PVC's, SVT, ETC

[Hwilson]

Alright, so here's my background. I'm 24, pretty healthy, exercise 4-5 times a week, eat decent, non smoker, social drinker, mother of a 4 year old. 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with SVT via an EKG at my Dr.'s office. I was there for a completely different reason so being sent to the ER with a fast heart rate was quite a shock for me. Echo was normal, blood work normal, but it still took 2 days to get my HR to normal. I wasn't in SVT any more once I reached the hospital, just tachycardia from nerves I believe. Anyway, I was put on Coreg, twice a day. 6 or 7 months later, I started getting skipped beats, lots of skipped beats. I went to the Dr, they changed my meds, but the beats didn't go away. I don't know how many times i had to go back to the Dr and complain before they did a holter. I just had my holter done in March of 2010 and it showed lots of short lived SVT, (said my HR would jump up to 160+ for 4 seconds before going back to normal but didn't say how often) lots of PVC's, and 1 episode of V-tach but my dr. disregarded the V-tach and said he thought it was a mistake b/c my heart is healthy. Well, I was doing pretty good living with these problems. But back in July, I was at work and I had felt dizzy all morning. My HR seemed to be stable to the touch though. Well, I set down on a break and all of a sudden, everything started fading. I grabbed my wrist to check my pulse and felt one beat, then nothing for several seconds. I panicked and my HR jumped up to 135. I went back to my Dr, had another Echo, stress test, countless EKG's, everything done and everything came back completely normal. Well, I am now more paranoid than ever. I am currently on a 21 day event monitor and in the last 2 hours, it has automatically found something 5 different times, when I felt nothing at all, which scares me even more. My doctor didn't even want to do the event monitor, I had to request it. He told me I was healthy and to come back in a year. I am scared to death. I live every day in fear that I'm going to die. I'm scared to do anything too physical, though i have made myself zumba 4 times a week. I am home alone a lot with my daughter while my husband works and every day I spend thinking I'm going to collapse. No one else understands how I feel. Every one thinks since the doc said I couldn't die from this, that I should be fine but it's scary. An ablation is an option, though my doctor didn't act like it was neccessary. At the time, I didn't want to do one either but now i'm reconsidering.  My doctor says in a healthy, normal heart, VT doesn't kill you b/c it doesn't exist but I am so scared! Randomly, I get these weird feelings of a fast heart rate, then skipped beats, and then fast heart rate, and then pauses, etc for a short 10-20 second run and they terrify me. I can't explain them any other way. I guess I'm just asking for other people's stories so I don't feel so alone. No one else understands and I just feel so lonesome and isolated. I am truly not enjoying life like I should. :-(

[Mom2four85]

sorry if part of that doesn't make sense...I have a migraine headache and my thoughts are jumbled :P and didn't make sense to me after reading it again; please pm me if you have any questions =)

[Mom2four85]

I think anyone here can relate; most of us have gone through some type of arrhythmia or we wouldn't be here.  Things your doctor says raises red flags for me so much; sounds like part of what I've gone through since June 2009.  This isn't to scare you, but to raise awareness things can happen.

It's really important to find what is triggering yours and if it's not something environmental such as caffeine, anxiety, stress, etc they need to do blood work to see how your levels are - sometimes it's as simple as that and something is slightly off there.

I'm sorry to say ablation may not be the "cure" you think it will if you have do have VT. It is very difficult to ablate VT and many of us with it go through the EPS and then still have it and have to have another ablation; I was quoted at 95% success rate; but held off on another ablation.

Your doctor is incorrect...VT CAN kill you in a healthy heart; but it is extremely rare - ask if he's heard of the cardiologist's worst nightmare http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1475953/

I had an echo in July 2009 told my heart was structurally normal; just had an echo in March 2011 and was told not much had changed since that echo and everything was "normal".  Here's some info on vt/vtach http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/266305/Tachycardia--VT--Vtach?personal_page_id=861727

I went through through an EP Study and ablation as well as cardiac MRI, cardiac cath and a bunch of other tests; my cardiac cath showed my heart is enlarged and my EF is low 40% and I had developed Cardiomyopathy - which is contradictory to both echo's and MRI.

I was diagnosed with Polymorphic VT per my EPS; no known cause and they still consider my heart "normal" I had to have a pacemaker/icd implanted and in my "normal" heart I have NSVT runs about every other day; and quite a few times where my ICD converts my VT runs when it's getting ready to go into sustained VT.

Is there any way you can get a 2nd opinion? Just keep this in mind to get a copy of all tests to take to the dr if you do decide to seek another opinion.  Yours may not be anything similar to mine; but you may want to consult another doctor just to compare what each have to say.

[Elli126]

Oh Sister! So many of us here are in the same boat, especially in the beginning when its all new. I can't tell you how many times I was in the ER convinced I would die! I have PVCs,PACs and PSVT for which I have been converted a half dozen times...my point is its been more than 20 years and I'm still here. Take everyones advice, stay positive occupy your mind with other things ( I know easier said than done ) and keep coming here for support. Don't get me wrong-every time it happens I still get scared, probably always will but I get the support from here ( sometimes family just doesn't get it ) and keep on going. Blessings and hang in there!

[Hwilson]

Thank you all for your replies! I am actually going to see an EP tomorrow and they think he will set me up with an EP study. My 3 week holter showed sinus arrythmia, sinus tachycardia, and lots and lots of pvcs. So hopefully I'm on the road to being fixed. I agree, I think the worry is worse than the actual problem. I spend every day thinking I'm going to die. I stay dizzy and just generally feel bad. My poor husband is going crazy with all my complaints and phone calls to his work begging him to come home. I try to be positive. My heart is healthy other wise, just has a mind of it's own and if it was anything that serious, the doctor wouldn't have let me leave. I appreciate all the replies though. They mean so much to me. It makes me feel less doomed to have people in the same boat. Plus it's nice and comforting to have someone to relate to. God Bless and I wish you all the best!

[ireneo]

I think I'd get another doctor's opinion. I'm not thrilled with that doctor saying " VT doesn't kill you b/c it doesn't exist." It does exist but short bursts of VT in a structurally normal heart are not likely to progress to anything dangerous.

I've had arrhythmias all my life (I'm now 58) and I'm one of those people that have learned to live with them. I used to have long episodes of atrial tachy, up to almost 200 bpm, lasting 30-45 minutes. Not fun. Then a doctor recommended an ablation to correct it. I've actually had 3 ablations because my heart's a bit of a mess electrically speaking. Now I'm greatly improved but experience similar episodes like yours. I have plenty of ectopics (skipped beats) each day. Some days I have several short tachy bursts, usually less than a minute, occasionally up to 15 minutes. And some days my heart can't make up its mind what it wants to do; it's a jumble of skips, tachys and normal. But I haven't died yet. More recently I've had times where I got very light headed, checked my pulse and it seemed to drop to half speed. Then it kicks back into normal. I have no idea what's going on there.

But even before my ablations, I worked, gave birth to 3 kids and raised them, stayed active. So please don't get discouraged. Even now with my skippy dippy heart, I work with wildlife, am able to chase injured eagles, lift 45 lb beavers and generally be on the go.
Again, I'd recommend talking to another cardiologist. In the meantime, do try to forge ahead and stay active and relaxed. Stress only adds to the arrhythmias.

[Jerry_NJ]

Sorry you haven't gotten some experienced help.  I know I have read similar posts from others and I recall the replies being supportive in one way or another.  I think most of the time the replies have said the person posting has just learned to live with the problem.  This isn't the best solution, maybe an ablation is, but only if you have EP cardiologist telling you it offers a good chance of improvement, say 80% or better in my "book".  Beyond that and medication it can be a mental battle:  stay positive, optimistic and unafraid bolstered by the fact you have had the medical attention that is available.  Sadly, some of these heart problems are beyond the current state of medial science to cure.

I suffer from permanent atrial fibrillation, and I have had a lot of heat doctor attention and medicines.  I am lucky that the symptoms are not much worse than just being as old as I am, i.e., some of the symptoms my simply be my age or are combined/aggravated by my age.  In any case I can lead a near-normal life.  I was lucky not to have this problem until I was in my late 50s, and was able to get relief with until I was in my mid-60s.  But, whatever one's age is, some heart rhythm problems exist that are not life threatening and are not responsive to cures efforts.  Hope this isn't a downer, I mean to say be strong and positive/optimistic and at least this post will bump your post to the top of the list and this may get you better help than I have offered.