I had a mini-maze surgery 3 months ago, after being in persistent afib with tachycardia for some 5 years. The tachy was fairly well controlled until the end of that. I had complete heart block a couple of weeks following the surgery and a pacemaker put in. I have no had afib since then (and now I have a spy in my body that can tell us that!). However, I have trouble exercising still and on my last visit to the cardiologist he had me do a walk test and I went into v-tach. It ended quickly, so he put me on a beta blocker.
All has been going well, but the other day I had two runs of tachycardia. The heart beat was incredibly steady in the 179bpm range. It lasted for 45 minutes both times and was very uncomfortable, with my heart cramping, and the pericarditis type pain after surgery flaring.
As it went away I did not do anything, but some people think I should.
My real worry is that this was V-tach, not just SVT. Can that be told without an EKG? Is it dangerous to let your heart speed at that rate for that long? Although my tachycardia with afib could reach that high, as it bounced around it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable.
Real question is could it have been V-tach, and if it happens again, should I just ignore it unless it continues on.
(I realize after surgery your heart is "irritated" and you might have a few problems, but this seemed like quite an event to me)