Bradycardia-tachycardia?

[Adelle22123]

Am I suffering with this?  Or is it normal/something else?

Here's my history:
I'm 36, was fairly fit & healthy (resting heart rate 60-70, systolic 100-110) all my life until 2 years ago when I became pregnant and had a baby and just got lazy. Before I would run/hill walk an average 50km/week often more. Since I was 20 I've had tachycardias every few months and fainted from it about 5 times, often I would lay down before blacking out and I would be ok.  It was investigated 10years ago and I was told everything was ok.

I've just started light exercise again (dance) but can't go more than about 20 seconds before getting very tired, but not out of breath.  I've been getting abrupt tachycardias (almost too fast to count the beats) about twice a week, always with light exercise and it wont stop until I've rested maybe 2 minutes, then it stops suddenly and my beats are very erratic for about 20 seconds.  I haven't mentioned it to my gp yet since I was told it was ok about 10 years ago.

I was at my gp the other day because I suffered two excruciating headaches in the back of my head (sudden onset) in 48h.  She read my blood pressure & pulse which were 130/90 & 49bpm.  She told me it was probably a migraine and sent me home.

I just can't seem to get fit again when I can't exercise for more than 20 seconds and I wonder if maybe there is something underlying.  Should I go back to the gp again?

[Adelle22123]

Thanks for your help, I feel better about it now.  I'll make an appointment this week.

[MichelleP_3811]

Please don't worry.  A lot of people have it.  More than likely the type you have is a simple fix. It sounds like you have the same thing I had.   I had an accessory pathway svt, avnrt that would stop and start on a single beat but usually that beat was a pvc or pac.  Which are extra beats in the heart.  It typically is very rare when we are younger and gets more frequent as we get older.  Not sure if that is because the dynamics of the heart changes as we  age or we get more ectopic beats as we age but once it starts to become pretty frequent they can easily fix it with an ablation but it needs to get captured so you really need to see a cardiologist tom get an event monitor so you can capture this within a month period.  Once my tachycardia was cleared up with some time to heal from years of tachycardia episodes my ectopic beats finally pretty much went away.  They are a separate issue from the tachycardia and less a threat though tachycardia is not a threat either so long as it is properly managed.  If you episodes are not resolving on their own, they sound like they are now, try bearing down and pushing like you are constipated or drink a very cold glass of water and see if that can get the episode to stop.  In any event if your heart is healthy tachycardia and ectopic beats are deemed not a threat.  They even go so far as to say the ecotpics are normal, you are normal but to me they really just mean they aren't a danger.  That said, if you have accessory pathway svt you can get it fixed very likely and doing so will help the long term health of your heart so it would be worth checking into. So do go back to your doctor and get the tachycardia addressed. If you have any more questions moving forward please do let us know and please do keep us posted on how you are doing.

[Adelle22123]

Hello again, just wanted to mention that my tachycardias before were not exercise related, they would just happen any time even sitting at my desk.

Thanks for any advice as the more I google the more worried I get!

x