littleblackberry92
06-01-15, 07:00
Hi everyone, I just joined this site... Im so glad I found it as well because things have just been getting way way way out of control for me :( It's starting to set off major depression and its getting harder and harder to pretend like I think I'm alright... I am terrorizing myself now about something called Long Qt syndrome and its driving me absolutely bananas... it started a month or so ago when I was having really fast heart rates in the A.M. and usually I attribute this to the fact that I am orthostatic hypotension (POTS... honestly.. just not entirely yet diagnosed), anyhow, it usually subsided a few hours later and once I got around moving. I should also mention as well that I have never fainted not as a child nor as an adult (i'm 22 now). Then it progressed into tachycardia for days... I'm talking over 110 bpm AT REST for 5 days straight!!! I was absolutely exhausted.. I couldn't even move that much and my heart would soar. I was taken off my Effexor 75mg which I was taking last year for a WHOLE YEAR without these kind of cardiac effects (except for more pronounced orthostatic hypotension).. and my heart rate subsided for a day (73bpm) and then it came crawling all the way back up and a total sick feeling came over me for 4 days, ontop of all of this I was having chest pain breathing inwards (which i usually attribute to costochondrisis). My doc did a blood test for pericarditis and and ECG (which i have had over 4 in the ER before this incident for anxiety and panic stuff, which we're never abnormal just tachycardia with normal sinus rhythm) and he said my ECG was in normal rhythm and it was just fast but my C reactive protein was elevated and so was my potassium at 5.2.. Which i know is still in the high to normal range but he asked me to stop eating bananas like I do everyday.. So i did for 4 days and then I noticed my heart was beating slower than im used to (in the 50s) and I felt a bit weak.. ofcourse I ran to the hospital and asked them just to take a look at me and I told them about the potassium and the chest pain which had been quite mild at that point, and they did another ecg at rest which showed a slightly prolonged QT!1!!!!!!! As well as a blood test that indicated that my potassium was now 3.3, although the ER doc didn't mention anything about the way the ecg looked just that the computer said it was prolonged, I don't remember the QT but i believe the Qtc was 490 or so at 72bpm. Needless to say, I absolutely freaked out and she told me that sometimes, antidepressants can prolong the QT interval.. but I had already been off of them for 2 weeks at that point? I left and then I couldn't sleep a wink and went back to the hospital because I started to have PVCS or PACS.. Can't tell which is which, and thought I was having a fatal arrhythmia.. So I ended up seeing the ER doctor again (not the same one) and she addressed my anxiety FULLY, and when I asked about the QT thing she told me not to worry about it and that I was probably born with it... Let me tell you I literally lost my marbles... I told NEVER in any of my family history has their been any history of sudden death or heart disease!!! and ontop of all that my ECG's before were never prolonged or had any indication of being prolonged!!! She brushed me off and asked if I wanted an Ativan.. :( I even tried to admit myself for psychiatric help at that point but she said no. A few days later, I went and saw my GP and he's known me since birth.. I showed him the ECG and he asked me to go do another one downstairs in the building and to bring it right back to him.. I did and he looked at it and it said 87bpm with a QT of 362 I believe in normal sinus rhythm. I felt a little relieved and he asked me to come do another one in a couple of days and then another in a couple of days and set up a holter. I did another one a few days later at his office and it was 97bpm with QT of 368. I was again RELIEVED! He told me that sometimes the machine isnt always correct, but I can't get that moment in the ER out of my head :( it was horrible. I felt like I was just sentenced to death (very dramatic I know).. I did my holter last week on thursday and I am literally terrified to know the results :( I am terrorizing myself honestly... If I did have long QT would that indefinitely show on a holter? Anyhow.. I am SO sorry about such a long post.. Its honestly ridiculous but I feel like I have no where to run :(
Any advice or just calm words would be appreciated.
Thanks so much in advance.
- Emily
Any advice or just calm words would be appreciated.
Thanks so much in advance.
- Emily