avnrt and vagal maneuvers

hi everybody,
i'm wondering if anyone else does the same vagal maneuvers that i do? when i go into tachycardia, (which is often brought on by bending at the waist) i instinctively squat to bring myself back into sinus rhythm.
i know other people do things like cough, bear down, splash their face with icewater, etc. i've never heard of anyone else squatting before.....it would be great if these other maneuvers worked for me, because squatting is not always convenient. (eg. driving in the car,)

a bit of backstory; i had an ablation that didn't work when i was 16, i'm now 32, and my cardio recommends that i live with my symptoms rather than attempt another procedure. due to the semi-botching of the first one, i'm not a great candidate for sucess anymore.

i'm also curious if anyone else has this similar trigger of bending bringing on svt?

hope everyone is well,
h

[tsco]

Hey,
For a while my SVT was triggered by bending (frequently).  It just seems like a certain way  of bending would stretch something (I guess) and trigger me.  For a while I could break it by coughing quickly.  That doesn't seem to work anymore.  I never thought to squat.  My Dad told me about someone who actually lays quickly on a concrete surface and it breaks his. I tried that a couple of time and just looked stupid.  It was 30 degrees outside and I was laying on the driveway.  Oh well, just shows how desperate we are sometimes. I've tried the other stuff like pushing eyes (just got sore eyes), bearing down (helped the six-pack but not the heart), standing on head (nothing), running (nothing).  I've had four ablations and the last one just complicated things. I think I've been guinea pigged.

[massage therapy]

hi,
thanks for responding...
4 ablations! wow. what form of svt to you have? do any vagal maneuvers work for you? the others don't seem to work for me, either, just the squatting is tried and true.
may i ask how your latest ablation complicated things for you? i rarely hear stories on this side of the fence....ablation is usually championed on this forum.....i haven't heard from many other people who haven't been "cured" or even improved.
best to you,
heather

[tsco]

My svt is a reentrant type deal complicated by some scar tissue in my right atrium (mystery) maybe I was sick when I was little or something.  The scar evidently makes it hard to burn the pathway, and that led into well it is close to the sinus node so we don't want be too aggressive. For a couple of years coughing early would stop the SVT but now it doesn't seem to work. I'll have to try squatting!
after my last ablation I developed LBBB (left bundle branch block) (rate dependent) and though my EP assured me it is not related to the ablation, I'm not sure I believe him.  So now if I am doing something and hit 120 to 130 (naturally) my heart goes into LBBB and that triggers my SVT at around 140-160.  Fun!  The good thing since my ablations is my SVT is not as persistent.  Early days I had less events but had to always go to ER.  Now I have more events but can break them within two hours by taking a 50 mg lopressor.   Lucky Me.  It did knid of make me think when I went to have an SVT run recorded at my local doc office and she said "the lbbb complicates your readings now, you didn't used to have that, they probably caused during your procedure".  Yeah that's what I think too.  There are risks involved.

[massage therapy]

yikes, it certainly did sound like you aquired lbbb through ablation. how could your ep say that you got it another way? that's ridiculous. sometimes it's amazing what **** gets shoved down our throats, no?

i hope you find yourself a different ep. mine's actually honest enough to say that he doesn't think i should have another ablation. i suspect that i'd end up with similar problems to you.

do you go into svt each time you're exerted? although the jump you mentioned from 120-130 naturally to when svt kicks in to 140-160 range isn't that big, do you feel it right away? i think some of us are more sensitive than others to these episodes. i know IMMEDIATELY when i go into tachycardia, even if my heart rate is already exerted. it's the worst.

i have reentrant tachy, too. and scar tissue that completely burned away my heart's electrical "fast pathway". i guess that's what they were doing back in '91 when the procedure was brand new. lucky me, eh?

take care! i hope you get a more forthcoming ep.