Connect
PSVT Update (for science and researchers)
I have no question. I am just a tireless data collector about my PSVT and I have posted numerous times here about my long journey. Member Gloaming and others have provided invaluable information to me and to my piece of mind. In my "UNIQUE" case, I am living with my PSVT. I say "unique" because I am not recommending my actions to anyone. I am thinking that a researcher can access all of our statements here one day and publish a very interesting complete SVT acticle in some journal. All that being said, in addition to all the other posts I have made, I am attaching my currect two graphs in this post. A quick summary: I have had PSVT for over twenty years. I choose to live with it. I can control it with vagus pressure. I have a great internist and a great cardiologist waiting for me to medicate or ablate but I refuse. The reason is they keep saying my condition is "BENIGN." The only reason they give me to ablate or medicate is to relieve my anxiety. They have given me every test in the book, several times. I am amused by my condition and choose to examine it closely as long as they say I can and as long as I have no worry. Ps - the first graph shows the episodes, the date they occurred and the heart bpm max. The second graph shows episodes per month. Yes, August 2025 was way higher....
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Heart Rhythm Conditions Support Group.
Connect
Gloaming: Thank you.
In good faith, I asked the moderator to let us start fresh:
“” Moderator: Please note that Gloaming has made a nice gesture and I also may have said too much . Can you please erase all our back-and-forth comments that follow my original post? In that way the post thread can start fresh? Thank you.””
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
1 ReactionPerhaps a medical prescription for more vacations would be recommended? It does appear to me that, even though I am 77, the daily life mundane aggravations influence my PSVT. My recent vacation eliminated all stress and PSVT vanished! Ha.
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
1 ReactionI've lived with PSVT for over 40 years, since I was 30. For a while I was keeping track of when I'd have an episode & how long it took me to "reset" the rhythm with various vagus-related maneuvers. During most of those years, I'd have an episode at most two or three times a year; sometimes a couple years would go by with no episodes. In recent years, it seemed my heart could more easily, or more often, start a PSVT episode, then just as easily drop back out. So that was different, but I was still pretty confident of my ability to control it and didn't give it a lot of thought. About a year ago, during an extra-stressful period, I was awakened by my heart pounding double-time. I'd never had PSVT while sleeping before, and I'd never had a "pounding" PSVT before. Anyway, I couldn't slow it down, went to the ER, got some adenosine or cardizem, and that was that. But, I was finally convinced to try some medication and was prescribed metoprolol.
The metoprolol "calmed" my heart, so I didn't get the quick starting & stopping of PSVT episodes, which was nice. The down side though was it seemed like once an episode did start, it was "locked in" and not going to respond to any efforts to reset it. So, over a period of about six months, I made two more trips to the ER for adenosine or cardizem! Easy enough to do, but I didn't want to keep doing it. I read something online about how metoprolol increases the vagal "tone" or activity level (thus that "calming" feeling I had), but in doing so, it raises the threshold of vagal maneuvering required to reset an episode once it starts. Something like that. Anyway, I wondered if there was some other medication that would help in some way other than by increasing the vagal activity level, and asked my cardiologist about that. He suggested continuing with the metoprolol and asked if I would be comfortable with, if an episode started, taking an inderal to help with the vagal maneuvers. I said yes, I would give that a try, and he gave me a prescription for that. (Meanwhile, I also cut out caffeine -- no coffee, no diet coke, no black tea -- and had already cut out alcohol, another sometimes-trigger for me.)
So that's where I am. So far, so good. I've also learned a new approach -- "anticipating" a possible episode, usually based on a quick beat or two that feels like my heart is "thinking" about launching into an episode, and taking an inderal then. No new episodes yet, but it's only been three months. So we'll see!