Tachycardia

[mis596]

I've had an echo stress test and holter monitor done for
fast heart rate.  I was supposed to wear the holter monitor for a week
but everytime I put it on it would go off because of my elevated heart
rate so was told to stop.  The stress test showed nothing either
except fast heart rate (180 bpm at 5 minutes).  Doctor put me on 25 mg
of Toprol XL to slow heart rate.  I have a history of fast heart rate.  Sometimes
when I roll over it clicks on and beats over 220 bpm.   I can always bring
it back to normal by taking deep breaths and holding  it.  Twice my heart
went into a quivering or fluttering action which really scared me.  Nothing
I did would make it go back in.  It went in by itself.  This was before the
Toprol XL.  I still have palpatations and mild fluttering with medicine.  
My question is if the doctor couldn't really find anything wrong do I
need to stay on this medicine forever or get a second opionion.  I know I
have different problems going on but since they always stop is it really
serious or not?

[jan]

Well, Shelly, I don't know.  I do know that my meds for bladder infections are lil orange pills and my Toprol is white tabs (and my other cardio meds don't fit the orange pill description, either). I don't know if that is any help to you or not. If you think your cardio is wrong, I don't think he would mind giving you a holter or event monitor to put you at ease.

[pukiariki]

All my children have Tachycardia, my oldest daughter had corrective surgery for Wolfs Parkinsons White Syndrome.My concern is that my son (25yrs) had a heart attack 4 moonths ago but the doctors do not relate this to the Tachycardia or the W.P.W. I find this hard to believe but my son is having an angiogram next week.We wait for ever for health care here in New Zealand, he should have had something done sooner to find out why he suffered such a major heart attack.

[jan]

pukiariki and any one else that would like to share with others and get some support, please come visit this support group:

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/heartsafire

We can all be a help and encouragement to one another.  :o)

[RachL]

I'm a 35 yr old female & was diagnosed with Left Ventricular Tachycardia about 8 years ago, at the same time they also discovered a leaking heart valve. The leaking valve is only a mild condition( so I've been told ) The tachycardia causes me a great deal of anxiety & problems. The symptoms start with a sensation of not breathing, my heart feels as if it's stopped (I can feel no pulse) & light headed, then my heart kicks in with a vengance & races at about 220 bmp. This can last from 1 minute to to an hour, when it does slow down & stop thumping SO hard it levels off at about 130bmp for anything up to a few hours. After, I'm left feeling very scared, tired & cold. I also get mild palpitations several times a day & chest pain, under arm pain, neck & shoulder pain. Sometimes the pain is a constant dull ache, other times it is  a sharp stabbing pain. I've been told that the pain & palpitations are due to my leaky valve ( I also cannot sleep on my left side as this makes my heart feel as if it's struggling to beat, almost like I'm squashing it!)
My cardiologist has done a lots of test, but we don't seem to be getting any further, seems there is nothing they can do other than surgery, which involves burning some of the hearts nerve endings, but he does not recomend this for me.
Does anyone else experience these same sensations or does anyone have any advice for me?
Thanks in advance
RachL

[VALERIA]

I posted above, and I wanted to add something that I forgot to mention above.
I also get this weird event every couple of weeks or so. When I first noticed it in 1996, it was every couple of months it would happen.
What happens is, I can feel fine, then my heart will flutter or something, like it beating real slow, I cough or do something with a quick motion, like walk jump or walk fast, then it goes from the slow or out of rythym beat to a real fast but normal rythym, then it slow down to the normal rate and sometimes I get a hot feeling up through my face and the event is over. This thing when it happens scares the hek out of me, because when it is beating slow, until it picks up, I sometimes feel like I may pass out. The Toprol has help keep this event somewhat.
I tried to post questions on this website for a couple of years now, since I been coming here, but each day the same page comes up saying , no longer taking questions for that day.
So does this event I get sound familiar to anyone else?

[Gozza]

I'm 30 years of age in good health and just yesterday was diagnosed with SVT (echo and blood films norm). Ive had the only one documented attack and my cardiologist put me on 80mg of solatol twice a day and see how I went for a week. The other attacks which I have had are more of anxiety/ panic attacks which do scare me somewhat because of the way I feel at times such as uncontrolable tremor, sweating, breathing difficulties, instant lethargy, withdrawn amongs others. The cardiologist said this might be due to maybe me thinking about the previous SVT attack (therefor a panic attack begining) or an SVT starting and not clicking over to a full SVT. Could this be the case and if so why did he put me on a drug such as sotalol (as I've heard its harsh) is it maybe to calm me down with respect to my anxiety attacks and if I do see that within 2weeks my anxiety attacks goes away does that mean that I wont experience an SVT therafter. Also if I have such a non-lifethreating SVT why put me on meds in the first place and why does it feel life-threatining when I had an SVT or a nearly SVT/panic attack? Does it become lifethreatening as we become older? My appologies for the long post and thankyou in-advance for any reply.