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1618878 tn?1299112502

i would appreciate a response from a cardiologist! :)

hi! i am a 25 yr-old female and recently went to the dr. because i thought i was diabetic or anemic, because i'm always dizzy and tired.  it is so extreme that after i work a full day i just sit on the couch all night and i never want to do anything on weekends.  the dr. said my heart sounded abnormal so he ran an EKG and i had a chest x-ray done.  he then referred me to the cardiologist and i had an echocardiogram done.  the echo showed extra beats so i wore a holter monitor for 24 hours. results: my heart had over a thousand EXTRA beats in one day, and my pulse would go from 60, to 160, in one second without any physical activity.  he put me on atenalol (a beta blocker) to hopefully "fix" the irregular heartbeat.  my blood pressure has been running 90/60 on average and i have been on atenalol for 4 days.  i still don't feel right though.  i'm only taking 1/4 of a 25mg pill and if this medication does not work in one month he said i will need some operation to have some of the electrical pathways in my heart "burned."  i guess i was born with too many of them...anyway, if any of you are experiencing any symptoms like i was/am, go in and see your doctor; the last thing i had ever imagined was that i would have any heart problems, especially since i am a healthy, thin, 25-yr old!  oh, and all of my bloodwork was completely normal (at first they thought it might just be my thyroid or something).  i had to quit exercising about 6 months ago because it made me feel worse and i also made the decision to quit drinking about 2 months ago because my hangovers were about 100 times worse than my friends.

i never like to bombard dr's with questions, so, would a cardiologist please tell me if these extra electrical pathways are pretty rare? also, why do you think i only started noticing all of these symptoms in the last 6 months or so?  the chest pain and shortness of breath only started about 2 months ago, whereas the fatigue and dizziness has been going on for a lot longer. i hope i don't have to worry about heart problems for the rest of my life! :(


This discussion is related to Flutter in chest and lightheadedness.
4 Responses
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1137980 tn?1281285446
First off i personally would never go to any doctor that "burned" the electrical pathways...that procedure has pretty much become antiquated in the world of cardiac medicine...docs now either use cryo or freezing or RF correction or radio frequency waves.  Burning the area sets you up for a fail because scar tissue builds up where they zap your heart and causes its own re routing of the electrical where you already have an issue with the misfiring.  It very very normal for your blood pressure to drop while on beta blockers because that is a part of the antenelols job...i too am on the same med and take a low dose each morning.  If your situation is that the incidents seem to be getting closer and closer or progressive then you need to have this taken care of.  I had a pretty extreme case of rhythm issues and opted for the ablation four years ago and its pretty much been smooth sailing since.  A conventional ablation where they simply run the wire thru the vein in your groin and into the heart is not typical heart surgery as you would think...it generally takes anywhere from 45 minutes forward, you can return to work within a couple of days and the recovery isn't much and usually with the ablations you feel pretty much back to normal physically within 72 hours meaning the the worst of it is the soreness in the groin area altho you may get some random episodes of rhythm issues for a few months after the procedure as your heart settles down.  Try to remember that the human heart beats over 100,000 times in a 24 hour period so its a little easier to put things into perspective as to the % of time that you are having issues.  And like the above posters have said...this is a community site and generally cardiac docs do not post on this site but i do understand that they do pop in from time to time to monitor everything.  Your best bet is to scroll to the top of your screen and click back onto forums and re post on the "Ask a Doctor" forum that Medhelp offers.  Good luck with this and don't be afraid...ablations to me are easier then a root canal with my dentist!
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Avatar universal
When I was 19 years old, on night, after taking one of those government “flu shots”, my heart jumped out of rhythm.  I went to sleep around 11:00pm and woke up around 10:00am the next day (Saturday).  My heart was still out of rhythm and I did not feel right, so I went to see a friend’s father who was a doctor.

He checked my pulse and got 88 beats per minute but kind of irregular and my skin was sweaty.  He took me to the ER where he worked and the EKG measured a heart rate of 290 beats per minute.  You see, if one has a heart rate of 300 beats per minute that is 5 beats per second.  Just try to count that fast . . . cannot be done with accuracy.  A common mistake that at least 4 doctors, some heart specialists, would make during my life.

In any event, back to the 298 bpm heart rate.  They cardioverted me, which converted my heart rhythm to a normal 70 bpm and put me in ICU because they did not know what had happened.  Of course they suspected drugs but finally determined that I had an accessory pathway (electrical short circuit between the atriums and the ventricles) . . . a condition called WPW after the three doctors that discovered the abnormality.

Six years later, while taking a test in college, it happened again.  I finished the test and when to see the schools doctor.  I told him I had WPW and that heart rate could be as high as 300 bpm.  He grabbed by wrist to count my pulse.  I asked him what he was doing and he said he was taking my pulse.  I asked him how fast he could count but he did not seem to understand and counted 90. But he was concerned enough to call a taxi (I kid you not) to take me to a heart specialist.  Walking was kind of difficult at this point but as I was lighted headed but I did it.  I walked into the heart specialists and they gave me a form to fill out.  While filling out this form I almost passed out several times.  I finished the forms and they told me to take a seat.  I looked and decided I could not wait that long and walked back to the nurse and told her my heart rate was messed up and someone needed to shock me and get my heart rate back down.  She looked at me strange and started to take my pulse.  She came up with 80 something and took my weight.  For some reason she decided to hook me up to a EKG and I remember hearing the pen going crazy and her eyes lighting up in shock.

They drove me to the ER and cardioverted me and I was normal again.  After a few visits he put me on a beta blocker.  I took them for a while but did not like the side effects so I quite.  Remember, I was otherwise athletic and very healthy and the beta blockers just seem to slow me down.  

Two years later, as a senior, it happened again.  This time I was studying.  I drove myself to the ER where my heart doctor had taken me and told them that my heart rate was between 250 and 300 bpm, told them not to try to count my pulse, and that all I needed was to be cardioverted.  They looked at me kind of crazy but took me straight back to a treatment room and hooked me to a EKG.  The ER doctor when into shock and I had to tell him to calm down, that this has happened before, and that I would let him know when to start worrying.  LOL.  He calmed down and they called my heart specialists.  They cardioverted me again and all was fine.

This time, however, I decided I had played with fire long enough and we made arrangements to correct the issue through surgery. Back then, the surgery was very serious and they had to open one’s chest to gain access to the heart and cut the accessary pathway.  Restated, the fix was simple, getting to the fix was very difficult.  Today, I understand they can do the same thing without opening the chest.

We scheduled the surgery to occur during Thanksgiving break so I would not miss that much school. Anyway, the weekend before my surgery, I went home to my parents so they could take me to the hospital.  That night my heart jumped out of rhythm again. I went to a local ER, that was notorious for killing people, and they tried to put me to sleep using valium and/or some other type sedative.  They gave me enough to put the entire emergency room asleep but I suppose my adrenaline machine was working overtime so I would not go to sleep. So they had to caridovert me while I was awake.  Not as painful as I thought it would be; not like a shock at all, like getting hit in the chest very hard.  They had to shock me twice then I was normal again, except, now they did not want me to go to sleep as they were afraid I would stoop breathing.

Anyway, I had the surgery and all went well. That was 25 years ago. I graduated from college and never looked back.  I still have abnormal heart rhythms at times, and skipped beats, but nothing like before.  I have not been to the doctor in 20 years now and I hope I die before I ever see another doctor.

The point of the story is this.  Don’t sweat a few skipped heart beats.  You will live through them.  That said, I would look for the cause, just do not worry too much about it.  Additionally, I now believe I know what caused by episodes and what causes my heart to skip beats today . . .  too much Caffeine.  Back off the Caffeine and see if your skipped heart beats go away.  If so, consider Caffeine (and other stimulates) a possible cause of your issues.
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996946 tn?1503249112
Hi...I know it's frustrating.  It could be SVT, A-fib, NSVT of any number of arrhythmias.  Alcohol, Smoking, Caffeine, Ephedrine in cold/allergy meds, certain herbs and many, many other things can be triggers for these conditions.  The problem is, the longer you are afflicted by "it" the more likely you will have it long-term.  It is progressive. You need to read everything you can about arrhythmias and their triggers.  There are anti-arrhythmics that can help for a long time but eventually they will stop working.  An ablation is an option but I certainly wouldn't rush into it. Your issue could still be your thyroid...have you had your Free T-3 checked?  Or what about Birth control pills, devices or shots?  Any major changes 6 months ago....even emotional ones? I have a-fib and it was started by taking a certain diet pill back in the late 90's....and I've been dealing with it ever since.  The heart learns those new aberrant pathways and then it's hard to keep it on the "right" pathway.
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1465650 tn?1316231160
I am not a cardiologist. If you want a reply from a cardiologist then you should post in the doctors forum. This forum is mainly for patients, where we share our experiences.

One thing I can tell you is that this isn't rare, it is more than likely called SVT (Supraventricular tachycardia)
I am 36 years old and my symptoms started 1½ years ago and were just like yours. I was diagnosed with SVT and had a cardiac ablation done in October last year.
If you want to know more about my experiences then please let me know. There are lots of people in here with the same experiences.
Take care
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