I am a 41 year old female (and a registered nurse for 20 years) - healthy, normal weight,routinely exercise, non-smoker, take no medications, live in a good healthy environment, once or twice/wk have a glass of wine or two at night, and drink only 1 or 2 cups of coffee in the morning. I am married and have two children 14 and 16..everyone is healthy. I do have a history of systemic lupus which has been in complete remission since 1999 with zero problems. Other than that, negative history cardiac-wise. I have no anxiety or panic issues, and to top it off, my husband is a dostoc and is stumped by this problem and wants me to get it checked out.
Given that, at random times I have begun to regularly experience episodes of tachycardia that come on taking my heart rate up to 140-170 bpm (from a normal of 70-80). This will happen in the morning, afternoon, at night, and sometimes will wake me up in the middle of the night as it makes me feel slightly short of breath. It will feel bounding. It will last an hour or two...sometimes all day..then it will go away. I notice it immediately as it feels very strong and bounding. It will happen on days when I haven't had alcohol for days, and it will happen 12 hours after a cup of coffee, so it doesn't seem to be alcohol or caffeine related. Oddly enough, the fast heart rate will sometimes come on after eating. The worst is when it comes on in the middle of the night. It is very annoying. What is the chance this could be Wolf Parkinson White syndrome or some random rhythm issue? I have had hormonal testing for estrogen, LH, thyroid and all are within normal parameters. Is next step an EKG as I presume? Given the history, what do you guess this could be?
Thank you for your thoughts.