Possible PSVT

[Liza1996]

Hi! I am a 16 years old girl. Ever since I was around 10 I have been experiencing heart palpitations. One moment I will be fine, and the next my heart will start racing and beating very hard. It is sometimes triggered by physical activity, but is often triggered by simple things like standing up, bending over and picking something up, moving to fast,or even sneezing. These episodes last anywhere from a couple seconds to hours. After the attacks my throat and chest ache and I am extremely tired and drained. I know when an attack starts because my heart will skip a beat and then "click" into this new rhythm until it decides to go back to normal. I often feel light headed before and during these attacks almost to the point where I feel like I will pass out. My vision has blacked out a couple times along with my hearing and tingling in my fingertips.I have discovered that usually I can stop the attacks by leaning foward and putting my head between my legs, or in the summer going into a freezing cold pool so the water is up to my chest.I haven't told my parents yet because until recently I thought it was a normal thing that happened to everyone. I've been doing research lately and thought that they may be panic attacks, but i never felt a sense of fear or anxiety before an attack.Doing further research I think it might be a rhythm disorder specifically PSVT. Could this possibly be it? Is it dangerous? Should I see a doctor? Help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[LittleTicker_no1]

Hiya, I had an ablation done for svt about two weeks ago and it sounds like you do have svt but obv bring it up with your parents first who can arrange a trip to A doc/cardiologist. Just wondering how often do you get palpatations and do you ever feel they get out of hand? It may not be a big problem for you but they could put you on a holter monitor to determine what you should do next, don't be extremely worried- you've took the first big step! Also if I were you I'd stay away from caffeine and alcohol as these are triggers - and try to think about just doing light exercise if you exercise regularly. hope this helps! Feel free to ask me any other questions and I'll try to answer them, sometimes you just need someone who understands what you're going through :)

[realladyb]

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT HIDE THESE SYMPTOMS FROM YOUR PARENTS! I am now a heart patient. I am a 52 year old, otherwise healthy person. I have no history of heart disease in my family. The symptoms began, or became noticable when I was 13 years old. I told my mom and she was constantly taking me back and forth to the doctor and the emergency room but since technology was not then, what it is today, they could not detect the problem. Throughout my life I kept experiencing these problems so much that I too began to think that maybe they were normal. At 40 I had a massive heart attack and have since then had 4 others. I have now been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and am now on national heart transplant listing. Like I said, there was no prior family history whatsoever so, this was totally unexpected. I don't have a cloudy history of drug or alcohol use. Do not take it lightly that you keep experiencing these symptoms and if you hide them from anyone that can get help for you, you stand alone in your secrecy. Let your loved ones be there for you and stand a chance of stopping a problem that may really be detrimental to your health.

[CCFHeartMD21]

The episodes you describe certainly could be episodes of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) as they are generally characterized by episodes of tachycardia (fast heart rate) that can be terminated by things that increase vagal tone (valsalva maneuver, coughing, or things like going into a cold pool). The only way to see if this is actually the problem is to go to a doctor and get set up with a small portable heart monitor to try to catch one of these episodes on a monitor when they happen. If the episodes are SVT, then you would have a couple different options for treatment which you could discuss with your doctor. These options would be continuing to monitor without treatment and just using maneuvers to terminate the rhythm when they happen, medication to try prevent there recurrance, or an ablation procedure to try to definetively get rid of the problem. Given the frequency of your symptoms, likely either the 2nd or 3rd choice would be the best option though your options would need to be discussed with your doctor. I would recommend that you make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your symptoms further. I hope this helps.