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Posted 12/19/2005 2:45 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Everyone

I am new to the heart disease forum but not to Healing Well as a whole.  I am usually on the Hypothyroidism and Lupus forums.  I have recently (about 3-4 months ago) been diagnosed with PSVT.  My dilema is that because of my autoimmune diseases, I can't take any meds for it.  about a week and a half ago, I started getting major bouts of PSVT along with shortness of breath, nausea and serious fatigue.  I fianally went to the dr and they thought i was having a heart attack and wanted me to go to the hospital.  but while i was in the office they ran an ekg and found it to be essetially normal.  so they ran blood work and sent me home.  they contacted the cardio and i am now awaiting his call back with when he wants me to come in.  they want me to see a cardioelectrophysiologist because they feel there is something more signifcant going on than PSVT.  I really don't know what it matters, if i cant take anything, how can they fix it?  Anyway, I just needed to vent.  I hope everyone here is blessed and doing very well.  God bless you all.

Cheryl 

Posted 12/19/2005 7:50 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Cheryl and welcome to this forum.  I had SVT for over 10 years until I had a successful ablation a little over a year ago.  My heart rate would go up to around 220 beats per minute and I always had to go to the ER to have it converted to normal rhythm.   The last couple of years I was going an average of once a month!  Very frustrating!  I was on meds for it but they didn't help much....so your not missing out on much help from them.  Oh yes, when your heart is beating so fast you will get very short of breath, very tired and usually lightheaded.  Its like your running at top speed so it wears you out quickly!  What you have is an arrythmia and the electrophysiologist (EP) is the specialist for these.  We have a node near our heart that sends and electrical type signal to the heart to tell it when to beat.   That is why you need to see the EP doc.  They say the cardiologist specializes in "plumbing" problems (clogged arteries, etc.) of the heart and the EP specializes in the "electrical" problems of the heart.  So you are being referred to the right kind of doctor.  He will probably do what is called an EP study which is similar to a heart cathetur or angiogram, but it looks at the path of the "signal" instead of the arteries.  From that study the EP can decide if an ablation procedure would be helpful.  It is also done like a cathetur and is not considered to be major surgery.  Mine was a piece of cake and thank God, successful.  To find out more about the ablation do a google search on cardiac ablations and it should bring up some good sites with good explanations of what they do when they do the ablation.  Usually a medicine is tried 1st to control the rhythm but since you are not able to take those meds and ablation would probably be what they recommend.  Personally, I wish I had been able to skip the med routine and had the ablation done a long time ago!!!  So maybe your lucky!  yeah Please feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer from my experience.  The good news is that these types of arrythmias are not life threatening as long as you don't have major heart problems.  Keep us posted ok!  God Bless, Pat
Posted 12/22/2005 1:19 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Pat! Thanks for the welcome!

When the ablation is done, do they have to sedate you and do you have to use coumadin or heparine afterwards? Also, is it painful???

Thanks
Cheryl
Posted 12/23/2005 2:38 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Cheryl!  Usually they do mildly sedate you when doing the ablation.  They need to keep you alert enough to follow some instructions while doing the procedure.   Don't ask me what they have you do because I was totally out with my "mild sedation!"  LOL  Guess it doesn't take much for me.  I remember waking up a couple of times and asking how it was going....but zonked back out before I heard the answer!  I felt no pain at all during the procedure.  For a week or so after, I had a little soreness in the groin area but even that wasn't too bad.  There are some who have had the ablation without any sedation and they have said it wasn't too painful.  They felt a slight burning sensation when the doc zapped the area or areas causing the problem.  They do numb the groin area where they insert the cathetur so that isn't bad at all whether you are sedated or not. 

 

I've never heard of anyone being put on coumadine or anything unless they were on it before for other heart reasons.  My doc had me take one full strength asperin for about 10 days after my ablation, then went back to the low dose which I have been on for some time.  Hope this helps!  Hugs, Pat

Posted 12/27/2005 7:11 PM (GMT 0)
it helps ALOT! Thank you so much.
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