Hello everyone, I have an implanted loop recorder to monitor my heart that was originally placed back in 2018 for dizzy spells. I suffer from ectopics and rarely short episodes of SVT since I was 19 years old. In the last three months my PVCS have increased to amount in just not used to and I’m not sure why. On April 15th at 8pm while driving to pick up my son I had an episode unlike anything I have ever had before. My heart went into a constant flutter and pounding almost like a drum roll that took my breath away and lasted for 8 seconds. It fluttering felt very much the way my PVCS feel just instead of a quick flutter and done it just wouldn’t stop. I pushed the button on my patient trigger to flag the ECG and went to the ER but of course the EKG at the ER came back normal because the episode had passed and my blood work came back fine other then my white count being 13.62 which didn’t sit well with me but the ER doctor said it was fine so I had to accept that. They sent me home and told me to follow up with my EP to which I called the next day but the guy who is over the monitoring never returned my call and it was a Friday so I had to deal with anxiety the entire weekend and fear that I was gonna have another episode while driving from Florida to Georgia to pick up my daughter, thankfully I didn’t.
On Monday I called and explained to the girl at the front desk what was going on and she was able to track down the technician that monitors the transmissions and transferred me to him. He had to go looking through all the transmissions to find mine which bothered me as I feel like someone should have looked at it before then but okay. He said it was a very fast rhythm and looked like a string of PVCS and wanted to show the doctor to see what he wanted to do. He placed me on hold and came back a short time later saying he showed it to my doctors nurse and she said for me to make an appointment to come in and see the doctor but it looked like an atrial arrhythmia to her. This calmed me some as I was thinking okay it’s probably SVT even though it felt nothing like any other SVT episode I have ever had. I got an appointment for April 30th which was a ways off but I was less anxious then I was before I spoke with the technician so I figured everything would be fine.
I finally went in for my appointment a couple days ago and my EP said he reviewed the ECG strip from the 15th and it was a very fast rhythm. I asked how fast and he said over 200 beats per minute. I then asked him what type of arrhythmia it was because it was apparent he wasn’t gonna tell me and he said it was difficult to say because my loop recorder is only one lead but that it was for sure either SVT or ventricular tachycardia but it only lasted for 8 seconds so not to worry and so long as my heart is healthy it’s less of a risk and well now I’m extremely anxious.
I haven’t had testing on my heart since 2017. I had an echo and a stress test. There were some changes to my echo but they didn’t seem to concern my regular cardiologist. I do have a new echo set up for May 6th, stress test on June 1st and she also ordered a CT coronary to check my calcium score and these tests were ordered because I have been dealing with bad shortness of breath for some time now and also chest/arm pain.
I’m having a hard time with this whole situation because why didn’t someone review my transmissions before I called in? I was under the impression they were checked daily. Why can’t my doctor tell exactly which arrhythmia I had? I mean it’s literally the entire point of the loop recorder to figure out what type of arrhythmia a person is having and finally the loop recorder is supposed to automatically capture but apparently mine isn’t doing that and so what has happened in the last two and a half years that I didn’t feel that went on without being flagged.
I am terrified of having episodes of ventricular tachycardia even if the episodes are less then 30 seconds, what’s to say one won’t happen that doesn’t stop? So, I am here posting because I am confused, frustrated and terrified. Maybe someone here has been in my shoes and can offer me some insight?
Thank you for listening ❤️