sudden onset of tachycardia

[chasingpavement]

I am a normally healthy 34 year female with chronic asthma. About 5 days ago I came down with the flu, I recovered from the flu but went to my PCP on Friday becasue I was having chest pain, fatigued, and unable to take deep breaths, although no wheezing. My blood pressure was elevated to 130/76 (normally it runs 90/60). My resting heart rate is 106 and rises to 114 when speaking. My PCP put me on a 9 day prednisone taper (starting at 60mg) and is hoping that the tachycardia will subside when I am feeling better. My PCP also told me to rest as much as possible. My PCP did not seem really worried, but the wait and see what happens makes me worry.

I have never smoked, nor drink alcohol, rarely drink caffine, never done any illegal drugs, eat healthy the majority of the time, my height is 5"5, and my weight fluctuates from 133-137lbs, 4-6 hours of intense cardio every week, and lift weights regularly.

Does this seem like the right treatment and is there any advice you can recommend on what I can do to help the situation? Do you think the tachycardia will just go away?

Thank you for your time.

[stutterheart]

Agreed. If it is 115 sustained with no jumps or runaway strands of 200, then I don't see anything to even think about being worried about. 99% sure that you have what is called inapropriate sinus tachycardia which basically means your heart is in sinus rhythm but is pacing faster than it needs to. Many people get this for weeks on end when they have a virus, are just a bit stressed or anything else that might throw off the fragile chemical balance of the heart. Something is 'off' as evidenced by your elevated blood pressure but there's nothing to make me think that it's something to think twice about.
Prednisone was almost certainly not even prescribed for your heart as it is a steriod focused on imunosuppression and not on anything related to heart function. You could talk to your doctor about  a beta blocker that will bring down your rate and blood pressure.
The most serious effect of sinus tachycardia is that over 20 years or so, your heart will have worked a bit harder than it should have and could potentially enlarge as a result. Also, your vascular system is under more stress with sustained high rates and high pressure. But in your case it seems extremely slight.

[itdood]

well there's all sorts of reasons to tach.  Your's does not sound worrisome at all.  It can take 2+ weeks to fully reocver from actual influenza.  It's nasty stuff.  Your body is still dealing with it.  Give it some time.