referred me to a cardiologist. I saw the cardiologist that same week and he said that what I was experiencing was very common and that I should avoid certain triggers such as caffeine, alcohol, and stress. He said that since my symptoms were very infrequent that I shouldn't worry about them and that if my symptoms became more frequent, then I should return. I didn't have another episode until May. From May-July I would experience about 1-2 episodes per month (usually onset would be around my menstrual cycle). Starting in August, i was experiencing tachycardia episodes several times a week. I recorded my bpm from 100-125 during these episodes. It was in August that I started noticing an involuntary twitching in my chest. I thought it was just a chest surface muscle spasm, but found out while I was taking my pulse during tachycardia that it was actually my heart. It felt like my heart was skipping a beat. This month I started having tachycardia several times a day and feeling the "skipped" beats several times per minute. During the tachycardia + "skipped" beats, I would feel very lightheaded, loss of appetite, sweaty hands and feet, coldness over my whole body, disorientation. I went to the heart hospital after these symptoms kept me out of work for two days straight. Had numerous ECGs, heart sonogram, and a 24hr halter monitor. While in the hospital, the doctors saw the tachycardia and recorded about 6-8 "premature ventricular beats" per minute. I saw an electrophysiologist one week ago and he gave me an event monitor. He said that he's narrowed it down to either atrial or sinus tachycardia. How will the event monitor tell him if it's either one? Has anybody else been diagnosed with either one of these? What medications/procedures were you put on? He mentioned medication would be the treatment for sinus tachycardia and catheter ablation would be the treatment for atrial tachycardia.
Thanks so much for your help and insight!
I've been reading posts on this forum for a few weeks now and first off, I'd like to thank everyone for their postings and replies. It's comforting to find that I'm not alone in this irregular heart rhythm world.
I'm a 28yo female, non smoker, drink on occasion (1-4drinks/month). I've experienced tachycardia since I was a kid. A rapid heart rate would come out of nowhere and would last a few hours. My parents wrote it off as anxiety and I never saw a doctor for it. These episodes of tachycardia were very infrequent (only 5-10 a year). When I was in high school I once experienced my whole right side of my body go numb, vomiting, severe headache, and the inability to put sentences together for about 4 hours. I woke up fine the next day and have never experienced something like that since. I didn't start to experience the tachycardia again until my mid 20s. Around the age of 25, I would notice my heart rate go way up and stay there for about 45min-1hr. I would experience this about once every 6 months. Only recently have the tachycardia and irregular beats increased in frequency. This past January I was struck with my most severe tachycardia episode. It came on all of a sudden and lasted for about 3 hours. My symptoms included: sweaty hands and feet, cold skin, lightheaded, feeling of disorientation, and frequent urination. I finally visited a doctor for the first time regarding this issue. I was given an ECG and had blood tests. The doctor thought it was atrial fibrillation and referred me to a cardiologist. I saw the cardiologist that same week and he said that what I was experiencing was very common and that I should avoid certain triggers such as caffeine, alcohol, and stress. He said that since my symptoms were very infrequent that I shouldn't worry about them and that if my symptoms became more frequent, then I should return. I didn't have another episode until May. From May-July I would experience about 1-2 episodes per month (usually onset would be around my menstrual cycle). Starting in August, i was experiencing tachycardia episodes several times a week. I recorded my bpm from 100-125 during these episodes. It was in August that I started noticing an involuntary twitching in my chest. I thought it was just a chest surface muscle spasm, but found out while I was taking my pulse during tachycardia that it was actually my heart. It felt like my heart was skipping a beat. This month I started having tachycardia several times a day and feeling the "skipped" beats several times per minute. During the tachycardia + "skipped" beats, I would feel very lightheaded, loss of appetite, sweaty hands and feet, coldness over my whole body, disorientation. I went to the heart hospital after these symptoms kept me out of work for two days straight. Had numerous ECGs, heart sonogram, and a 24hr halter monitor. While in the hospital, the doctors saw the tachycardia and recorded about 6-8 "premature ventricular beats" per minute. I saw an electrophysiologist one week ago and he gave me an event monitor. He said that he's narrowed it down to either atrial or sinus tachycardia. How will the event monitor tell him if it's either one? Has anybody else been diagnosed with either one of these? What medications/procedures were you put on? He mentioned medication would be the treatment for sinus tachycardia and catheter ablation would be the treatment for atrial tachycardia.
Thanks so much for your help and insight!
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Thanks for replying. I hope the atenolol works for you. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks again!