SVT - Super Ventricular Tachycardia
Brenda5
Member Posts: 2,423 ✭
Sorry I have been off the forum for a few days but I have been in hospital. I chucked a wobbly yesterday and they finally let me go home. I hate hospitals bigtime!
On Friday morning it was a beautiful morning with a gentle high tide so I made a coffee, put it in the kayak and went fishing for two hours. Mistake number one- I hadnt had breakfast yet and my coffee is black with no sugar so my blood sugar would have been low.
I caught one fish, a queen fish which I bought home and put in the fridge.
Dragging the kayak up the dune, one of the wheels had locked under it, unbeknownst to me and I ended up dragging it under duress. By the time I got across the road and home my heart was racing and sweat was pouring out of me and I was getting breathless. I sat on the stairs for a while (of course no one was home yet), then got up and washed down my yak, fixed the wheel, sat on the steps again. Then I made it upstairs and sat on the lounge chair for a while until I got my breath back and had a shower and got myself cleaned up and layed down on the bed. Hubby got home about an hour later but my heart was still pounding an hour later so I said we'd better go in to emergency and see whats up, so in we went.
Not a carpark available near the hospital and my mere male man parked across the road in the cancer care carpark but instead of dropping me off at emergency, I had to walk from across the road. It was a slow walk I tell you. Hubby sort of looked at me funny like, why are you walking so slow. You gotta wonder about men sometimes lol.
Anyway we finally got to emergency and the nurse put me on a monitor and it went off with alarms and wouldnt shut up so I went in to ER. My heart rate was about as fast as a babies at 168. After about an hour in there on the monitor it still wasnt stopping so the vultures starting devising ways to slow it down or actually stop it. They stuck the shock stickers to my body and thought they might inject me with Adenosine (which stops your heart and they explained I will be fightened beyond belief with a feeling of impending doom) and they said we will hold your hand and it only lasts a few seconds. So they got me all terrified of that and then a Swedish Doctor came in and looked at the monitor and said its only a heart flutter and no need for all of that. She gave me half of a tiny Metoprolol beta blocker and my heard rate started dropping back down to 68. Easy as it was so I am not sure why the other doctors and nurses were getting ready with paddles and impending doom injections.
The hospital was full so I was parked in a cubicle until about 11 that night until a bed became available. I saw and heard two lots of car accident patients come in which brought my heart rate up again but it settled back down after that by itself. I was wheeled to a private room with no one to talk to and with door alarms, nurse station alarms and bells going off all night so I got aboutt 2 hours sleep. I hate being inside and was feeling pretty low on Saturday morning and when the doctor said to stay until Sunday I went for him bigtime. I said and then what, I stay till Monday until the regular resident doctor comes to finally release me and in the meantime you got a nice easy heart patient to mind with no challenge? He really did look like i had caught him out and he said ok go up and down the corridors and exert yourself for a few hours and if it looks good on the monitor you can go home with some tablets. So I did and I must have passed the test as they let me out, yay!
I am currently on 1/4 tab of Metoprolol, the doctors think could be forever but I am ok with that as long as I don't have to go to hospital again lol. Next week the merrygoround of a GP doctor and all the tests and stuff he will order. I suppose I will have to tell my oncologist whats happening and my job provider and maybe, just maybe, centerlink will listen to my doctors and give me a disability pension finally.
Oh and I think I may be allergic to latex and the stickers gave me awful red marks.
On Friday morning it was a beautiful morning with a gentle high tide so I made a coffee, put it in the kayak and went fishing for two hours. Mistake number one- I hadnt had breakfast yet and my coffee is black with no sugar so my blood sugar would have been low.
I caught one fish, a queen fish which I bought home and put in the fridge.
Dragging the kayak up the dune, one of the wheels had locked under it, unbeknownst to me and I ended up dragging it under duress. By the time I got across the road and home my heart was racing and sweat was pouring out of me and I was getting breathless. I sat on the stairs for a while (of course no one was home yet), then got up and washed down my yak, fixed the wheel, sat on the steps again. Then I made it upstairs and sat on the lounge chair for a while until I got my breath back and had a shower and got myself cleaned up and layed down on the bed. Hubby got home about an hour later but my heart was still pounding an hour later so I said we'd better go in to emergency and see whats up, so in we went.
Not a carpark available near the hospital and my mere male man parked across the road in the cancer care carpark but instead of dropping me off at emergency, I had to walk from across the road. It was a slow walk I tell you. Hubby sort of looked at me funny like, why are you walking so slow. You gotta wonder about men sometimes lol.
Anyway we finally got to emergency and the nurse put me on a monitor and it went off with alarms and wouldnt shut up so I went in to ER. My heart rate was about as fast as a babies at 168. After about an hour in there on the monitor it still wasnt stopping so the vultures starting devising ways to slow it down or actually stop it. They stuck the shock stickers to my body and thought they might inject me with Adenosine (which stops your heart and they explained I will be fightened beyond belief with a feeling of impending doom) and they said we will hold your hand and it only lasts a few seconds. So they got me all terrified of that and then a Swedish Doctor came in and looked at the monitor and said its only a heart flutter and no need for all of that. She gave me half of a tiny Metoprolol beta blocker and my heard rate started dropping back down to 68. Easy as it was so I am not sure why the other doctors and nurses were getting ready with paddles and impending doom injections.
The hospital was full so I was parked in a cubicle until about 11 that night until a bed became available. I saw and heard two lots of car accident patients come in which brought my heart rate up again but it settled back down after that by itself. I was wheeled to a private room with no one to talk to and with door alarms, nurse station alarms and bells going off all night so I got aboutt 2 hours sleep. I hate being inside and was feeling pretty low on Saturday morning and when the doctor said to stay until Sunday I went for him bigtime. I said and then what, I stay till Monday until the regular resident doctor comes to finally release me and in the meantime you got a nice easy heart patient to mind with no challenge? He really did look like i had caught him out and he said ok go up and down the corridors and exert yourself for a few hours and if it looks good on the monitor you can go home with some tablets. So I did and I must have passed the test as they let me out, yay!
I am currently on 1/4 tab of Metoprolol, the doctors think could be forever but I am ok with that as long as I don't have to go to hospital again lol. Next week the merrygoround of a GP doctor and all the tests and stuff he will order. I suppose I will have to tell my oncologist whats happening and my job provider and maybe, just maybe, centerlink will listen to my doctors and give me a disability pension finally.
Oh and I think I may be allergic to latex and the stickers gave me awful red marks.
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Comments
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Oh Brenda! What a drama. Good to hear you're home and feeling OKish. Good luck with the tests and the bureaucrats.1
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Good grief, you must have been thoroughly alarmed. But the first time your heart does something weird IS alarming. I got an arrythmia about 2/3 through chemo - why is a bit obscure, combination of things I imagine. However I have practically no symptoms so the first time my heart was detected galloping, I was quite unaware - thankfully I was being tested prior to a chemo session. Metropolol is so effective - I have had a cardioversion (electric shock) and regulating medication, both worked fine but only for about 15 months each and so my cardiologist and I have decided that as I remain symptom free (no
palpitations, feelings of panic/doom), tachycardia is rare and very brief and my heart rate even then not too high, I will stay on metropolol to keep my rate normal and live (effective so far!) with the relatively slight irregularity. Blood thinners as an added protection. No known side effects of the metropolol. Good luck for next week.1 -
You have given me the will to keep on living life to the fullest @Afraser. It just gets me down that every time I try and get on with some fun I keep getting smacked down again.
My new mantra, munus the vodka drink. I still like whisky and lager in moderation tho. 3:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LODkVkpaVQA
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It saps the will, constant knock downs! I got three in a row as I finished chemo (got through that OK and was possibly feeling a bit cocky!) and felt as if someone had knocked all the air out of me! But I was lucky - got some good help to aid refocusing, and didn't get another three! You've had too many so let's hope this is a passing thing (it often can be) and that the fates do one good thing and gee up Centrelink!1
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Crikey, @Brenda5, you don't seem able to catch a break!!
I've been on a beta blocker for nearly 2 years now. Started getting tachycardic very easily during chemo - like a 20 metre walk would have my hr at 120. It's contrilled with the beta blocker, but it's not SVT either.
On the skin issue, it may be that you are sensitive to the adhesive, not latex, as most dressings etc are latex free these day in hospitals. I have developed a sensitivity to adhesives since chemo that I didn't have before, bit only only tbe more sensitive skin - chest, abdomen, inner arm etc. Just a thought.
Hope everything settles and you gef back out in your yak soon
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I’m one of the vulchers that work in an ED. I really hope you are feeling much better. Good vibes and best wishes to you. Xx1
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It's the glue on the dots that cause issues with yoyr skin.
If the tab didn't work they may have needed to go down that road with the other drug. So glad it wasn't required.
Sounds like a cardiology review is in order.1 -
@Brenda5, what a scare for you. Glad you're ok now though. I'm on metoprolol also. I had heart attack back in February 2016. I'm also on blood pressure lowering tablets even though it's never been high. Severe tiredness was a side effect from both the drugs until my body adjusted. I hate hospitals too .1
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I don't know why they didn't check my heart after chemo 2 years ago. I have been lethargic ever since and my GP just puts it down as depression.
I was a captive audience in hospital for my mother who said perhaps God is punishing you for being in debt? Get out of debt and things might turn around. Sheesh! Yeah I will jump outa bed and get a really good job mum and pay the debt off in 10 years. Get real.0 -
Oh, thanks, Mum. ***rolls eyes***
Mine has been known to intimate that I might not be in the shit I'm in if I had 'made more conventional choices earlier on'. This from an overweight old trout who has had multiple strokes and is busily corrupting the whole wing of her nursing home with wine time every evening. At least I don't have to contend with God being vengeful as well
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@Brenda5 Glad you are home and fine, certainly gives you a fright! I used to suffer from SVT on and off in my life, after radiation in 2011 at my first diagnosis it actually got worse believe it or not. I had 2 major episodes and ended up in ER like you, I ended up having an ablation done which cauterizes the nerve pathways across the heart, thankfully its not dangerous and not to do with the functioning of the heart. I've been fine since, through chemo I too suffered strange heart flutters, even now but my heart never goes into that fast rhythm now. So bizarre! I didnt go on any medication, lots of people do was just easier to fix it in an overnight stay. Food for thought anyway. Hugs Melinda xo1
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Hi there @brenda. What a bloody scare you must of had! But glad you are at least home now and recovering. And yes it’s common for patients to get a reaction to the stickys from the ECG. Especially if they are left on for some time. I’m just glad you got through it ok and I did mention you in another post about your struggles with Centrelink. And good luck with the DSP as if you haven’t been through enough. And did your own mother really say thst to you? Seriously ? After everything you’ve been through ? I would of told her where to go that’s so inconsiderate. Don’t worry we love you on here and although we might only be your virtual family we are still family that cares. Biggest hug. Hope your back on the kayak soon catching your dinner! Margie. Xx1
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I agree how incredibly hard it is, I have a few things happening on top of the BC thing and chemo side effects. People really dont understand the complexity of it all and least of all Centrelink. I looked into disability pension too, even with everything I struggle with I wouldnt get it. Mental illness is by far one of the hardest things to get a disability pension for. You have to be physically incapacitated hmmm wish they could see me struggle every single day getting out of my bed at 6am 5 days a week to go to work because I have to support myself. There is NO financial assistance I dont care what anyone says and all the people you bring together to solve it. I did the hard slog of homework for a long time tried everything. Financially ruined, and my life is forever compromised thanks to treatment. But alas I guess as hard as it is may be this is what the Universe thinks is better for my well being. Who knows...my brother has MS and is on the disability pension, when I look at his daily struggles it's nothing to what I have to go through everyday. None of it is easy. I've learnt that sometimes we have to do the opposite of what we think makes sense. Hugs Melinda xo1
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I still haven't had a call from my GP's office for an appointment or anything. When I went in on Monday I was more or less berated for coming in too soon as the hospital doctor had not sent him the blood test results, echo results or the xray results or the referral. He has two weeks from last Monday. If I don't hear from his office, I am getting myself a new GP.1
