Irregular heart beat

Posted by woody5 @woody5, Feb 10 8:05am

Hi, over the past couple of years my heart goes out of rhythm for no reason, I could be just say down doing nothing and it goes out of rhythm and increase to over 150 bpm. Been to hospital, blood tests all ok. Put on medication to reduce heart beat but heart still out of rhythm. It only seems to go back to normal given time. Doctors are at a loss as to what starts it in the first place. All suggestions and similar situations greatly appreciated.

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timheart1 | @timheart1 | Feb 14 10:34am

In reply to @sandwalk "I am on a blood thinner and a beta blocker now before I was diagnosed if..." + (show)

If you want to get off Eliquis, you can take Garligin 3x/day) as a blood thinner. I have used it for years as I didn't like Eliquis. It works great for me. 1/5 of the price., no side effects. Made w/ garloc and ginger, known blood thinners.

lindy9 | @lindy9 | Feb 14 11:24am

In reply to @sandwalk "I am on a blood thinner and a beta blocker now before I was diagnosed if..." + (show)

One of the side effects of eliquis is headache. Which is having you need to take tylenol. Also allergic reaction is a side effect. I am very sensitive to medications also, which is why I take none.

azogby | @azogby | Feb 14 2:44pm

In reply to @keysgull "My husband has been in AFib for two weeks. Texted RNP who gave advice re if..." + (show)

I am not a physician or nurse, but my husband is an ER doc of 28 yrs. I, too have afib. He has told me that sometimes people come into the ER saying, “My Apple watch says I am in afib! Do something!” And he says there is nothing that can be done for them. There’s no way to “break” afib. He also told me some people live in Afib all the time! So take this advice with a grain of salt given that it is second hand advice. But I would go by what your NP says. Best wishes.

tuckie | @tuckie | 6 days ago

In reply to @suerte "That was the same for me. My Afib was found almost my accident. I am asymptomatic..." + (show)

Hi
I had my thyroid out plus 5 years ago.

Low TSH shows HYPER not HYPO.
High TSH shows HYPO not Hyper.
You take Levothyroxine to bring down your TSH.
Sound like you have HYPO and high TSH.
For instance end of last year my blood pressure went low and I had consequences.
At the same time my taking 125mg levo.. daily was taking down my TSH from 1.7 to 1.3.
I made a call to take only 100mg levo daily early 5-7am and breakfast at least 1 hour later. Where I have my CCB Diltiazem.

I had merrily been taking 100 only for 3 weeks! Without checkin!

At the next blood test I showed TSH 9.1! So I had risen from TSH 1.3 - TSH 9.1 over 21 days. REALLY HYPO!
So immediately increased it back to 125mg first week.
Increased it to 150mg every other day for the next 2 weeks.
Next TEST.. TSH 2.0. So I decreased TSH from TSH 9.1 to TSH 2.0 by my changed regime.

Carefully remember high TSH over 4.2 you need MORE THYROXINE. You will learn.

With me I approximately go down 0.3 TSH for each adding 25mg on. How much thyroxine is dependent on your weight.
I lost 3-6kg and dropped thyroxine from 125mg and 4 times a week each month removed adding on 1 day each week.
Now it appears that I take a 100mg only dose 4 days in each month.

I changed to Synthroid because it comes in a baby proof container, easy to tip out from the 90 in each bottle, expiry date, condensation pellet in side. Much more reliable than the bulk buy that Chemists dish out. You need to rely on your dose to be exact from day to day.

Rules, empty stomach 4 hours, pop your pill, I take water and place pill/pills under tongue to dissolve it. Wait 1 hour. No soy milk or tofu. No milk or iron for 4 hours.

A blood test from way back reads TSH 1.9.

To do with asorption. I am deficient of B12. I take SOLGAR Gold Top B12 1000ug sublingual a nugget 5 days week. I WANT MY level as 700-800. Get your score.

I can have a test when I need it. Dr prints 6 copies of blood test. Your TSH and T3 are most important. 1 per month.

Hope this helps.

cherio JOY. (tuckie)

jc76 | @jc76 | 6 days ago

In reply to @azogby "I am not a physician or nurse, but my husband is an ER doc of 28..." + (show)

@azogby
I am not a medical professional. But I have had personal experience with AFIB. You said your husband said there is no way to break AFIB.

When I was in hospital in Clearmont Florida for a possible infection of my Pacemaker wires I developed AFIB. The cardiologists came in and said if it does not right itself on it's own we will do a cardioconversion.

It did correct itself on it's own. But can you asked your husband if I was told wrong in hospital that cardio-conversion could be done to stop the AFIB?

I get AFIB on and off for decades now. It is only temporary. I was told by my EP that the biggest threat of AFIB is strokes as can lead to clots. For many though the feeling is drastic and affects their quality of life to the point they are under tremendous stress and anxiety which is on it's own a serious health condition that needs medical attention.

jc76 | @jc76 | 6 days ago

@woody5
I want to make sure I state not a medical professional nor trying to give medical advice. But are you going to a medical facility with experienced cardiologist? You did not mentioned seeing a Electrophysiologist (EP). They deal with electrical issues of heart and arrythmias, PVCs, PACs, VTAC, etc.

They can do studies to see what is going on electrically with your heart. I had LBB and tons of PVCs. An ablation was done on my RV and it stopped PVCs. I now have PVCs on left side that were really getting bad.

I wanted to do another ablation on LV but EP wanted to try medication first. FYI my heart to can speek up time to time when my PVCs get really out of whack. I was put on Amidaorone several years ago for tachacardia episodes but wanted to get off as if very toxic. I did wean off of it but took several months.

With the increase in PVCs in LV I was put on a medication to help with heart rympthm. It is called Mexiletine. Unlike Amidarone it is not highly toxic but because it leaves the body quite quickly you have to take it 3 times a day 8 hours apart. But it drastically reduced my LV PVCs and calmed down my heart rympthm.

What is your regular HR? I can only give you my experience with heart rympthm problems but from my expereience I would find a good electrophysiologist to see what is going on electrically with your heart to see what is causing the heart going into high rate you are feeling.

They probably (just my experience) will do ECG (you probably have had many) and a holter monitor. The holter monitor will monitor the electrical signals in your heart to help determine what is causing the high pulse rate.

For me the holter monitor found I had PVCs coming from 3 different area of my LV. Thus medicaion to help keep heart in rympthm and for the medical worked.

j9gilmour | @j9gilmour | 6 days ago

In reply to @gloaming "You need to purchase a Kardia Mobile, a slim card-like pad that you put fingers on..." + (show)

@gloaming

You need to purchase a Kardia Mobile, a slim card-like pad that you put fingers on when you know or suspect that you are having an arrhythmia...which is what you are experiencing.

Patients report 'palpitation's to their doctors, or their doctors ask if you are having 'palpitations.' Palpitations are the sensation when a heart's rhythm is off, not a formal diagnosis. So, the doctors want to know what it feels like, and then they'll usually order a Holter monitor to be worn by you for 16-100 hours or so, sometimes more if the arrhythmia happens seldom.

You might have what is known as an SVT, or supra-ventricular tachycardia. This means 'above the ventricle extraordinarily high heart rate.' The two smaller pumps high on the heart, the two 'atria', are beating at two or three times the the rate, or faster, than the large ventricles below them. This is abnormal.

SVTs are common as we age. In fact, the current best guess in the research suggests that up to 40% of all living humans today will develop a cardiac arrhythmia in the future. Wow!! And the trends at hospitals are certainly supporting this contention.

There are other arrhythmias, and you should have a formal assessment to eliminate them as what is actually going on. A particularly dangerous one is VT, or ventricular tachycardia. Chances are very low that you have that because you have been experiencing your arrhythmia for several years now. We can all but rule that out.

You should consult a good, and I do mean a GOOD, cardiologist and ask for a formal assessment for cardiac arrhythmia, and I bet what you have is either PACs or AF, premature atrial complexes or atrial fibrillation. But they can be treated, and they SHOULD be treated early if possible. You will need an echocardiogram, possibly a stress test to determine if you have ischemia (poor oxygen supply to the heart and organs), and possibly an angiogram where they put you on your back, maybe sedate you, and slide a very thin fiber/tube up your arm and into your heart to be used like a tiny camera. I had that done...no big deal, honestly.

We can offer more information as we develop the conversation, but I don't want to load you up too much at first. Maybe you have other information you'd be willing to share, or you have other questions?

Jump to this post

I use a Kardia device and find it very helpful both for my own information and for my health care providers. At fist there was an air of disbelief when i said my HR goes as high as 240+ but with the Kardia recordings to verify i was taken seriously. I had an ablation done just over a year ago and was symptom free for a few months. More frequent recurrences happening again.

aard | @aard | 6 days ago

Often the first ablation people have doesn't quite take care of the problem (somewhere around 15-20%). Many people require a second ablation, or in my case, I needed to have a repair to my mitral valve. Going on 10 months since my mitral valve repair and have had only a couple A-fib episodes lasting no more than 30 seconds. Check back with your electro-physiologist (EP).

As an aside, I wish people would spell out the first time they use a medical term rather than throwing out acronyms as if everyone knew what they were.

woody5 | @woody5 | 6 days ago

In reply to @jc76 "@woody5 I want to make sure I state not a medical professional nor trying to give..." + (show)

My normal HR with my meds is 65-75. I've seen various doctors when I've gone in, not sure if any were actually specialists in the heart area. I just assumed they had all the relevant knowledge needed.

otiswinston | @otiswinston | 5 days ago

In reply to @gloaming "You need to purchase a Kardia Mobile, a slim card-like pad that you put fingers on..." + (show)

@gloaming

You need to purchase a Kardia Mobile, a slim card-like pad that you put fingers on when you know or suspect that you are having an arrhythmia...which is what you are experiencing.

Jump to this post

I second the suggestion to get a Kardiamobile device. Inexpensive and very helpful in keeping a record of the frequency and intensity of your heart rhythm. I use mine every time I have an AFIB episode. I opted for their optional monthly payment program which gives me a monthly report of my recordings; I print out the report and bring a copy with me when I see my cardiologist. He typically is very rushed but when he asked “how have you been?” I hand him the print out so he can see the frequency and intensity data. So much better than me saying”well, I still have episodes quite often” which doesn’t really tell him anything. I also have a very good Garmin watch which measures my heart rate but it does NOT detect AFIB - it does give me a clue that I’m out of rhythm as the watch heart rate is generally up a bit. All this to say, the advice to get a Kardiamobile device is very sound in my opinion.

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