Periodic flutters turned to daily flutters and lightheadness...

[nnehls]

I was getting random "fast beats" up to 200 bpm and only for a min or so... and in addition i would get occasional heart "flutters" last a few secs. the past few days the flutters happen everyday and a few min after i feel light headed/dizzy, like i could pass out, but i don't. (anxiety maybe?) I was worried it could be artiel fliberation but i learned you have to get light headed/dizzy during the abnormal heart rhythm, not 5-10 min after. lol. Plus my ultrasound came back fine. I'm at a loss. i have had all tests except a stress test, I'm 23 yr old female and not over weight. I am scared but have been told not to worry, i see a rhythm spec late this month, so hopefully i get some good news from that. I notice my heart skips beats (i can even feel it in my pulse, its not just a feeling) when i am doing psychical activties. any idea what all this could be? I have no thyroid problems...like i said i have had all tests besides stress test. but all this is very scaring and annoying and i always feel tired and run down and at 23, i think that is not right. any advice on all this?

[nnehls]

I know if its electrical is nomaly nothing, but i just get freaked out. :( Thank you for the advice and being so kind to respond to my post, again! lol. :D

[BionicBabe]

My advice is to take up some form of meditation. Regardless of whether you get diagnosed with an arrhythmia or not, if these symptoms stress you out, you need a way to cope. I also take Klonopin (which is like Valium) from time to time when I get anxious and that helps, but I don't like to rely on it regularly as I don't like pills. Since your heart has checked out structurally, that is very good news. The important thing to think about now to help put your mind at ease is that you are doing everything in your power to get this checked out. Secondly, worst case scenario is that you may have an arrhythmia. The EP will be able to treat it one way or the other. As far as being tired all the time...that could be related to your irregular heart beat or it could also be attributed to plenty of other things as well. It may help you to make a list of other things that might be making you tired...sleep, job, diet, social life, other health factors, stress in your life, etc.  I agree that Dec. 24th is a crappy day to have a doctor's appointment. Hopefully you'll get some good news that will make your holiday brighter! Thanks for the note!

[VtachWife]

I understand how frightening this is...you try not to worry so anxiety doesn't make it worse, but how do you not worry when you don't feel normal?  My husband has an arrhytmia, and we've been there before.

Like Brooke_38 said, it's great you're going to an EP because you'll never be able to know exactly just by your symptoms.  All my husband's previous cardiologists were great at the "plumbing"--structure, vessels, all that...but when it came down to it they could not get a diagnosis for his rhythm issue.  Finally they did, only after meeting with an EP and getting on a 30 day event monitor, and a full 12 lead EKG.  

Hard to tell what it could be, but your symptoms sound a lot like my husband's, he has non sustained ventricle tachycardia.  He was diagnosed at 26 and has no structural defects.  He sometimes gets warm/flush after palpitations, especially if they come in doubles or triples, we can feel a pause in his pulse after skipped a beat...which the dr's assure is normal and fine...it's your heart doing what it's supposed to do to get back in rhythm and pump the blood through.  The dr's feel there's a bit that anxiety can contribute to this--like aggravate the frequency or severity of it, but our question to them is how can you not get worried or anxious?  They agree, and just give advice on how to ignore or distract yourself.

Many types of arrhythmias you can live a normal life with, maybe medication to help with symptoms if it's especially annoying and disruptive or could cause problems, or if it interferes with exercise, etc.  Knowing what it is will help you breathe easier a bit.  The thing he needed to hear most in the beginning was that he didn't cause it and it wasn't life threatening.  Electrical disturbances can happen to everyone, anytime, unfortunately...so don't feel like you're broken or did something wrong.

Do the best you can to just stay low key until your EP visit, then you'll start to get an action plan and a diagnosis.

Wish you all the best!

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

It can be disheartening when you go through all kinds of testing to still have no answers. On the flip side, it should be somewhat reassuring that the tests did rule out the possibility of structural defects.:)

I can relate to your fear and frustration with the annoyances of this and how it impacts your daily living. It's good that you have an appt scheduled with an EP to get to the root of this electrical issue. From the symptoms you describe, it could be just about anything. If I had to guess, it could be some form of SVT, but this is a guess since you don't have any rhythm strips to shed light on.

Hopefully, the EP Dr will give you an event monitor to try and capture this rhythm. When it's caught, red handed, he'll have a plan for treatment. Have you been given any kind of meds to treat these in the mean time?