10 yr old with stinging chest

I have a 10 year old son, and when he was 8 years old he was diagnosed with SVT (Super Ventricular Tachycardia), He had surgery right before his 9th birthday to get it repaired, He has now developed another problem, he feels like his heart is beating hard, and at times he is out of breath, I have taken him back to the cardiologist, who says that he is pretty sure that he is fine, and may just be having some anxiety issues, but to be safe he put him on a 30 day event monitor. This monitor is a pain in our butt! He is all boy and is constantly pushing the alarm on the monitor. While sleeping the other day he rolled on to the record button and kept pushing it. My oldest son could not sleep and unhooked at brought it to me so I could reset it. When I went to go put it back on him I could see his heart vibrating! I hit the record button and while it is recording I can hear his heart beat, it would speed up for about 5 beats than slow way down than speed up again and than slow back down. I called it in and they said that it was nothing to hurry and notify the dr, about. Well this morning he said that his tummy was hurting but he would be fine and went to school, he had been to the nurses office twice to have his button pushed. The first time he complained that it was hard to breath, and the second time was an hour later with stinging in his chest. He said that it only lasted about 10 beats. I am very worried about my son and we cant see the doctor till April when he is back in our area. I believe my son feels something is wrong, and I don't believe that it is anxiety. Also the school nurse has said that she has noticed that where it used to be one or two abnormalities a minute with his rate, there is about 6. Please any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[grendslori]

Hello and welcome to our site. I have read through your post and thought of a few things to write to you about which may help to ease your mind some. The description of how your son'd heart beat would speed up and then slow down is normal. It is known as a Sinus Arrhythmia. When a child breathes in, the heart rate increases, when he exhales, the rate slows down. It does this over time or over several beats as you have described. This is the reason no one appears to be too concerned about this happening. Did the nurse tell you exactly what the abnormalities were that she noticed? The only way to tell if your son's SVT has returned is to do another EP Study on him again. Sometimes extra bypass tracks can redevelop so arrhythmias can, once again, become an issue. "Stinging" would not be a symptom of a heart issue, so you probably do not have anything to worry about there. Sharp pain is also not a symptom of a heart issue. Dull, aching type of pain would make a doctor question what is going on. That type of pain is EXTREMELY rare, even in children who have congenital heart disease. If sleeping is an issue for your son, try asking your child's doctor if you can remove the device when he goes to bed and replace it in the morning. Maybe that would work better for all of you. One word of caution to you about your worrying; children have great radar, if you are worried he will see it and worry as well; this can certainly aggravate the situation and if he is having premature beats, they will increase due to the adrenaline in his system. Take care. We are here to try and support you so please feel free to write and visit any time you would like.