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2 cardiac arrhythmias today

I have a history of anxiety and having arrhythmias every now and then, but they've never been detected by EKG, 24, or 48 hour Holter monitor. They drive me to the edge every time, making me think I'm dying. I don't know what to do. I'm not sure if they're actually caused by anxiety, because they've occurred in the middle of the night while I'm sleeping, jolting me awake, and they've happened when I've had no anxiety that I was aware of. I don't know how to deal with this. I hadn't had any in a few months until today when I was just sitting in the waiting room as my car was getting serviced. No anxiety to speak of. Just lurched my body forward. A skipped beat and sudden tachycardia. It happened again just now. On and off tachycardia for a couple minutes. My chest is always sore for about a half hour after this occurs, and it's really scary for me. Also, for some reason my knee jerk reaction is to throw my body up and start pacing around really quickly and breathing deeply. It's like I feel like if I don't get up, I'll *** out and die. Yes, as you can see, a primary fear and source of anxiety for me is death. But my biggest issue is feeling like I can't have this treated because no physician has seen it occur. Please give me some advice.
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1807132 tn?1318743597
It sounds to me like you have classic svt caused by an accessory pathway.  I had one called avnrt where the extra muscle tissue was near the avnode causing the signal to loop around it and run at rates in the 200s.  I would not suggest getting up and pacing during an episode.  This will put more stress on your heart and may be why you are feeling chest pain afterwards.  Odds are you will not pass out especially if you are sitting down.  

The mechanism that starts and can stop it is an ectopic beat. So the skipped beat gives the issue time to complete down the wrong path and it's off to the races.  So one thing you can try to stop it before it stops on its own is to hold your breath and bear down like you are straining to go to the bathroom.  Drink a cold glass of water or try coughing.  These kinds of arrhythmias can be hard to catch.   It doesn't mean the doctors don't take you seriously just that they have to see it to diagnose you.  I would not suggest talking about the anxiety it causes in you.  Instead just insist that you are doing nothing when you bend over, feel a skipped beat and then your heart starts to race like crazy.  Does it stop just as quickly?  it should if it is classic accessory pathway svt.  The only way mine was caught was by getting a 30 day monitor.   The one and two day monitors do not give you enough time to catch this very random issue.  So if you know you will have an episode in at least a months time go back to your doctor and ask for a 30 day monitor.  If you are only getting this a couple of times a year then you may need to wait and see if it becomes more persistent.  The more persistent it is the easier it is for an EP cardiologist to fix the problem.  If you are only getting it a couple of times a year it might be hard for them to trigger it to know where to ablate but first things first you simply need to catch it so just be patient and persistent about redoing the testing until it gets caught.  

Frustrating but svt isn't a condition that is life threatening.  But you will want to manage the episodes and try to get them to stop as soon as you can to minimize any stress on the heart but it should not affect your heart adversely in the long run if you are mindful about your episodes.   If you would like to read up on my ablation to correct my svt you can click on my name and read my journal entry.  The idea of doing it was by far more scary than the actual ablation.  Best of luck getting this sorted out and keep us posted on how you are doing.  Take care.
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Avatar universal
I meant to say "pass" out
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