Holter Moniters

[CharityP]

I wore a holter monitor last Friday, for 24 hours.  I dropped it off at my EP's office on Monday morning.  My EP was going to be out of the office until Thursday (Today).  I am wearing it for episodes of a racing heart....trying to determine if SVT or IST.  While wearing the monitor my heart rate did it's usual crazy racing.  My question is....when you drop a holter off, how soon do you think it's looked at?  They could not get me in for a follow up until Dec 11th!!!!  But I can't wait that long to know what is going on. Do you think my holter has been looked at, and if it were something serious, someone would contact me, or do you think it won't be looked at until my appt on Dec 12th?  
I'm wondering if I should call them, but I don't want to be a pest.  I just want to know that someone has looked at it. It's been almost a week.

Thanks,
Charity

[anacyde]

They look at it within a day or two usually.  If there is something of concern, they will call you long before your December 11th appointment.  No news is typically good news :)

[kitcurious]

Cardizem can cause fluid retention.  My cardiologists very strongly insists on treating my tachy so I don't develop a cardiomyopathy and I've treid more than one beta blocker ( too exhausting) and he gave me diltiazem ( cardizem) last time and I took one and could not void. Didn't take another. I don't notice my heart rate much, high rate found on routine exams and was sent to cardio. As I understand it, the chances of getting a cardiomyopathy are not that high and I am willing to risk it. Besides since getting more exercise and getting my thyroid under treatment my rate is lower than it used to be sometimes.  I think stabilzing thyroid problem  may be part of,  part of, if not the entire problem.  
He's doing a Holter in 2 weeks to see how the med is helping, so I have to call his office and tell him I stopped taking it.I am a terrible patient, I know .

[sugarpea013]

OUCH poor girl! Clavicle fractures are no fun!

Yeah I don't even have asthma and the bb I was on made my get wheezy and it was difficult to take a deep breath. I took cardizem and it did absolutely nothing for me. I hope you have better results!

[CharityP]

Oh yes, I agree with you about the medication and the side effects...it was awful!  But, I was taking a Beta Blocker and the EP took me off of it because I have asthma and he said he'd probably put me on Cardizem (a calcium channel blocker) and I guess I was hoping it wouldn't have bad side effects.  Speaking of working out...thanks for reminding me that I have not done my walking today. :)  I had to get up early and take my dr to an orthopedic dr...on top of all I've been dealing with, my daughter was playing around on our pontoon boat on Monday afternoon and fell off of it, onto the cement!  We were in the ER with her all Monday evening.  After seeing the ortho today, we find out she has a fracture in her clavicle (collarbone)...good news is that it will heal nicely on it's own with no cast or surgery or anything. She just needs to limit her activities and watch what she does with her right arm/shoulder area for 6 weeks.  Ya...talk about STRESS...that was a pretty scary moment whens she fell.  

[sugarpea013]

Well hooray for no SVT, although sometimes I wonder if I'd rather have SVT and have it ablated and be done with it...Well IST isn't a death sentance, just a life style change. I think you should keep up what you are doing, staying hydrated well rested and working out. You can beat this, I know you can.

In my opinion, the meds aren't that great. Like I told you, I took them for almost 3 weeks and then stopped. They have some pretty crummy side effects, after a while I was like "man do I want my heart to beat fast sometimes or do I want to feel heavy and dizzy and tired all the time?!"

[CharityP]

Okay, someone just called me.  This guy said my holter showed no SVT, only Sinus tachycardia.  He also said the dr saw my strips and said to keep my scheduled appt.....Dec 11th!  He did see if he could move it up for me, but my dr had NO openings until then. He said they would put me on a cancellation list.  My symptoms were very bad when I wore the holter. Even though I am relieved that the Dr looked at it and only sees Sinus Tachy, I also have trouble with the idea of having me wait and not wanting to prescribe meds now....but then again, I'm not the doctor. ;)  This guy did say if my symptoms continue to bother me or get worse, I can call the triage nurse at their office. He gave me the extension for that.  Wonder what she will do?  
Thanks ladies!  I love having a place I can come to for support!

[sugarpea013]

great! definately keep me posted. :)

[CharityP]

Thanks!  I did decide to call after I wrote the message on here.  Of course I had to leave a voicemail. I'll let you know if I hear anything back today.  I told them that my follow up is not until Dec 11th and that I would either like to see if it's at all possible to get that moved up and/or if the Doctor still wants to put me on medication (he told me this is probably what will happen)  then can he please call in a prescription for me to get started on before my follow up.  
Will let you know what they say. :)

Charity

[sugarpea013]

hey there! Someone looks at the findings right away. They look for any major red flag and if they don't see anything worrisome then they send it on to be read by the cardiologist/EP. I'm pretty sure you would have found out by now if you had anything very bad, as if SVT or IST weren't terrifying!
But I agree, Dec 11th is a long time to wait! Tomorrow will be one week...if I were in your shoes I would call just to try and get some peace of mind.

:-)

[momof03]

I wore a monitor on Monday, dropped off tuesday and got a phone call that afternoon with the results.  The nurse that removed the monitor from me said it takes about 25 minutes to download the info from the holter and then the doctor looks at it.  That was how mine went anyway :)