SVT, PVCs, Irregular heartbeat!

[sheporro]

I’ve suffered with what has now been diagnosed as SVT since I was about 13. I’m now 22. It’s scared me for years and even though doctors have told me it’s not life threatening I feel like the damage has been done from googling things and convincing myself I’m gonna have a cardiac arrest. I’ve had a holter monitor (444 PVCs in 1 day), an echocardiogram, and way over 20 testing ECGs. My GP looked over all my tests the other day and said there’s nothing sinister at all. I even get SVT and ectopics excercising. In fact excercise is usually a trigger and my heart goes form about 140 - 200 in a second...for about 5-10 minutes then goes straight back into normal sinus rhythm as soon as it started!
I was given a low dosage of sertraline the anti depressant for 10 days which I stopped because I was scared it would give me Long QT syndrome. So I’ve stopped that but scared that the PVCs I’m currently getting are gonna end up going into VT! Just living every day I fear that I’m gonna die of a cardiac arrest and now my GP said I don’t even need any more tests and to just live my life but I think every day I’m gonna die! When I’m resting sometimes my heart rate is in the 50s so I then think I have heart block which my GP said I would know about if I did. Then sometimes my heart rate just feels flat out irregular when I feel it! It’s just hell waiting to die every day! :(

[scared1998]

Hi this literally sounds as if I have written it! I have exactly the same symptoms as u.....

It has ruined my life this past year thinking I'm going to drop dead and that the doctors have definitely missed something - I have had to transfer uni's to live at home and became a depressed recluse!

Luckily with help from a psychologist I have started to get up everyday, see my friends and even exercise - something which I thought was impossible this time last year.

I used to spend 90% of my day reading symptoms online and read posts on here (I began to think I was a medicine student rather than a geography one lol), I used to visit A+E at least once a week and became a complete mess.

I feel so much better. However, I still get fleeting thoughts that there's something seriously wrong from time to time which terrify me but this has become less.

The best advice I can give u in terms is to try your best not to seek reassurance (this is hard at first, but u will get there eventually), although this website does help people, it became my safety blanket and it definitely was not good for my mental health in the end (not the websites fault, I just used it way too much). I've had a few pretty bad palpitations recently and so I have come on a few times more than I should've done, which shows I am not 100% better, but I am definitely better than I was!

The biggest advice I can give u is that you are okay and we are in this together!

[sheporro]

Wow I never thought I’d find someone the same! Man this has just helped me so much. As I’ve been reading on the net right now about long at. I just thought I might check and see if by chance anyone replied to me! And bingo that’s helped so much!! So have you got SVT aswell?? And have you had all the necessary tests etc?
And I’m the exact same. There’s been afew things I’ve asked my doctor about and they’ve been very surprised at my knowledge about heart conditions...something I think that fuels the anxiety!!
Thanks for the reply, take care dude

[hr1027]

Hey I know exactly how you feel I too live with this fear everyday and I've had all the tests but also fear that something has been missed. I've had probably every heart symptom imaginable lol and have become a bit scared to excercise as my heart rate goes so high. At the moment I'm struggling with a slow heartbeat which feels really weak and makes me feel like I'm about to faint. I've also had experiences where it feels like my heart rate is all over the place and not in a pattern if that makes sense but yea I'm still kinda afraid of it so I guess that's why I still have these symptoms. You're definitely not alone though

[sheporro]

Thanks for the reply. That’s what is getting my right now my heart rate is often in the 50s when resting! A couple of times like 48 when I’m in bed!!

[Daedalus]

Usually it's not a bad thing your heart rate is low while you're at rest - it's a good thing.

If I'm exercising a lot, my resting pulse in bed first thing in the morning is 40; and it's rarely much above 50 during the day if I'm just sitting around. The cyclist, Miguel Indurain, had a resting heart rate of 28 beats a minute (a rate that would be a cause for concern in a non-athlete!).

There are also studies that show life expectancy is greater if you have a low resting heart rate. (You can Google it.)

[panicface]

Low HR usually means good stuff. Not always. My 55yo mate who was in terrible shape was bragging about his low HR at the gym and resting HR.. Abnormally low - like 50's.. Along with his BP that was like 180... didn't make sense. Finally went to DR and ended up with 3 stents.... so - check your BP as well.. If your BP is normal and HR is low.. I'd imagine that's a good thing?

[sheporro]

Checked my blood pressure this morning. 124/84. Watched a great video with Dr Sanjay Gupta who is a cardiologist in York. He said that so long as it doesn’t cause symptoms - mainly dizziness- then heart rate isn’t significant even if it’s in the 40s. If it doesn’t cause symptoms then the blood is still getting round to all the organs no matter what the rate