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How do you live with SVT

Posted by mscoleman @mscoleman, Jan 25 12:08am

Looking to see how others handle living with SVT. I was diagnosed with SVT a few months ago after wearing a heart monitor for a month. This was after dealing with the symptoms for about 4 months. I kept getting healthcare personnel telling me it was probably anxiety even when I told them it wasn't. I wish it had been anxiety vs this. Started metoprolol but it crashed my heart rate instead to 40. Now I only take it as needed for prolonged increased rate. I saw an EP and I'm considering ablation and wanted to know if anyone has had it done and if it worked. I'm at my wits end. My life is revolving around this. Afraid to drive, afraid to be alone. The episodes come out of nowhere where and mostly when I'm at rest and asleep and of course work. My life has changed and not for the better. I was outgoing. Any answers for me. Sorry about the long story. Thanks in advance.

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bb03 | @bb03 | 1 hour ago
In reply to @gloaming "@bb03 Great description of the adenosine administration. I had it done only once, but the kind..." + (show)
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@bb03 Great description of the adenosine administration. I had it done only once, but the kind nurse explained that it was going to feel awful....for about ten whole seconds....and to just bear with them for that long. Exactly what happened. They said it was coming, and then I felt like my whole body was sinking into the floor and the room closed in on me. I knew what to expect....sort of...and believed them, and sure enough it was over in seconds. Meanwhile, the internist pointed to the monitor over my shoulder and said to everyone looking on, 'See? It's flutter, not AF.' The adenosine, in my case. was meant to stretch out the graphic depiction on the monitor and show more discretely the rhythm. They saw the jagged sawtooth waveform between the QRS complexes which indicate a rapidly fluttering left atrium.

So, call it 'doom', 'dread', foreboding, falling through the floor, the walls closing in on you, everything going dark...it lasts literally 7-12 seconds, depending on how quickly your system can clear it, and it will often, not always, serve its intended purpose.

Incidentally, electrophysiologists routinely use both adenosine and isoproterenol to 'challenge' the patient's heart before they wheel an ablated heart patient out of the cath lab. After all the tissues that need to be ablated have had that done to them, it still makes sense to check, to verify, that they have done a complete ablation before letting the patient begin to recover and to regain consciousness. If one, or both, of those two drugs makes the heart lurch back into arrhythmia, the team knows they have more work to do.

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That’s right. You must have a medical background like me. Also you were fortunate to have such a nurse. I just had some young ER Dr and some beefed up EMT’S showing there biceps in tight T Shirts
all around me ready to pounce on me if my heart didn’t convert back to normal sinus rhythm. They also stuck me 4 times and I’m not an hard stick but they were to much in a rush! Experience and caring make a world of difference in patient care and outcomes. I only learned that when I was older and wiser and became a patient instead of a caregiver. All said I thank God for ablations.

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